Does air suspension degrade much over time?

[TyrannosauRoss Lex]

Obviously traditional springs and dampers degrade over time and are not as good as when new. Is the same true of air suspension, and is it to the same sort of extent as a traditional set up? I have heard some people say that the degradation is minimal and only if it becomes an issue with regards to wheel alignment is it a problem, otherwise it isn't far off how it was when it left the factory.....but when it does fail, it properly fails! Only reason I ask if that I am half tempted to spend some cash on the car and was wondering whether a suspension rebuild was something remotely worthwhile, but I've been told not to bother until it fails. I remember when I had an old BMW 745i (2004 car) I had all the springs and dampers changed, as well as bushes, control arms etc) after 2 struts were leaking (I decided I may as well do the whole lot) and the difference was pretty significant, but so was the difference to my bank balance  Or should I just keep saving the cash for when a rainy day does come for the car?

 

Cheers!

[cruisermark]

Have a read here:

 

[Malc]

Fripp hi ..  I can only speak from what I've read on this Forum over some years about Air Suspension ............... my ancient Ls400 is conventional and I'm very happy that way ....  wild horses wouldn't drag me into owning a car with air suspension liabilities ...  whatever the marque

Summary is ..........  coz it's a long and possibly complex story methinks ...........  the air stuff fails, generally one corner at a time and £1k a pop ...........  there's other bits too associated with each corner that fail or require attention from time to time ......  and Lexus Warranty stuff runs out at 10 years and / 100k miles if sooner with the Lexus expectation that's the life of the air suspension components

If you love the car and happy with this then fine .............. alternative more old fashioned but conventional suspension stuff can be changed over very often and that too requires repair replacement too from time to time BUT won't necessarily spectacularly fail in an instant and leave you high ( or low ) and stuck somewhere

Hope this helps ?   I'm sure someone will come along with a more rational and reasoned argument with direct experience of all this with their own car 

Best wishes with whatever you decide to do

Malc

methinks you've opened a can of worms 

[The-Acre]

In my experience air suspension has a shorter life than conventional, and as has been said, it can fail leaving you immobile. It isn't always the air system that fails, the air struts have oil and the seals can fail causing knocks and a bouncy ride.  I'm with Malc on this, having had three I would never touch air again. The exception would be to buy one with failed/failing air with the intention of converting it to springs which is a very easy and basic operation, and very cost effective.

[TyrannosauRoss Lex]

Thanks everyone. I'm not put off by the cost as such, if the system fails I'll almost certainly replace with the Lexus air set up as it left the factory. I was just curious as to whether it is worth changing it just to refresh the car, but I think I'll leave the money in the bank should it fail in the future. 

 

I can't say I've noticed a particularly bouncy ride and it recently had a service and MOT and nothing got picked up there so assume all is well.....?! 

[Neil E]

I would always go for air suspension over standard and would suggest it only significantly degrades when a fault occurs.

In my experience the ride quality is better, it's more reliable and has the added ride height/sport option. Perhaps the biggest risk is in the lack of fault knowledge and availability of experienced engineers/parts to fix issues quickly before further damage occurs. With a basic understanding of how it works, air-sus isn't so scary.   

 

[Mikaelse]

I have one LS400 with air supension and one with coil springs. 
Both work well after 24 and 27 years stil.  However the coil springs broke due to corrosion damage and needed new springs. 
Schock absorbers stil fine after 27 years! . Put those back in. (Paid about 50£ each for LESJOFORS springs (made in Sweden))

What happens with age. Spring coils can also sag a bit with the years. Especially if you run with high boot and passenger load sometimes. Dependant on quality of design and material.
LEXUS => generally long lived stuff. 
Very visually obvious if they do sag. There are specs on correct ride height
The air supension has been completely flawless and service free. Absoultely no air leaks and works well in every way. If it fails the typical way seem to be that it develops an air leak. 
Reasonably in the rubber spring . You may also have problems with the level sensors or valves but that seems less common on the LS400.  A small air leak wears on the pump if not fixed. 

However. I experience very little difference in ride quality between coil and air springs. I could not even tell the difference probabaly.
Converting to coils could therefore be costeffective and work well if air system starts to give me repeated problems in the future.