My parents just acquired a "new" LS430, a 1-owner cream puff. The car is in great shape for its age, but it needs hood shocks. I've read the Strong Arm aftermarket ones seem to work well and are a good deal cheaper than the OEM KYB/Tokico shocks. However, I had aftermarket hood shocks on my old 400 and it bowed the hood about 1/8-1/4" of an inch - it's a known issue with aftermarket shocks on the UCF10/20 cars. Do the Strong Arm shocks allow the hood to close flush?

 

I have used them with no problem.

 

I used Monroe from rockauto. Unless I missed something, I could not separate the ball studs on the original Tokicos, so I had to remove them, and wrench new ones in...it was a pita for some reason. I think on my Maxima, the struts popped off the ball studs. Kinda like the trunk where they are built in, the struts pop off.

 

I just did this replacement on my 2005 LS430 and I used OEM parts and it was a very easy job. The interesting thing was my old parts were both the same number. My new parts from MyLparts.com were 2 different part numbers. The only tools needed was a wrench (12M?) and something to prop the hood up. My pistons were so bad the hood would not stay up by it self. It took me about 20 minutes max.

 

I purchased 3rd party replacement hood shocks on ebay for about $35 a couple of years ago. No need to pay big $ for OEM hood shocks on the LS430. Took 5 minutes to install and they work great.

 

I got strongarm struts on Amazon.com for about $40.00. I don't see any issues with hood alignment. The new redesigned "ball joint adapters" have spacer inbuilt for hood-side, and screw length is shorter on hood than fender. This was a complain for strong-arm before. Long length screw causes hood to misalign.

 

StrongArms work great. No problems.

 

My hunch is the OEM will last multiples of aftermarket. I base this on experience with my Maxima and using $15 struts as replacements, and doing them over and over. If my $15 monroes go quickly, maybe I'll spring for OEM...but as mentioned, it appears to me that OEM does not separate from the ball studs, and when I put new ones in, I had a hard time lining the aftermarkets up, so I had to install the ball studs to the hood and fender still attached to the new struts...

 

Bought all 4 from Amazon. Trunk install time was only about 5 mn. Have yet to install the hood shocks yet. At least the trunk opens now.
Hood still stays up if its warm enough.

 

Strong arms work great- do hood and trunk at the same time. Watch the youtube, there are a couple specific wrenches you'll need ;-)

Also the clips get wonky if they roll to one side, so get a tiny screwdriver to pull them back juuuust enough to allow the joint to seat.

 

Mine went in about 5 minutes, I got them on Amazon. No issues with alignment. Just make sure to do them one at a time and have something holding up the hood.

I really can't make a good case for the OEM as it seems like even the factory ones go out after like 5 years, I've had to replace them on 3 different Lexus.

 

Just a note to encourage everyone to test their hood struts periodically because if the struts are weak the hood can come down unexpectedly with a lot force and could cause serious injury to a hand (or head) that is in its path.
I had my hood up working on the car and hung a very lightweight led shop light from the top hood latch. About a minute later the hood slammed down from fully open position with a lot of force. Luckily I had stepped away when it happened. My struts were about 8-9 years old at the time and had weakened to the point where they were barely capable of holding the hood up but I had not noticed.

 

I should have put one and one together.....I first lifted the hood of the LS prior to test drive, and it quickly slammed shut. Not a huge deal, 2x$15, but next time, I plan on nickel and diming the dealer if I get a used LS from a new car dealer. I have no shame when it comes to this, they nickel and dime buyers, seriously. (when I got there the a week later to take delivery, the salesman forgot about the NYS inspection, and a $12.50 in transit permit, so the finance manager asked me to pay another $49.50 on my credit card, told me my cashier's check was short by that amount [in a work situation I'd say no, that's your error or cancel]) We're better equipped to work things into the deal when we don't have to have it, but with this car, we drove 3+ hours to get there....live and learn!

 

Anyone else have issues separating the ball and nut from the factory shocks? I ordered new shocks via Amazon and they have the normal quick release tabs on them, but did not come with new ball/ nut pieces. How do you separate the ball/ nut from factory shocks?

 

Summary: I don't believe they can be separated, and also, you can't use the washers off the old ones, and my new ones didn't come with any.

Interesting, I did experience the same. That's why I used the ones that came with the Monroe aftermarkets, and it was a PITA to install.

Why pita, well, if I only installed the ball studs, it was very difficult to line up the strut properly to pop it on. So I had to get the hood propped properly, and tighten the ball studs in, while already attached to the new struts. It sounds pretty ridiculous I know, but I had a hard time on the hood. The trunk took all of 90 secs.

I see your dilemma, the replacements did not come with them...I'd say return them....now the trunk will not have them and that's fine. Maybe if amazon, yours were returned, and the person who got them forgot to include the bag with the parts...