Losiracer2

I recently got these KYB Excel G shocks and Strut mounts in today in preparation for my front end refresh along with the LCA bushings later on and I wanted to document if anyone was concerned about the quality before purchase.

The shock bodies have a Made in Japan stamp on them and the quality of the finish on the body is of good quality. It has a black smooth durable coating on them that will for sure withstand the elements rather well. It comes with a single nut in the box to be able to attach to the strut mount.

The strut mounts I received are also of good quality, made in Taiwan, finished with a black durable coating. The threads on the studs are clean of any burrs and each strut mount comes with 3 nuts with serrated bottoms to be able to securely fasten to the strut housing on the car.

Pics of the goods!

KYB Strut Mounts Sm5563 Front






KYB 341159 Shocks Front

bornking

Very nice, let us know how it goes!

oldskewel

iTrader: (1)

Looks good. I did a similar replacement on my '91 a few years ago. Happy with the KYB choice for shocks and mounts.
Here are the parts I used:
KY341159 front shock, KYB GR-2
KY341268 rear shock, KYB GR-2
KYSM5176 front mount, KYB
KYSM5178 rear mount, KYB
48157-50010 Insulator, front suspension
48257-50010 Insulator, upper, rear suspension
48258-50010 Insulator, lower, rear suspension
48331-50010 bumper, front suspension
48341-50010 bumper, rear suspension

bradland

Don't forget one very important part of this job. The boots, aka bellows, or insulator as Lexus calls them. 48157-50010 @ $56 ea for my 99 should fit your 97 as well.
Pics below show Lexus on the left and aftermarket on the right. I wont name the brand as they are all basically the same. I only bought them to get the white bumper. Notice how the Lexus boot fits on the strut mount and provides a layer of rubber between the top of your spring and the mount. The aftermarket will slide on the mount but there's nothing between the spring and mount. This means metal on metal!!!

Losiracer2

i can probably attribute the extremely long life (278k miles) of my front shocks to the good sealing quality of the OEM Lexus dust boots preventing all the dirt and debris from entering the shock bodies where the shock shaft goes up and down. I'll have Autozone order some KYB ones, if they make them, and see how it compares to your photos of the OEM ones. Hopefully the KYB ones are of good quality as well.

If anyone is wondering prices, I got Autozone to price match to $67.25 for the shocks and $26.88 for the strut mounts. I recommend going to them because they had a lifetime warranty on both parts, where others only had a 1 year warranty

Losiracer2

I can also see that if you don't use the OEM Lexus boots, it might lower the ride height by up to half an inch? Due to not having the rubber sandwiched in between the strut mount and coil spring?

bradland

Don't waste your time with the KYB boots as they will be exactly like the MOOGs on the right in my pics, There I gave away the brand name. You would however get a bumper included with them, like the white piece in the pic, which is cheaper than buying the bumper from Lexus. Stick with Lexus on this one. They aren't cheap but the difference is so obvious...

Losiracer2

I went ahead and ordered a pair of those KYB SB101 bellows, 22.99 each at Autozone but they should price match to about 12-13 bucks online.

What I'm thinking is I'll still use my Lexus insulators, but cut them right below where the accordion section begins and slide them over the KYB bellows. That way, it'll still have the upper part of the Lexus isolators (which mine appear to be in decent shape, just the accordion is ripped) to seat between the spring and strut mount, while at the same time, I'll have the KYB bellows which should hug the shock body fine and when in the installed position, will still protect the shock from any road debris that will get kicked up in the wheel well.

The Lexus insulators taper outward near the accordion section so I see no issue with doing this.

bradland

You are welcome to my Moogs if you want to cancel your order and save a little money. I need to keep the bumpers though....

Losiracer2

Thanks for the offer, but the only way to get the bumpers would be to buy that bellow kit that KYB offers. Mine are completely split in half.

I'm hoping that going exclusively with KYB everything, the fit would be good, even though searching that SB101 part number brought up many different vehicle applications. But since KYB is an OE supplier to many different car makes, they probably have a standardized shock body diameter that they use, just changing the outer mounting bosses and length of the stroke for the shocks to suit different applications.

Losiracer2

I got the shocks swapped out this afternoon and installed on the car, along with my lower control arms that I pressed a new bushing into.

I ended up using the very top part of the Lexus isolators and the KYB bumper and bellow. I cut just above the accordion section of the Lexus isolators which allowed for enough clearance for the KYB bellows.

I can tell the Lexus bumper is of much better quality than the KYB one, due to simply holding both in each hand. It's much heavier than the KYB one. It's made out of solid rubber and had a plastic reinforcement inside of it. The KYB one is made out of high density foam. I would've reused my OEM ones but the Pass side one was split in half.

The fitments of the KYB bellows sucks, but they should do their job paired with the bumper. It created a very nice seal on the shaft, so I doubt any dirt or debris will get in.

I was amazed that my 278k mile shocks were not even blown! They the shaft still went in and out of the shock just as good as the new KYB shock did with no oil leakage anywhere around the seal. The old ones had TOYOTA stamped on it. The KYB ones had about 2" more travel though.

I took it to a shop and they did all the compressing of the spring using their Branick spring compressor, both shocks for $40....A lot safer than the rented spring compressors, although the guy didn't line up the strut mount and bottom of the shock, so I ended up having to still use them to be able to rotate and align the shock to the mount. Even using my IR2131 impact and 20 gallon compressor, I wasn't able to compress them all the way, but luckily it was enough to rotate the shock for placement in the shock mount on the control arm.

But I have to say, the ride of these KYBs is very well controlled, for the short 2 mile drive I did before I get my alignment tomorrow, i can tell it completely restored the front end softness I was experiencing and the wallowing over bumps. I think a lot of that was also due to my bad LCA bushings from before, but I'm happy with how it drives now. I think it was way too soft before, it's just right now, still plenty comfortable and so quiet over bumps.

Pics:







this was pretty scary, but I had to do it to line up the shock and Strut mount

oldskewel

iTrader: (1)

Nice work. On using the spring compressor, I think if you had grabbed one more coil (i.e, the bottom one rather than the next one up) you would have not had problems compressing it. See the huge gap below (in you pic, to the right) of the spring compressor - that gap would be comparable in size to the other coil gaps and you would have not had problems.

And those compressors you've got look pretty safe and solid.

Good to hear your shocks were still good at 278k. I replaced mine around 175k, and I think one was leaking, but other than that, they seemed good. But of course by the time I had the old part in hand ...

JayPlayer

How and where did you get it priced matched at?
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