RX450h air suspension

[mikesands]

one of the posts above implies that some versions of the gen 4 have coils and others air suspension.  When I'm looking at the specs on lexusused cars, how can I tell?  (Having been burnt by air suspension on an LS430, I'd prefer coil springs - they have been faultless in 160k miles on my rx400H)

Thanks

Mike

[Herbie]

21 minutes ago, mikesands said:

one of the posts above implies that some versions of the gen 4 have coils and others air suspension. 

As far as I'm aware none of the 4RX variants have air suspension at all.

[Barry14UK]

7 hours ago, Herbie said:

As far as I'm aware none of the 4RX variants have air suspension at all.

That accords with what a major Lexus dealership told me when I raised the query with them.

With models of some marques testers considered optional aircon improved the ride considerably, (the Audi Q5 was an example).  However, the generally expressed view has been that the RX aircon in the 3rd generation  did not significantly improve comfort and components were expensive to replace where necessary -  I can personally attest to the latter.  It has been suggested  that less travel on the RX air struts didn't help.  Maybe adverse comment about RX 450h air suspension on previous generations or perhaps changes to improve suspension on the 4th generation meant Lexus dropped it.  Nobody has come up with a definitive reason or this as far as I am aware, so it remains  a subject of speculation.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              s

[Vfd]

On 10/19/2021 at 11:31 AM, Vadim said:

The bearing is "6302RS"

Is this is the number for the bearing for the air suspension models?

[Vadim]

On 10/24/2021 at 2:38 PM, Vfd said:

Is this is the number for the bearing for the air suspension models?

Yes

[David Chan]

I've been reading this thread with interest..

I've got a 2013 RX450h with only 54k miles and after a year of purchase, Lexus recommended that I replace both front air shock absorbers as they were 'knocking' at a cost of £2k. It came as a shock (pun unintended) and I left it without replacing for a year now and am due another service soon.

1. If I don't replace them, will it cause damage to other car parts?

2. Someone mentioned the option of changing the air to a coil system? (sorry for my ignorance if it doesn't make sense..) Is this possible?

3. I bought the car for 19k a couple of years ago and I've had a few valuations for about 19.5k now. I'm trying to decide if it's worth pouring £2k + along with new tyres (they are due for a change soon) or if I should simply sell it and consider leasing/buying another car.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you

 

David

 

[PCM]

My car is much older but it does have air...

Over time all my struts failed. It affected the height and ride mostly - and also safety. Three were replaced under warranty, one by an independent. The actual struts were about £500 each. Did you buy your car from Lexus? If so, they might replace under warranty? If you sell it I guess that morally you might need to declare the issue anyway... that might affect the price. Is it worth getting an independent check/quote? I liked my car enough to spend the money. No regrets...

[mikesands]

26 minutes ago, David Chan said:

I've been reading this thread with interest..

I've got a 2013 RX450h with only 54k miles and after a year of purchase, Lexus recommended that I replace both front air shock absorbers as they were 'knocking' at a cost of £2k. It came as a shock (pun unintended) and I left it without replacing for a year now and am due another service soon.

1. If I don't replace them, will it cause damage to other car parts?

2. Someone mentioned the option of changing the air to a coil system? (sorry for my ignorance if it doesn't make sense..) Is this possible?

3. I bought the car for 19k a couple of years ago and I've had a few valuations for about 19.5k now. I'm trying to decide if it's worth pouring £2k + along with new tyres (they are due for a change soon) or if I should simply sell it and consider leasing/buying another car.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you

 

David

 

I'm going through similar thought processes David but in my case with an RX400H that has done 160k miles.  I have concluded that I am going to hang on to it until/if the used car market settles down.  I too have got a surprisingly high valuation on my existing car but the problem is we may be wasting several thousands pounds on the replacement, if new car supplies return to normal (because dealers will not be so desperate to find and sell used cars).  It brought it home to me when I seriously looked at buying a 5 year old Toyoata Prius last week.  In March we bought one for my daughter for £15k and last week similarly specced cars were selling for 19k .... if you could grab one before it sold ... and these cars all had twice the mileage that my daughter's had.

My other realisation is that £35k (the difference to trade in for a good RX450H) buys an awful lot of repairs to my 400H 

One final thought - I once had a BMW 7-series and at it's first service (for me .... as I had bought it used, but with only 16k miles on), the BMW dealership in Newcastle told me it needed a new shock absorber at a cost of several hundred pounds.  When I queried this since it only had 16k miles on it the answer was 'well it's a big car' 😄.  I took it for a second opinion to Kwikfit, who told me that it was good news and bad news.  The bad news was that it needed TWO new shock absorbers, but they could do both at the same price as BMW were quoting for one.  I declined both offers, and the car passed several MOT tests (including by the BMW dealership) before I parted with it at about 100k miles and all with the original shock absorbers.

