So, I ended up getting some KYB's and 4 new strut mounts. Altogether everything came to $502 shipped, which was pretty much my budget. I know they'll ride a bit harsher, but honestly, anything is better than the blown and leaking struts I have now. My Lexus rides like a beat up '79 Ford pickup right now. I'm going to install them in the next few weeks, I'll keep you guys posted on the results. Thanks again for all the advice/input/wisdom!

 

If you want really good struts, i would get the KYB-GR2 Excel struts and then get the MOOG spring coils if needed. I have monroe quick struts on my car which is a 1992 lexus es300 and they're fine but i have friends
who have told me the KYB's are better when it comes to struts. Obviously in a perfect world, OEM
is the way to go, but who goes to dealerships anymore. it's so much more expensive, but the trade off
is that they know what they're doing since all they deal with is Lexus. Either way, KYB's are solid from what i hear.

 

I heard the KYB's are good. Did you get the struts and mounts from KYB? did you get shocks also
or do they come as one unit? i heard that the best spring coils are made a company called Moog.
have you heard of them?

 

Bump to the top, more 411......

 

My oem struts were in bad shape, would bottom out on dips. Installed the Monroe quick struts on all 4. The ride quality was pretty close to oem, cloudy ride and handles like a grandma. Not even 1000 miles and I noticed squeaking and clunking noises on the rear. So I went ahead and put new kyb struts on the rear (I’ve had good experience with kyb on Camry for a year). No more squeaking but there was still clunking noises.

turns out the clunking noise is from bad strut rod, replaced the rear rods. The Monroe struts that I removed, I figured out which part was making the squeaking noise. It’s the bellows that are making contact with the shiny rod/shaft. I think if I cut out the bellows it would remove the squeaking noises…, decent enough for someone on a tight budget.

After all I’ve replaced, I’m still hearing squeaking noises.. gonna hunt that ***** down. I suspect it’s the knuckle bushing or one of those control rods.

 

KYB are good in struts. The quick struts I put in my car don't hold the weight of people in my back seat. Sounds like a busted spring. Rockauto has a online store where you can get reasonable price products. I would go with KYB that I put in front have worked great. They didn't sell KYB for my rear replacement so I went with Monroe. Wish I would of bought the shocks and bushings then had a shop put them in for 200 cause I need a new spring since I threw the other one away when I swapped out the struts.

 

KYB GR2s are good.
Here's my old car with them on
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/es-...y-dropped.html