My 2001 LS with 157,000 miles had the front struts replaced at approximately 125,000 miles. My rear struts are original and ARE NOT LEAKING and are performing fine. However, they have started to creak as I go over speed bumps and road irregularities. I'm ok for now, but am wondering how long before they may start showing signs of dampening failure or possible leakage. I've heard of owners with hundreds of thousands of miles with original rear struts. I know replacement is not as easy as the fronts ( I assume rear seat must come out) and I am willing to give it to my Indy. Should $1,000 cover the cost including OEM struts and is an alignment necessary after installing the struts? Thanks all.

 

I guarantee with that mileage you already have dampening failure to some extent. You just haven't noticed it yet because it is a progressive decay. $1000 should be more than enough for OEM struts and install. An alignment is recommended because you will change the ride height and rear camber.

 

Are your rear sway bar bushings original? You might try replacing them to see if the creaking disappears. If so you avoid, for now, the more complex and costly strut replacement. If not they could prob stand to be replaced anyway. Rear strut replacement is not too difficult for anyone with a little experience and of course the right tools.

 

The only creaking I observed is on the driver side rear when pushing down. Although dampening might be diminished, there are no signs. When pushing down, comes right up, no bouncing. Of course, when I decide on replacing, I'll be doing both struts. I am planning within the next month, on replacing rear rotors, pads, and front pads. I assume the removal of the rear rotors will not affect much labor if I do both jobs at once. After the holidays, I'll take my car to my Indy to investigate further. I looked today, and there is no visible leakage from struts. Thanks everyone for the feedback. To be continued.

 

Could be one of the bolts for the suspension bushings need to be retorqued. The metal bushing sleeve could be twisting instead of bushing causing the noise.

 

Before you throw $1000 into possibly normally functioning struts, pls do a diagnostic to confirm that the creaking sound, as said above, is not coming from either bushings or sway bar area. Consider retorquing suspension, including the subframe bolts.

Somewhere I posted the lexus diagram which shows that even if OEM struts are slightly leaking, they are still totally fine unless the internal damage took place.

 

. If the only symptom currently is creaking struts that are performing otherwise as they should, they will not be replaced unless there are definite evident failures. I can deal with creaking. Updates will occur as necessary.