Potential Manufacturing Defect

[ToreOe]

Tore, I run 17" rims on both summer and winter wheels

There goes that theory, then...

Hope the damper fix will work as well for you as it did for me. Say "Hei" to Johannes and Isak from me when you take the IS300h in for installation next week ;-)

-Tore

[Jostein]

So you bought your car the same place! No wonder the mechanic seemed to be familiar with the problem. Maybe more strange they did not mention this when I contacted them and complained about vibrations from the winter wheels :-)

[darrude]

Mines a 2015 model and not fixed. (Had the fix now)

I have also started noticing again, worse when the weather is cold and at a slightly lower speed than before. Not as bad as it was before the fix, but certainly noticeable. Hopefully it won't get worse as the weather worsens.

[ToreOe]

Driving at 60km/h over a longer stretch of road today, I could not stop myself thinking... Lexus has kindly provided us with a place to attach a damper to the diff, and it clearly does a great job of damping the vibration for the frequency it is tuned to.

How hard can it be (dangerous words, I know) to replace the passive tuned damper with an inertial actuator, an accelerometer and a microcontroller, making an active damper that will adapt itself to vibrations at any frequency between say 20Hz and 100Hz?

Making the active damper as reliable and longlasting as the car would be a challenge for a hobby mechanic, but a working prototype should be doable.

I think just found myself a new project.

-Tore

[Webra]

Costly, but works well.

http://lexusboutique.net/?pid=1452641

[ganzoom]

Costly, but works well.

http://lexusboutique.net/?pid=1452641

First time I've seen something like this....What's it suppose to do?? Does it replace an OEM item??

I'm not adverse to fitting aftermarket parts, just jave no idea who this thing is suppose to improve anything - For reference I find the ride quality on our IS300H as good/better that on my old BMW that had £2.5k worth of custom tuned Bilstein suspension on it :)

[Webra]

Costly, but works well.http://lexusboutique.net/?pid=1452641

First time I've seen something like this....What's it suppose to do?? Does it replace an OEM item??

I'm not adverse to fitting aftermarket parts, just jave no idea who this thing is suppose to improve anything - For reference I find the ride quality on our IS300H as good/better that on my old BMW that had £2.5k worth of custom tuned Bilstein suspension on it :)

It was developed and patented by Yamaha, and quite clever, in that a car steel bodyshell is the largest spring in a car and therefore needs damping too. The device is actually a super high pressure shock absorber mounter transversely attaching to major structural points on either side of the car. It gives rigidity when required, but also 'gives' where neccesary, by way of its incredibly small 1-2mm travel. On the IS300h, which still has stock springs and shocks (OEM are monotubes!) only one of these is fitted, at the end of the rear chassis rails; I suspect the cvt gearbox has too much girth and doesn't allow a front one to be fitted. On my BMW I have them both; the front one connects the two rear mountings of the front subframe.

The main effect is the whole car feels tighter and quieter, rather than stiffer and noisier when ordinary strut bars are fitted. On quite a few Lexus models these come as standard, including the recently launched 200t F sport.

Yes I am a fan of the handling of older BMW's, but with a few recent mods my IS handles better than any of them.

[ganzoom]

^^ So in effect it adds more 'stiffness' but not at the cost of overall comfort??

Sounds interesting, might by worth looking at. Does the OEM 200t item fit the 300h??

Good to know the stock suspension are monotones....Explains partly why the IS handles so well....Real shame we don't get the engine/drivetrain from 300 here :(

What other suspension mods are you running?? I'm waiting for our IS to come out of its manufactures warranty before moding it, but need to save up now, since in 12 months time we'll be ordering a Tesla Model S and expecting a baby next April....Neither are really compatible with spending £££ on aftermarket car parts :)

[Webra]

^^ So in effect it adds more 'stiffness' but not at the cost of overall comfort??

Sounds interesting, might by worth looking at. Does the OEM 200t item fit the 300h??

Good to know the stock suspension are monotones....Explains partly why the IS handles so well....Real shame we don't get the engine/drivetrain from 300 here :(

What other suspension mods are you running?? I'm waiting for our IS to come out of its manufactures warranty before moding it, but need to save up now, since in 12 months time we'll be ordering a Tesla Model S and expecting a baby next April....Neither are really compatible with spending £££ on aftermarket car parts :)

Yes, that's essentially it, but in the meantime dampens road and body noise. See these videos.

http://youtu.be/0FUERy14lxQ

http://youtu.be/pZ5i_zgPIwU

The 300h has monotube dampers and 50/50 weight distribution. So all I did was to add a stiffer rear anti roll bar and a less soft front lower arm bush. Transformed the car totally, giving less roll and much more front end bite.

[ganzoom]

Thanks for the videos, really liked the metal frame been hit with the hammer, shows the benefits well!!

Honestly have never even thought of stuff like this before

Will 100% look into trying a set on a one of the cars at some point.

If you don't mind me asking which anti-roll brand did you go for?? and do you need to drop the rear subframe to install the rears??

[Webra]

Oh, nothing fancy really, but quite good value. Found out the OEM RC coupe Fsport model bar is 3mm thicker than mine (assuming same material that's almost 100% stiffer) so just ordered that! Drop in fit with its own more sophisticated bushings but yes, the rear subframe was dropped slightly for access.