Okay. First off, let me give my background I am 30 years old and have had no less than 40 cars. I have modified at least half of them,some heavy, some not. I have installed just about every aftermarket suspension piece known to man, on many types of cars from Mustangs, to Alfas, to Maserati, t VW, audi Mercedes, BMW, EVERYTHING. Custom turbo setups, blowers, I feel theres nothing I cant do. I took my Grandmas 93 LS to my prom IN 1994. I remember what that felt like, and how much more superior that the 'Toyota' was to her 420sel MB. I remember the media hype and the customer service at the dealer, versus the othe car dealers. That always stuck with me. So now that I am an old man and need a reliable, cheap 4 door car for a third vehicle, I naturally turn to an LS. I have an LX450 for snow and tow, and 2 coupes. I know ghetto stuff. I see it everyday. I ALWAYS go aftermarket over OEM. But on this particular model, the LS, I feel OEM is better. Yes, I feel like a jackass spending the same money on 'factory' stuff than buying a better product from the aftermarket. But EVERY aspect of this car was poured over, contemplated, studied, tested, on and on. EVERYTHING. Irecently red a book called 'The Relentless Persuit', that I found on Amazon. It was like 350-400 pages, and covered the inception, all the way to the completion of the Brand, and the LS400. The minute details, that no one even knows about were mulled over for months. Every aspect was planned, executed, and tested extensively. Remember, if it were not for our first gen LS cars, and the success that they brought, there would be NO Lexus. No dealerships, SUV's, no IS's, nothing. without this particular product, the idea would have failed. These are impressive cars in that respect, and they deserve repect. They may be old in years, but to me, I will always remember when they were new. I do not want a modified LS. I want it as close to that original feeling when I was 17. So my point in asking which shock to go with, was to see which was most like OEM, without spending $456 (my cost) on four new shocks from the dealer, which is assenine. Aftermarket is about 270, and it SHOULD be an improvement. But with this car, I just don't know. I have found very few flaws with the car, and I don't want to re-engineer it. Thank you for answering my questionabout the rear shock removal, I assumed removing the rear seat would be the case. Now I know how much time to plan out. As for 'PureDrifter', I am positive that anyone who makes almost 8,000 posts on a Lexus forum, absolutely cannot be someone who modifies their car 'ghetto style'. Almost everything I have searched on for my Lexus', he has been a contributor on almost all of them. I am certain he is no dummy. By the way, I have found Eibachs to be the best springs for the money, with H&R being a close second. Ignorance is bliss.

 

nolyaw,
I am just remarking on KYB, you shouldn't have to sand/grind a shock mount to get it to fit, I would just buy OEM because the GR-2's are slightly stiffer than OEM.
and I assume the GR-2's are closer to OEM than any other shock, otherwise www.lexpartsonline.com wouldn't have sold me the KYB's and on the site it says OEM replacement, when in fact I know they are stiffer, so go OEM, if you put them in yourself you;ll save lots of money, I would rather spend a little more $$ on the shocks and replace youself which is pretty easy..

Just consider youself lucky you don't have to replace the air suspen eh..LOL.. So I regret not spending the extra $20 or 30 on the OEM black shocks as I've been through this..

Man u other guys are waay too sensitive.. It's only a forum.. Wow.. GL
nolyaw.

 

poly bushings bind.

rubber or delrin, no point with poly

 

delrin is too hard
rubber is too soft and deteriorates too fast.

i prefer to keep poly bushings lubed do it every oil change and you're good (try having ur machine shop install grease fittings on the more hard to reach bushings so its easier to grease them, its not much more when ur having them press out the old rubber and push in the new poly)

 

GM makes 1le spec rubber that is stiffer and more resilient than the soft stuff, on vettes and camaros back in the day, wish they had something like this for our cars

 

Finally got the KYB gr2's in this week, withthe urathane sway bar bushings. That bastard fought me every inch of the way. Reusing the stock springs sucked, butI did'nt want to deal with negative camber issues, and degredation of ride quality. The car rarely moves without all four seats filled, so the back looks lowered anyway. The kyb's ride great, they were just what I was looking for. The car is now fairly tight and responsive. Thanks for all the replies.

 

runnin HnR springs and no camber issues .

 

1" springs even after they settle down will give u camber that is easily correctable with the factory settings.

its when u go lower that you have issues, im currently running like -2+ish in the rear completely maxed out on the factory adjustments.....