Aprazur

The new Goodyear tires (4) were delivered tonight @ 9PM. A day Early from Tire Rack. So I finally got on the Rock Auto site to order Tie rod ends, Ball joints and strut parts. I've decided to keep the old struts and just change the mounts & bearings, bellows, & spring insulators. I'm going with Raybestos (professional grade) on the parts.

I hit a wall on the Strut mount though. I've been reading this forum for a couple of years now and everyone says to ONLY go with OEM mounts. Rockauto lists Moog mounts with bearing for $76 each and Raybestos with bearing for $72 (each). They are Rock's highest priced mount units.

The front tires are bald and one has uneven wear. I am eager to get the new tires installed and the alignment done. But I want to (diy) change the Ball joints, Tie rod ends and install the strut mounts before installing the tires. I'm hot to trot after listening for years to knock..Knock from the front & rear ends.

The question....are the OEM mounts THAT much better than Moog and Raybestos? and how much more money ($) are the OEM mounts? I'd like to get everything from one source (RockAuto) and not drive to the Lexus stealer parts counter for the mounts, if possible. How much cheaper is our Lexus on line OEM source?

Jerry

thomas1

Your other option is OE from Sewel Lexus which is a sponser on this site...They will give you a discount if you give Club Lexus as your site. Create a log in and the Online price will change. Good luck...However I wonder if the Moug would be a better choice, maybe somebody else will chime in.

Aprazur

Well...

I did as you instructed and went on line and ordered two Ft strut mounts & BEARINGS for my 120K 1999 RX last night via an email message as I was having trouble with the Sewell site.

This morning I received a nice message from Sewell with a "click on" to an invoice for 8 MOUNTS @ $66.39 each + $11.44 shipping for $542.56!! When I tried to delete 6 of the mounts the whole order was erased. When I tried to re order via the site, one mount was priced at $66.39 and the other side at $47.??. That's not right.

Not wanting to wait five days for an order that might not be delivered correctly. I emailed Sewell about the problems at about 12 noon....I NEVER GOT THE COURTESY OF A RESPONSE (I'm shouting). I just sent them another email and am about to search for their phone number.

So the Report Card:

Sewell Price: (A) Excellent....List price per unit $110.66, Club Lexus Price $66.39. The Moog was $76.79 (with bearing). I don't know if the Sewell unit comes with a bearing?

Sewell Net Ordering Experience (F) Sucks!

Jerry

thomas1

that sucks....I have had great success with them.however they don't respond very quickly to emails

JohnLX300

iTrader: (2)

Other than Sewell I have order lots of Parts from www.parts.com, shipping isn't quite as fast as sewell but the prices are about the same if not a little better.

Aprazur

Today (finally) I got an email from Darrel @ Sewell, the Club Lexus order representative. Telling me, that it might be better for me to order from the regular parts department counter (no discount) and not the ClubLexus discount counter.

I needed two strut bearing, I checked the price, it was about $20 more that the CL discount. I went back to the Sewell CL link and got through this time and ordered the bearings. Hurray.

Last night at about 6PM I was able to talk with Steve at Sewell regular perts counter (Nice man). As Darell had left for the day, Steve said that he would call Darell via cell phone and/or email regarding my problem. He said that he was not authorized to offer the CL discount. Only Darell could do so. He promised to call me back.

I never got a call back from Steve or Darell last night. I found out that Darell was posting on another part of this forum around 4pm (another model Lexus) answering complaints from CL members that were also unhappy with calls not returned.. Later last night I was able to get my order in for the strut mounts. It appeared it was a problem with Sewell's computer server earlier.

I emailed Sewell (Darell) two days ago, asking if the bearing came with the strut....and got NO response. He has cost me extra shipping fees, a delay in starting the job and a lot of aggravation due to ineptitude. The common courtesy of an email would have gone a long way to satisfy a customer. He had enough time to be on line here at ClubLexus but to not email me?

Jerry

hypervish

I'm surprised by how Sewell treated you. I'll think twice before ordering from there. Thanks for the heads up! I haven't ordered from there yet, but I was planning on getting a backup master key from there. But, I guess I'll pick one up from elsewhere.

Aprazur

Hypervish,

I just got two new keys. The company cuts the keys based on your key code in the leather case that holds your warranty books or on the plastic wallet key. Its in black and faint to see.

Both my keys were broken in little pieces. The company cut the two OEM Japan keys for $45 and sent a free key chain. The new keys are missing the interior parts. You install the interior from your old keys into the new keys. They worked like a charm!

When you order you MUST give them your key code in the "Notes" box on the PayPal site. I didn't do this correctly and tried to contact them for days. they did not return any phone calls or emails (worse than Sewel).

But the keys were delivered OK. They got my messages with the key code, but just didn't let me know it.

You reach them through ebay 1010Keys.com.

Jerry

hypervish

Thanks, but I should been more clear. I need another backup master key (one with internals). They're quite expensive, but that's to be expected. I think I'm going to wait it out, and see if I can get a cheap deal on ebay.

Aprazur

I got the Tie rod ends and the Ball joints delivered today from RockAuto. I ordered them last thursday...five days, not bad. Waiting for the strut mounts and bearings from Sewel Lexus.... Thinking about ordering those cheapie struts ($170 for 4) on ebay. they've gotten good rating from people here on CL. Although the my old ones have no leaks and bounce only once. Decisions...decisions.

I noticed the new Tie rods have a grease fitting but the Ball joints do not. These are high dollar "Professional Grade " Raybestos (So it says on the box). I noticed some of the cheaper ones have grease fittings in the pictures on RockAuto. I sent an email to Raybestos.

Nice weather here today (low 80's) after a day in the 60's. I'm egar to "getter done".

Jerry S

salimshah

Here is my experience with Sewell:

1st time, Sent them email, got an answer in about a week with apology for the delay.

2nd occasion, the same thing happened.


3rd time ordered parts, they arrived the next day.

If you have questions, call them instead of sending them email. if you order, it is shipped promptly.

Salim

Aprazur

"if you order, it is shipped promptly".

In my case...Not so promptly. After two days of dicking around with them. I finally was able to order on Feb 10...The order's came today, Feb 16. And, I had to pay shipping charges for two orders due to their poor customer service. Both boxes were delivered together, after I asked them to Please combine them together.

I don't consider six (6) days to be shipped "Promptly"... Thank You Please.

Jerry

Aprazur

Installed the new front strut mounts and bearings today. Wiped the old shocks off and re installed them. Top insulates were OK (120K miles). The bottom ones had a small ware spot hole in each one, I used Lexmex (out standing) plastic tubing fix (thanks). I bought 10" of thick wall tubing a Home Depot 3/4" outter/5/8" inner I.D. Fit like a glove.

I bought a spring compressor kit from Sears ($55). It worked good. I'm a one man shop without an air compressor. It took all day and its a dirty hard job for a old dude. But, I got-er done. Front end is now nice and quite. Lexmex's how to do it print out saved me a least a couple of hours of learning curve. Bless him...

I'll do the rears next week and the ball joints/Tie rods. I need a few days to heal and rest up. I got to order the parts, Thankfully my S.S. check comes next week (lol).

Jerry

C-Stone

Nice work.

I did my front mounts and all the rubber cushions at 135K this year. I printed out prices I found one line from a discount Lexus dealer site. My local Lexus dealer honored the prices. This saved me a lot of trouble, because I got a few more parts than I needed, just in case. So I was able to easily return the unused items. ... just a thought.