What Is Toyota's KDSS?
This unique stabilizer bar offers benefits both on-road and off.
Toyota
Anyone who's shopped for a new or used 4x4 Toyota or Lexus SUV over the past two decades has likely come across the acronym KDSS, which stands for Kinetic Dynamic Suspension System. This unique stabilizer bar offers benefits both on-road and off.
Toyota
Stabilizer Bars Explained
Most vehicles come with what's known as an anti-roll, anti-sway, or a stabilizer bar. This device is part of a vehicle's suspension, and it helps limit a wheel's vertical movement. In daily driving, this can help keep the car from rolling in a turn or during a sudden evasive maneuver.
These pros turn into cons off-road, however. A stiff stabilizer bar that keeps a vehicle firmly planted on the asphalt will rob the vehicle's suspension of crucial articulation when traveling over uneven terrain. That's why some trail-ready vehicles, such as the Ford Bronco, Jeep Wrangler, and Gladiator as well as the new 2024 Toyota Tacoma and Land Cruiser offer a disconnecting front stabilizer bar. These are typically activated via a switch on the vehicle's dashboard.
Toyota
What's KDSS, and Why Would You Want It?
Rather than requiring the driver to remember to push a button or flip a switch, Toyota's KDSS works passively, offering occupants the best of both driving worlds. The KDSS stabilizer bars feature hydraulic cylinders with distinct upper and lower chambers that can adjust the firmness of the bars, locking and disengaging them when needed to allow for unencumbered wheel articulation. KDSS functions on both the front and rear axles and is entirely mechanical, relying on simple hydraulic fluid to function.
For example, during on-road driving, the fluid shifts so that it causes the stabilizer bars to remain rigid, thus keeping the vehicle flat and planted. On uneven off-road terrain, the fluid in the system can shift back and forth so that the sway bars can relax and move about in place, thus allowing for maximum wheel articulation and a smoother, more controlled ride.
An updated version called E-KDSS was included on a version of the redesigned 2022 Toyota Land Cruiser not sold in the U.S. It uses electronic actuators to do the same job.
Lexus
Toyota and Lexus Models That Offer KDSS
KDSS has been an option on certain versions of the fifth-generation 4Runner since it went on sale for the 2010 model year. Additionally, the feature came standard on the 200 Series-generation Toyota Land Cruiser sold from 2008 through 2021. It was also optional on the Lexus GX 470 starting in 2004 and became standard on the GX 460.
In Toyota's 2024 lineup, KDSS can only be found on the 4Runner's TRD Off-Road trim, where it's optional. Surprisingly, this unique feature is unavailable on the 4Runner's most expensive off-road trim, the TRD Pro. The new E-KDSS replaces the old mechanical version and made its U.S. debut on the new 2024 Lexus GX 550 Overtrail and Overtrail+ trims.
Written by humans.
Edited by humans.
Chris O'NeillI am an auto-industry veteran and a current MBA candidate at the University of Utah. After moving to Utah in October 2015 and being fascinated by the unique car culture of the region, I started an Instagram project highlighting the rare and distinctive vehicles I see in the Mountain West region. I enjoy sharing with others my unique perspective and passion for all things automotive. In my free time, when I’m not thinking and writing about cars, I enjoy photography, toying with my 2011 Volkswagen GTI and 1999 Toyota Land Cruiser, and exploring Utah with my girlfriend and two dogs.
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