I ordered them from 4 different places and the first to send them, kept the order and cancelled the others. I looks everywhere for those Bilsteins (Kegs, Summit, Tire rack, etc). I called TireRack about the Bilsteins and they said "they didn't have any in my area", so I asked if they could ship them from another warehouse and they made an exception.

I also called TireRack about the KYBs and they were backordered 2-3 months. I didn't ask if other warehouses outside of my area had them.

 

What is the price difference between the oem and KYB? Is it $100 vs $300?

 

Yes exactly around that. 2 pairs of KYB cost $200 with tax. OEM is $470-480 for two. Double

 

I think they are very spendy from Lexus. Here as the quote for just the front struts being replaced from Lexus:
​​​​​​

 

Damn. From what I saw on mylparts looks like it be over $500 before tax and shipping. Why are the right and left priced different?

 

The labor is probably 1k.. How much would an independent shop charge for labor?

 

I’m not sure. I always message this dealer and have bought from them before. They are good people. https://parts.belllexusnorthscottsda...853080759.html

I hope I can get KYBs but if not, I’ll get it from the link above. ThTs the rears. Send your vin to them & they will send you links on what you need exactly

 

This is the quote that got me looking at buying them myself

 

I’m very interested in your results. Although it’s been many years ago, and it was for replacement on Honda‘s and not Toyota, My ride was drastically different using KYB. Also, a friend who’s a former Lexus employee, says the tuning of what KYB uses for Lexus OEM could be different than over the counter. Hope he’s wrong.

I’m very interested in your findings because I want to buy them for my LS460. So please come back and update us.

 

New struts installed. Ride feels exactly the same on my test drive. I will give it more time and make a formal post on my experience.

Initial impressions are very good, high quality parts, and look identical to the OEM ones.

 

Glad to hear this and thank you for coming back.

 

Just curious, how was the install of these? As in did you run into any trouble on any items that caused a headache in disassembling the strut and then reassembling the spring and strut? I think $1500 to replace two of these from dealer is highway robbery.

 

It was very straight forward. The spring compressor was the biggest pain without having air tools. Juggling the steering arm and inserting the strut assembly was a bit awkward, but was easier then 2nd time I did it.

I mainly followed this thread for the how-to. It was very accurate, so made it easy to follow:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sus...all-guide.html

Also this one was helpful for the torque specs:
https://www.clublexus.com/forums/gs-...que-specs.html

With basic hand tools, it took me about 5 hours, first side took over 3hrs, but the other went very quick.

 

Why did you not replace the top hat bearing at the same time?

 

Reporting back after a few weeks of driving. I used a G-force logging app and set my phone screen up in front of the nav screen and recorded the same stretch of road. It has speed humps (large arched design) and took them at 25 mph. The graphs below are based on one hardest speed bump.

I can confirm these shocks adjust the dampening based on the driving modes.

Looking at the graphs below, the first graph is in Normal mode, with max up and down readings of 12.5 and 5.2 respectively. The second graph is in Sport+ where max up and down readings are 12.8 and 3.33 respectively.

This tells me that the larger swing (from highest to lowest points) = dampening is more aggressive = bigger impact.

My last test is to review this same data before I swapped them to see if there is a similar change from Normal to Sport+ with the OEM shocks. Hopefully I can get that information posted here soon.