I took my Ls430 to Lexus today and they told me that i needed a new strut in the front and in the rear. They said they wanted to replace all four struts at this time. Any idea on why so much? he said they were Gas struts. Should i buy some aftermarket ones? and if so which ones? also would anyone here let someone other than Lexus do the work?


Thanks

 

how many miles on your LS? If it's over 100K, I would say consider changing all four. If less, then just change a pair, like you do with brake pads. It's a tough call because the dealership will always want to repair all four, so that they are "the same" and all four wheels are equally suspended. If you changed single, or in pairs, there is always chance that the other two are not up to "par" and that one or the other might break soon too.

As for OEM or aftermarket, the suspension (non-air) is pretty straight-forward and any aftermarket place can replace the parts, but how well those parts are could be suspect. If you have a neighborhood shop that you're familiar with and have good relations with, then you can save some money by giving them a try.

For me, I took my RX300 into the dealership for a noise in the rear and it ended up being that the rear shock (or struct, whatever is back there) was starting to leak, and so they suggested that I replace all four for a "good deal" of somewhere near $1800. WOW, that's a deal all right...

 

My LS 430 has 94K and recently I noticed a dull annoying persistent noise coming from the driver side rear of the vehicle. I took the car into Lexus and not only did they diagnose the problem as being a bad strut but also wanted to do the 90k maintenance at the same time. The estimate didn't surprise me much because this is the 4th Lexus I've owned but I was happy, non the less, that I was sitting when I saw it. For nearly $3000.00 I could get the maintenance done and have the rear shocks replaced. Decided to have my good ole reliable neighborhood shop take on the task for about $1500.00 total. OH, and that includes 4 new tires, (Tire Rack).

 

My ls has almost 170k and does seem the car is getting a bit wallowy. How many choices are there for regular not gas struts all around? I saw KYB, Monroe?

 

Non adjustable air shocks I meant

 

Order the struts from Sewell online at a discount . Then shop around via phone for lowest labor quote at local Lexus and Toyota shops for the installation work. The service managers will definitely compete for the services business but only if you let them know that you are shopping around lowest quote or else you will just get the standard high rate quote.

 

I prefer to use a local shop that specializes in suspension work for this sort of job. IMO they are much better at diagnosing and repairing suspension problems than even the dealer since this is all they do. If there is no reputable suspension shop in your area, then I'd go to the dealer.