Rice

Ever since I got my 97 LS, I had a horrible noise coming from the front suspension when I was going over sharp bumps or potholes while breaking. This did not happened if I did not apply breaks while going over rough road. My first guess was the struts. So, I replaced all 4 and $500 later, the suspension noise was still there!!!
Yesterday, I replaced the upper control arms in the front. That solved the problem. Now, the car feels like new over the rough staff.
I'm really glad that this problem is solved, because it was very annoying to hear such sounds while driving a Lexus.

BTW, It didn't cost an arm and a leg either. I got both arms on e-Bay for $280 and mechanic charged me $80 to replace. Even though repair manual says that struts must be removed, my mechanic did it w/o removing them. He only had to unscrew the top 3 bolts of the right strut in order to lower it an inch or so.
In retrospect, I could've easily done the job myself, if not for the freezing temps here, in New York.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

Happy to hear the control arms fixed your noises. Considering what Lexus asks for such work, this was a great price! How long did it take him?

Rice

It took 45 minutes. That's considering the fact that he was not in any hurry

RA40

iTrader: (6)

I'm nearly on my way to fixing mine. Ordered the strut bars from lexus-parts and will source some Bilsteins in the next day or so. All goes well, I hope to have it done sometime next week. Been waiting for this day since I bought the car in Nov of '02.

BTW, lexus-parts has the bars at a terrific price!

Rice

Are you lowering your car? I hear that Bilsteins are pretty harsh on ride quality. At least that's what I've read before in other threads.
Anyway, post what you think about them after you install them.

RA40

iTrader: (6)

I'll post my impressions when it is done.

Which reminds me, Lexkost. I didn't get to ride in his car at the meet to see how it felt. Plum forgot with all that candy sititng in the parking lot to oogle over.