122k Miles LX570

[milellie111]

13 LX 122k miles. Sloppy handling over bumps, slow return to center out of u-turn and some clunks from front end. The slightest road imperfection moves the steering wheel and throws truck off course. Alignment is good. AHC fluid flushed 25k miles ago and tires have plenty of tread. Dealer and shops says everything looks good.

Plan on ordering OEM lower and upper control arms, steering rack, sway bar bushings, front shocks, shock mounts, and outer tie rods. Don’t want to waste time replacing one thing to find out it doesn’t fix my issues so I’d just tackle everything at once. Parts will set me back $2400. Is this the way to go? In your experience, did you see the front end on your LX/Land Cruisers lose the “tightness” around 120k miles?

What improvement can I expect to see? Anything I’m missing?

 

[Madtiger]

There has been a sale stoppage (!!) of Lexus AHC fluid due to it not meeting Lexus standard. So, your issue may still be AHC fluid despite having the change 25k miles ago.

 

[bentonrover]

There has been a sale stoppage (!!) of Lexus AHC fluid due to it not meeting Lexus standard. So, your issue may still be AHC fluid despite having the change 25k miles ago.

Oh wow didn't hear of this

 

[Madtiger]

Oh wow didn't hear of this

See this thread:

New Member Intro - 2013 LX570 - Also an AHC Alert!!!

I just wanted to drop in and introduce myself, as I recently purchased a 90k mile 2013 LX570 in Starfire Pearl White, and have been constantly browsing over the wealth of information that this forum has to offer for a few months now in preparation of that purchase. I'm new to this forum, but not...

forum.ih8mud.com

 

[grinchy]

Before throwing in $2500 suggest a trip to the local suspension shop for bushing evaluation. I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s just some bushes. Also the steering rack is a very big job.

 

[Dayhiker]

In addition to checking bushings and verifying the shocks are not leaking, it's probably time to replace accumulators for the AHC system. Will be tackling my own 2011 w/136k miles not long from now.

 

[lx200inAR]

Might also try bleeding off a little AHC fluid out of each corner and check to see if there is air in the system (the fluid will appear cloudy, or just outright have bubbles in it). In my truck this manifested as feeling more bumps that I thought I should have as well as more lateral movement when hitting bumps than I expected. After expelling air it was much better. If you do all 4 corners, you will probably need to add some AHC fluid. Based on the previous post about the AHC fluid issue, you might want to verify you have a liter before you do much bleeding. If you haven't checked the level of your fluid (couldn't infer from above whether your AHC flush was DIY or hired out), you may want to do that. If it is low you could be taking on air when going into high / extra high modes. I believe an extra high mode jaunt with low fluid is how air got into my system. I have always gotten my fluid from Toyota rather than Lexus. It would be interesting to see if Toyota has put the halt on AHC fluid as well.

The other thing I noticed, so maybe you can match this up as a symptom of air in the system. The front passenger corner had the most air, I had to bleed off a good 12-15ou of fluid from that corner to get it running clear. Previous to doing the bleed, when I would lift to high mode the other 3 corners would go strait to their height, both rear first, then front driver, then front passenger would try to get up to height, but drop a little, then go up again and repeat this 2-3 times before it would get to full height. I suspect this was because all the air was compressing down while the pump was adding more pressure to that corner. So the truck had to keep adding pressure to compensate. After the bleed, all four corners go up in one try now.

I don't feel like I'm running 100% smooth yet, so will probably do another bleed in the next week or two. But it was a noticeable improvement of general ride comfort after the first bleed.


Edit: I"ll add, even with all the air in my system, it never felt unsafe. Your description of the trouble seems a little more drastic. I would possibly be concerned about a blown accumulator as mentioned above. That's something the suspension shop would never be able to visually diagnose. A blown accumulator should make you lower on fluid as the accumulator would fill up with AHC fluid if the bladder tore. The AHC reservoir is pretty big though, and I don't know what the volume of the accumulators is.

 

[radman]

I recall you having a lot of alignment issues. Didn't you have 3 or 4 alignments?
Did you ultimately have them toe you in my 1/32?
Did this issue ever get resolved after alignment, but it has started again?

