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[Loftysan]

Thank you for allowing me membership of your group. I have owned a 2004 Lexus RX300 for 3 years now and been very happy with it. Recently however, it has developed a problem with the air suspension system. It started with the compressor running for quite a long time on start up. It then seemed to deflate completely, giving a very bumpy ride. The compressor then came on when it felt like it and I noticed that just one side of the car was lowered. Now, the compressor does not run at all and the offside is still down, giving a bumpy ride. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

[Herbie]

I've never had air suspension so I'll let others with more experience answer your question, but with the eye-wateringly expensive price of spare parts for the system many people convert to traditional coils instead.

Have a read of this thread:

 

[Delphius1]

Bad news I'm afraid. The parts of the suspension that hold air have a habit of rusting. When the rust gets bad, it rusts through to the air chamber and causes a leak. Your compressor runs and runs trying to keep the suspension inflated, but eventually it either burns out or wears out and the suspension eventually deflates and stays deflated.

The suspension legs are an eye-watering amount of money to replace and unfortunately you'll have to replace at least one of them, although it's best practice to replace suspension parts in pairs. That'll be a £1000+ bill just for the parts I'm afraid.

As Herbie says above, it may be time to consider replacing the air suspension with a conventional spring-based setup, because once one shock absorber has gone, the others won't be far behind and you can get a complete spring-based replacement suspension setup for less than the price of a couple of air shocks.

Once you are on springs, you won't have the worry of the air shocks.

Of course you could replace the air shocks, but at £600-ish a corner (plus a replacement compressor if that's died in the meantime), it's probably as much as the car is worth just to replace the suspension. It depends on how much you like the RX if you want to spend the money essentially buying the car again, or if you want to move on to something else.

One of the reasons I especially sought out the spring suspension version when I bought my 2004 RX was to avoid the big bills of the air suspension.

 

[Lager shandy]

As mark says above it all comes down to are you going to keep the car for long ? If you are then suspension swop to spring strut set up .if it's a wrecker now just trade it a lot of stealership are offering scrapage incentive schemes .or buy second hand struts and compressor . It's a roll the dice situation for you .

[TigerFish]

I don’t have any specific knowledge of the Lexus air suspension, but my MB CLS63 has air suspension. I had similar issues with mine and the compressor gave up the ghost. Whilst MB failed to find the fault, I did find it in the end and it was a crack in one of the airlines. The fix was a £1.90 John Guest push fit connector. I had to change the compressor as well, but in total a £127 bill for parts and a couple of hours effort. A whole lot better than the thousands I was expecting if I’d had to change out the air struts. It could be as simple as that, so inspect all exposed lines very carefully.

 

 

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[royoftherovers]

1 hour ago, TigerFish said:

I don’t have any specific knowledge of the Lexus air suspension, but my MB CLS63 has air suspension. I had similar issues with mine and the compressor gave up the ghost. Whilst MB failed to find the fault, I did find it in the end and it was a crack in one of the airlines. The fix was a £1.90 John Guest push fit connector. I had to change the compressor as well, but in total a £127 bill for parts and a couple of hours effort. A whole lot better than the thousands I was expecting if I’d had to change out the air struts. It could be as simple as that, so inspect all exposed lines very carefully.

 

 

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Wise words indeed Rick.

[Lager shandy]

All valid ideas and resolution but the only stumbling block is the guys knowledge and competence to carry out investigations and repairs .

[TigerFish]

All valid ideas and resolution but the only stumbling block is the guys knowledge and competence to carry out investigations and repairs .

Bit harsh to conclude already that the OP’s knowledge or competency is a stumbling block [emoji12]


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[Loftysan]

Many thanks for ALL the advice. I am leaning towards getting rid of the air suspension and go for the spring strut system. It all depends on the garage report. (I don't have the knowledge to do the job myself). Thank you all once again.