Toyota Soarer UZZ32 Suspension Problems By far the most special model in the MkIII Toyota Soarer fleet was the UZZ32 Limited Edition V8 with active suspension and four wheel steering. Truly "limited" probably because its price was so high that few people in its native Japan could afford to buy one. Such was its exclusivity that in all they manufactured less than 900 cars and over 700 of those were made in the first year of production. The car was discontinued in August 1996. The UZZ32's unique four wheel steering meant that aside from a great party trick, the car had a better turning circle than all the other models and that, along with the "active" suspension system meant that the car could corner with great speed and efficiency whilst remaining completely level. The complicated systems that controlled these unique qualitites did cause a drain on power resources but what the UZZ32 lacked in ability on the straight it more than compensated for on corners. Unfortunately the suspension system turned out to be the cars achilles heel. By the time most people in the Western world got to experience the UZZ32 they were probably wondering what the fuss was all about. Because as these special vehicles began to turn up over here as used grey imports, it became clear that the essential component of the active suspension was missing. The suspension struts used a system with an upper hydraulic chamber over a lower section filled with nitrogen. Although the upper hydraulics were already known to be prone to leakage, they were at least repairable (and still are) using a Toyota manufactured seal kit for a few hundred pounds. But the real problem was the lower section. In every car after a few years driving, all the nitrogen had in the lower accumulators had leaked away. Unfortunately Toyota had designed the nitrogen chamber to be a non-servicable unit. The only solution was a replacement nitrogen accumulator at a cost of nearly £600 each. In other words almost £2400 per car, plus labour! Without the nitrogen, the car has a peculiar "bounce" that is most disconcerting and the car doesn't behave anything like Toyota intended at all. It was Peter Scott, a UZZ32 owner in Australia who did the research that led to a more workable solution. Initially he colaborated with a shock absorber specialist called "Walter the shock doctor" who came up with a clever method of quite literally "injecting" nitrogen (with a syringe no less) into the struts through customed machined screws filled with a silicone compound (pictured right). The pressure of the newly replaced nitrogen would seal the hole made by the syringe upon removal, leaving the accumulator charged with nitrogen and back to the way it was supposed to be. It was a pretty good idea too. I got hold of some of the screws and the required injection valve and set about trying the proceedure with JEM. In the hope that a UK recharging facility could be set up. The problem was that the nitrogen leaked out before and it would ultimately leak out again. On some of the tests that JEM carried out, certain accumulators were pretty much empty again by the time the car had been driven out of the workshop, or certainly after a few miles. They were all beginning to show signs of failure within months. Although the injection process did work, it was clear that the leakage originally had been caused by internal damage and depending how severe that damage was the repair could last anything from a number of months to a few minutes. Back in Australia, Peter Scott had experienced the same problem and proceeded to cut open the nitrogen accumulators to find out what the source of the damage was. The source of the problem turned out to be damaged "O" rings at the top of the chambers. Replace those, re-weld the units and the unit should have a considerably greater life expectancy. The use of Schrader valves for the gas ports proved to be far more effective too, as the units effectively become re-chargeable. This is good news because the accumulators can only really be opened and re-welded once, so it's important for the cars owner to have the units re-gassed once the suspension shows the slightest sign of loss of pressure, as this will allow for the maximum life expectancy of the re-conditioned units. Particularly important as Toyota have now discontinued the accumulators, so brand new replacements are not an option. It's not known whether the decay of the "O" rings is down to natural wear and tear, or whether excess strain caused by failure of the upper hydraulic units causes their demise. But the latter should be at least considered and therefore it's wise to ensure that all hydraulics are fully operational and leak free before considering the fitting of re-conditioned accumulators. JEM now offer an exchange service. The cost of a set of exchange accumulators is £695 plus labour. They can also be purchased via mail order for those who can't readily get to Hendon, through the club shop here.