 

[milellie111]

I recall you having a lot of alignment issues. Didn't you have 3 or 4 alignments?
Did you ultimately have them toe you in my 1/32?
Did this issue ever get resolved after alignment, but it has started again?

I’ve had at least 4 different alignments from 4 different sources including 2 different dealers. Alignment is not the isssue.

 

[radman]

*I’m not trying to fight you*
But you’ve started nearly 4-6 different threads regarding this same issue, and it’s getting hard to keep track of all the information.

You posted that it was fixed. So was it? Or did it gradually get worse?
Do you currently have toe from the last alignment?
Did the truck ever feel “normal” to you?
Did you change tires? What psi are you running?


Thread 1:
Thread 'Finally!! LX570 Perfect Alignment!'
Finally!! LX570 Perfect Alignment! - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/finally-lx570-perfect-alignment.1230935/

Thread 2:
Thread 'LX570 New Alignment Problem Please Help'
LX570 New Alignment Problem Please Help - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/lx570-new-alignment-problem-please-help.1218002/

Thread 3:
Thread 'LX Front Suspension Refresh'
LX Front Suspension Refresh - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/lx-front-suspension-refresh.1230017/

Thread 4:
Thread 'Lower Control Arms or Shocks?'
Lower Control Arms or Shocks? - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/lower-control-arms-or-shocks.1225300/

Thread 5:
Thread 'VGRS Issue?'
VGRS Issue? - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/vgrs-issue.1238210/


@Taco2Cruiser had a great explanation of what you’re experiencing.

LX570 New Alignment Problem Please Help

2013 LX570 with 105,000 miles. Just got new Michelin Defender LTX tires balanced (regular and not road force) and installed by my Indy shop and alignment done at Lexus dealer. Car drives so much better with new tires and alignment and finally tracks straight. However afterward, I’m noticing...

forum.ih8mud.com

I’m actually chasing a similar issue myself (however, I think my issue may be castor related), so I really want you to figure this out.

 

[milellie111]

*I’m not trying to fight you*
But you’ve started nearly 4-6 different threads regarding this same issue, and it’s getting hard to keep track of all the information.

You posted that it was fixed. So was it? Or did it gradually get worse?
Do you currently have toe from the last alignment?
Did the truck ever feel “normal” to you?
Did you change tires? What psi are you running?


Thread 1:
Thread 'Finally!! LX570 Perfect Alignment!'
Finally!! LX570 Perfect Alignment! - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/finally-lx570-perfect-alignment.1230935/

Thread 2:
Thread 'LX570 New Alignment Problem Please Help'
LX570 New Alignment Problem Please Help - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/lx570-new-alignment-problem-please-help.1218002/

Thread 3:
Thread 'LX Front Suspension Refresh'
LX Front Suspension Refresh - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/lx-front-suspension-refresh.1230017/

Thread 4:
Thread 'Lower Control Arms or Shocks?'
Lower Control Arms or Shocks? - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/lower-control-arms-or-shocks.1225300/

Thread 5:
Thread 'VGRS Issue?'
VGRS Issue? - https://forum.ih8mud.com/threads/vgrs-issue.1238210/


@Taco2Cruiser had a great explanation of what you’re experiencing.

LX570 New Alignment Problem Please Help

2013 LX570 with 105,000 miles. Just got new Michelin Defender LTX tires balanced (regular and not road force) and installed by my Indy shop and alignment done at Lexus dealer. Car drives so much better with new tires and alignment and finally tracks straight. However afterward, I’m noticing...

forum.ih8mud.com

I’m actually chasing a similar issue myself (however, I think my issue may be castor related), so I really want you to figure this out.

I guess it was never really “fixed”. I’m leaning to worn bushing or ball joint based on the feel through the steering wheel and front end clunk backing out of dips even though many here say the LX suspension is pretty beefy and should have much more life left at 122k miles. I just hate throwing parts at a vehicle but visually it’s been checked out by dealers, indys, even specialized Lexus shops and they don’t see anything wrong.