Morton

No. I went to my local Toyota/lexus dealer and they could switch it with the original RX300 struts. It would probably be the best (and safest solution) , but I found it too expensive. One of the replacement kits offered in US is much cheaper though, but I didn't find any shop willing to do the job.. Replacing one airstrut with a standard is not possible. Would mess up the automatic suspension leveling system completely. All or nothing. Having said that, I dont have the RX300 anymore. Nice car, but my worries about that air suspension came through. First I had to replace the front left strut. Terrible expensive as you have to switch the complete assembly. Then one of the aft leveling sensors said goodby. So when I got an offer switching the RX with a 4 years newer Toyota Avensis with half the milage I said thank you. Morton

I'll do that Dennis :-)

Sensors..airbags.. compressor..$$$$$ I had the knocking topmount syndrom on my car as well. ..I'm beginning to think it was a terrible mistake to replace the airstrut. Since it was covered by the insurance I should have thrown in the extra money and replaced them all. The cost was exactly half the price of swapping to conventional struts on all corners!

Great job Gary. I guess then you got the coilovers as a complete assembly ready for install?

Garyrx300, could you please tell me a little about your swap? Did you do it at Lexus/Toyota with original RX300 coilover parts? At what cost? And most of all, you should now be the best Lexus owner to judge the two suspension setups and what the differences are. Morton

Thanks for the replies guys. Pete, yes, it should have been interesting to testdrive a SE just to compare. But Chris got a SE-L which is very quiet so I wonder. Also in a couple of weeks I'll be changing to the summertires that came with the car, Goodyear Efficientgrip. That will maybe tell me something more..

I bought a 2006 RX300 SE-L in December 2014 and so far I'm pleased with the car. I love the interior, the engine is a beauty and it handles very well for a 2 tonns SUV. But I must say I'm not very impressed with the noise isolation on this car. When going over 80 km/h the road noise is very bad i think. A lot of rumbling. A Mark Levinson sound system is somewhat silly on these conditions. My two previous Avensis were very quiet compared to the RX300. Especially my 2006 T25 Executive. I thought maybe it was the tires so I switched to Michelins which on paper was the most quiet tires, but it didn't improve much. I guess the RX300 just dont like the Norwegian highways with their special grainy asphalt. I'll try to get used to it :-)

These forums mostly shows Lexus owners posting their car problems. I think its a good idea to follow it up with the solution/fix if it has been found. My specific clunking rattling suspension noise (posted earlier) was finally fixed when Lexus replaced the right side air strut. Luckily it was during my 6 months used car guarantee. But I really hope I dont have to replace any more of them in the future. They are replaced as one piece and cost a fortune. (2000£ inclusive work). I asked Lexus what it would cost me to replace them with standard struts and springs and it was 4000£. For all four corners!! So if any more of the airstruts are failing, I'm seriously going to consider it.

Well..principally i agree with you. One should maybe not tamper with nature. But as you know the car already lowers automatically on the highway for better aerodynamics/handling so my thought was to decrease the overall height say with1 cm. That means the normal height level with be closer to the lowest. This should then only improve the handling. And I cant remember when I last used the top level height.. Only an idea. If I'm actually going to do it, that's another story :-)

Allan, Interesting. I was thinking of something. You describe the adjustment of the sensor connector arm to bring the car to correct height. Does this mean one can actually modify the height a bit a little lower than the factory settings by adjusting all sensor connectors properly?

I somehow have a hunch that you are on the right track Tom. The sound is realy hard to pinpoint. Could be anything. And after the Lexus mechanics spent an hour going through every bolt and nut I find it very hard to believe it's something wrong with the suspension etc. So I will start to look elsewhere.. rolling beercan under the seat,, anything is posssible. Thanks for advice

No more news on this topic? My RX300 2006 too has this rattling clunking noise over small bumps at low speeds. Lexus mechanics says everything is tight and ok. Very frustrating. Isn't it very strange that so far no one has been able to pinpoint what's exactly making this noise? Guess we can rule out the shocks/springs as cars with conventional as well as air suspension have been reported with the same problem. Strange thing is I didn't notice it before changing tires and rims from 235/55R18 to 225/65R17 .

Well, I think it is possible. Actually I forwarded the question to my Lexus dealer and he just came back with a positive answer. They even made the schematics showing how the rewiring should be done. The bad news is the price. I'm not shure it's worth 600 £. As an electronic engineer I might try to do it myself..

Anyone who can tell me what's the minimum jack lifting height needed to get the front wheels off the ground? (That is if you use the dedicated car jack point behind the cover.) Morton

As I mostly drive in the city I prefer to be in the Low Mode when driving. It seems to me it rides smoother too. So next question would be. How can we set this mode to be the default? As it is now the car raises to Normal Mode everytime we turn on the motor. Would love it if this was possible. Morton