Of course  no Lexus dealership would behave in that way, so your choice is more difficult.

Mike

[David Chan]

Thanks PCM and Mike, all very helpful.

 

PCM - Yes I did get it from Lexus and I will be checking if they will replace them under warranty but I doubt it.

Mike - agreed. The second hand market is crazy as you say. I would have to downgrade if I were to sell up and get another car. I'll have a think. I'm not a big fan of leasing if I can help it.

[serbarry]

If Lexus does not replace them under warranty I would consider the opinion of another mechanic/garage before spending £2,000. 

[Barry14UK]

Well my fronts were knocking at circa 40K miles on a 2015 car and one boot had slipped down.  It had been previously held up by a zip tie.  The car had been bought new from Lexus Cheltenham and all services done by them. I was the second owner and the car has not been thrashed. These two struts cost about 2K and that was after Cheltenham and I secured about £200 off in goodwill but even then it was conditional  that the £200 was put towards an extended warranty (which was available at the time).  £2,000 is more than I have spent on the the necessary parts on my E39 BMW in the 14 or so years I have had it! 

[David Chan]

7 hours ago, serbarry said:

If Lexus does not replace them under warranty I would consider the opinion of another mechanic/garage before spending £2,000. 

Good idea, thanks

[David Chan]

5 hours ago, Barry14UK said:

Well my fronts were knocking at circa 40K miles on a 2015 car and one boot had slipped down.  It had been previously held up by a zip tie.  The car had been bought new from Lexus Cheltenham and all services done by them. I was the second owner and the car has not been thrashed. These two struts cost about 2K and that was after Cheltenham and I secured about £200 off in goodwill but even then it was conditional  that the £200 was put towards an extended warranty (which was available at the time).  £2,000 is more than I have spent on the the necessary parts on my E39 BMW in the 14 or so years I have had it! 

Wow, good to know, thank you 

[Vadim]

On 11/1/2021 at 7:05 AM, David Chan said:

I've been reading this thread with interest..

I've got a 2013 RX450h with only 54k miles and after a year of purchase, Lexus recommended that I replace both front air shock absorbers as they were 'knocking' at a cost of £2k. It came as a shock (pun unintended) and I left it without replacing for a year now and am due another service soon.

1. If I don't replace them, will it cause damage to other car parts?

2. Someone mentioned the option of changing the air to a coil system? (sorry for my ignorance if it doesn't make sense..) Is this possible?

3. I bought the car for 19k a couple of years ago and I've had a few valuations for about 19.5k now. I'm trying to decide if it's worth pouring £2k + along with new tyres (they are due for a change soon) or if I should simply sell it and consider leasing/buying another car.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thank you

 

David

 

1. If it is just a light knocking noise from the shock absorbers, it can be harmless (there are reports of knocking valves from new, but that did not affect the longevity of the struts).

2. Swapping from air to coil suspension is possible, but too expensive (besides the struts you’ll have to replace rear wishbones which hold the springs, as they differ for spring and air suspension). But the biggest trouble is to make the computer happy when you switch off the air pump. Note that an error in air suspension system turns off some other systems like traction control. After all parts and labour are considered, you may find it more convenient to keep air suspension.

3. Make a thorough diagnostics to identify the source of the noise. It can be shocks, top mount, top mount nuts, stabiliser links, steering rods, engine mounts, ball joints etc.etc. Mind that RX also has a motor on the stabiliser bar, which prevents body rolling (photo below) and can also cause noise. When you know what causes noise exactly, it may appear a much smaller job to fix, or you can decide to live with it.

Also I would not take the level of diagnostics expertise of lexus dealership for granted - it still depends on the skill of the mechanic who do the job and can be better or worse than that of a no-name garage nearby.

Motor on front stabiliser bar:

[Herbie]

28 minutes ago, Vadim said:

Mind that RX also has a motor on the stabiliser bar

Is that not 'Active Suspension' which is a different thing to air suspension?

[Vadim]

5 hours ago, Herbie said:

Is that not 'Active Suspension' which is a different thing to air suspension?

Herbie, indeed, it is a separate system, called “Active Stabiliser System”. It was installed, probably, as an option on some top spec RX mk3.

It comes at front and rear stabilisers as a set, so the easiest way to check is to look under the rear bumper.

