Help: Rear End Lower Than Front

[hammer008]

After a weekend road trip with a fully loaded lexus (2 coolers of beer and sausauges) and 3 friends (450lbs), the rear end of my lexus this morning looks about 1-2 inches lower than the front.:cries:

It was level with the front before the trip. Do I need new springs? Is this normal?

[amf1932]

Is your trunk empty? If it is then you could have overloaded the rear struts with all that weight. There's a good chance that you have to replace them. :( Were they ever changed before?

[NeiLtYmE]

for my car, which is the same as yours...

before when i had my stock set up... the rear end was always lower looking than the front, meaning that the fender gap in the rear were smaller than the front.

When with my new suspension set up, whole thing around lowered one inch, still same effect.

Most Es300's ive seen that are our generation has the same difference between the front and rear.... Maybe its just you noticing this now.

or you my have seriously overloaded those old gas struts causing them to loose pressure.

this might help, next time your near your car, push down on the car with the bumper to see how the car bounces back up. if it goes down and comes up ratber stiff, then your good. But if it bounces up and down without much stiffness one either corner, you may have a bad strut.

So driving and paying attension to your suspension and seeing how it handle in the rear is help ful. going in reverse and then pressing on your brakes swiftly will give you an idea too.

[SKperformance]

all cars have the front suspension look higher than the front as the front wheels turn and the back don;t

so inorder for the wheels to turn out the fender is higher to not rub

the ride height is all about the springs not the shocks, you can have bad shocks but it only slows the rate of bounce of the spring.

you can drive without a shock but not without a spring.

more than likely the ride stressed the springs and they are now sagging whih is common for old springs

use the lower body lines to gauge the height not the fenders which are misleading.

[hammer008]

thanks for the input. It looks like after riding around town for a bit the height difference is a bit more even.

But I am just worried that the lexus is not made for heavy loading. When the car was full (3 friends and 2 coolers), the rear fender was practically touching the tires...Is this normal as well? I guess I have been spoiled by adjusting air suspension on my subaru :P . ...kind of makes you wonder if you should take your friends out...especially if they are overweight.

[tundra-lover]

I've had the same problem, and want to buy some nice coil-overs. I just don't want to spend any money on it. My car will not hold a load of more than three people without bottoming out (116k miles now). I wish I had the nice air ride on mine! Oh, well! Toyota springs have always been soft??

[hammer008]

this might help,  next time your near your car,  push down on the car with the bumper to see how the car bounces back up.  if it goes down and comes up ratber stiff, then your good.    But if it bounces up and down without much stiffness one either corner, you may have a bad strut.

So driving and paying attension to your suspension and seeing how it handle in the rear is help ful.   going in reverse and then pressing on your brakes swiftly will give you an idea too.

I pushed down on the car bumpers...both fronts are rock solid.

The rear right has a single bounce...which I think is good.

The rear left feels softer with a loose single bounce...easy to push down too. :( However, none bounces "up and down".

The car is smooth as melted butter on smooth road but I have been noticing that the ride is very harsh going over bumps...like I am being knocked around in the car. :( I thought I was just spoiled by air suspension on my Subaru...

Do these symptoms sound like I need new rear struts? I looked at the struts but no leaks. I have no idea when they were changed though. I got the car from a lady who had no clue about cars with 75K miles.

ps. Can you explain a bit about braking while going backwards?

[SpeedRacer959]

Hammer,

Just posted the pics/instructions of the strut removal.

Hope it helps.

Jimi

[NeiLtYmE]

its really hard to say from not feeling the ride and seeing it for my self weather or not you would need any replacement.

but i can tell you that if the lady never serviced the suspension.. ie. replacing struts or what not which i doubt she did because these cars go just fine with the original suspension components 80-90 k. depending on how the car was driven and where, this usually ages the components as there is more wear.

If the car sat around alot without use, this also aids in the pressure loss of the struts.

with 75k on a 96... real normal.

How many miles on it now ?

By going in reverse, i just meant that if there was anything really wrong with the struts then braking hard would have givin u a bit drastic of a lean/tilt.

-neil

[hammer008]

>How many miles on it now ?

Right now it has 78k miles on it.

>By going in reverse, i just meant that if there was anything really wrong with ?>struts then braking hard would have givin u a bit drastic of a lean/tilt.

I tried this today in a parking lot...stopping dramatically after 30km/h...while going backwards the rear end drops down about 7 inches :cries: ...similarly the front drops down about the same but a bit less.

Just wondering if yours or other people are getting similar values...

Further, I looked at the struts and they look brand new! There is even some fresh paint markers on the springs (yellow at front) and red at back and no rust whatsoever. The tires look like brand new Perellis with those fresh "nipples" everywhere.