My SE-L 2011 has standard stabiliser bars without the motors. Rear stabiliser bar:

[Vadim]

Wiki for Active Stabiliser System: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Stabilizer_Suspension_System

 

The article suggests that such systems were only tried on RX450h 2010. So, if you have it, it can also add to noises in suspension )

[David Chan]

On 11/9/2021 at 5:49 PM, Vadim said:

1. If it is just a light knocking noise from the shock absorbers, it can be harmless (there are reports of knocking valves from new, but that did not affect the longevity of the struts).

2. Swapping from air to coil suspension is possible, but too expensive (besides the struts you’ll have to replace rear wishbones which hold the springs, as they differ for spring and air suspension). But the biggest trouble is to make the computer happy when you switch off the air pump. Note that an error in air suspension system turns off some other systems like traction control. After all parts and labour are considered, you may find it more convenient to keep air suspension.

3. Make a thorough diagnostics to identify the source of the noise. It can be shocks, top mount, top mount nuts, stabiliser links, steering rods, engine mounts, ball joints etc.etc. Mind that RX also has a motor on the stabiliser bar, which prevents body rolling (photo below) and can also cause noise. When you know what causes noise exactly, it may appear a much smaller job to fix, or you can decide to live with it.

Also I would not take the level of diagnostics expertise of lexus dealership for granted - it still depends on the skill of the mechanic who do the job and can be better or worse than that of a no-name garage nearby.

Motor on front stabiliser bar:

Thanks Vadim, that's very helpful. The repeat interim service this week found that the air shock absorbers were fine on visual inspection (they didn't do a road test this year) so I don't have to make any rash decisions for now. 

[Gilles]

Hello everybody. With 60% unbalance between LH and RH I have to change front shock absorbers. The car is 2013 with 100 miles. I am trying to reduce the Lexus bill (4000 euros) and found 2 possibilities

1/ buy the parts on megazip site and find an small garage to assemble them. For my car the shock absorber P/N are 48010-48075 & 48020-48075. Seems to be the full shock absorber+air suspension unit but I am not 100% sure. Does someone know how many P/N are necessary to replace the full front airstruts?

2/ send the full air strut to a bulgarian company: Airtec Adaptative air Suspension Product. Unfortunatly I am too much in the hurry to try it. There is a video on internet showing how they repair the full strut with more reliable parts. I don't know the price.

 

I hope it can help.

Gilles

[welland]

On 5/27/2021 at 6:15 PM, Barry14UK said:

In my case it was like the front was sort of fluttering up and down - not quite so pronounced but imagine a stone wrapped in some material inside a can and being shaken up and down with a little vibration transmitted to the car.  Incidentally, one of the boots had slipped down somewhat and somebody, most probably Lexus, as the car had a full service with them, had been temporarily hitched up with some sort of tie. which had again slipped. So probably this had enabled water to enter which would accord with what had previously been said here about why the top mounts could wear. 

Whereabouts is the boot that had slipped down? Is it under the wheel arch, or under the bonnet? Can it be seen without jacking up the car?

[welland]

I've just seen this item on eBay https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Genuine-Lexus-RX450h-LH-Passenger-side-front-air-suspension-strut-/166011966472?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&_trksid=p2349624.m46890.l49286&mkrid=710-127635-2958-0.

@Barry14UK is the slipped boot you referred to the big gaitor in these photos?  Is that gaitor in the photos the actual air bag, or is it just a cover to protect important components behind it?

[Barry14UK]

Hi Peter,

Sorry I am not going to be a lot of help.  Lexus Cheltenham did show the slipped cover in a video they supplied post service but I have just checked and the video is no longer there.  From memory, it was at the top of that convoluted part. I didn't handle it.  Lexus didn't want to let me leave having done the service with the strut as it was, so I gave them the go ahead to change it and the other front which hadn't slipped but was also on it's way out they said.  Had I been at home I would have investigated alternative options. I am not sure how the component's work (maybe Colin will see and comment as he seems well versed in the model).  It could be seen with the car jacked up without removing the wheel liner.

[KRR01]

Have someone found aftermarket front suspension parts? Front susepension failed for my rx450h and it is making a knocking sounds, so wondering what are my options. 

I also found Bulgarians who are doing restrauration but cant find any reviews, maybe someone have used http://air-tec.bg ? 

 

what about spring conversion kit?

[Stevo11]

FYI, I've been in touch with the Bulgarians, quoted 450e to refurbish the existing unit + shipping (90e or so each way for my location)

[brendangeorge]

Just saw this after a quick search - coil over conversion kit for RX450h

https://www.fittedvisions.com/products/fv-suspension-coilovers-08-15-lexus-rx450h

Look like a £1K ish - may be some tax.

I did this years ago on a LS430 when the air suspension bags started leaking and the ride height sensors wore out.

Rockauto may have the parts a lot cheaper that Lexus UK will sell them if you want to fix your existing suspension.

Good luck

Bren