Chilliwack BC......about 45 minutes East of Vancouver. Kal Tire. Any shop will do it though. A few members have done this DIY. I chose not to, but normally would have.

 

I replaced the front with KYB from Rockauto... $100 each. One of them was leaking. One of the lower control arms bushing was bad. So I replaced the controlarms bushings and swaybar bushings with polyurethane bushings. My wife said she didn't notice any difference. I think it corners better.

 

That should be no surprise, since our cars are installed with KYB's at the factory.

 

Just wanted to pass on what KYB says about the difference between the OEM KYB's and the Gas-a-just KYB's for our car:

Our 551122 Gas-a-Just strut has a 10-15% increase in damping vs. the OE Lexus strut.

Regards,

Technical Support

KYB Americas Corporation

I tried some eBay aftermarket struts for my LS and the fronts were HORRIBLE.... the rears from same supplier are fine. Supplier refunded money NO questions asked when I told them how they were unable to keep the wheel in contact with the pavement over fairly sharp and closely spaced bumps in the road. BTW, OEM appear to be a single tube, whereas the aftermarker cheapos were monotube. If you dont know the difference then spend some time reading up.

 

 

They are the same thing. And for what it's worth, monotube is better than twin tube and is usually what is offered as a performance upgrade.

 

Roadfrog - yep , you got me. I went back and read my response........meant to say the OEM are monotube and the cheapos from eBay were twintube. Yes, monotube better for most applications, but not all.

 

Yeah, the sway bar links were the only hindrance for me when changing the struts. I bought new ones since they are short money. They usually require vice grips to prevent them from spinning since the hex hole easily strips. Once they are off they're too beat up for me to reuse. You can drive without them on if you order them online. They are higher price at local pars store if you can't wait

 

UPDATE: Just had a local NTB install the front quick struts I picked up on ebay (Unity brand 170 shipped) for me. Huge improvement. Cost was reasonable (350 out the door with a discount). Pep boys wanted 650 just to install! Toyota dealer wanted 1100 if they supplied parts. I have a 5 year unlimited alignment plan with NTB so they did that free. Still have a bit of vibration over bumps on the seat and floor so my hunch is, you guessed it, rear struts. So that will be next. Pushing down on front fenders was like a trampoline before, now its like a rock. I kept the old struts just in case there are any issues.

After my attempted strut job last weekend I was getting a scraping noise when going around corners. It was the shield behind the rotor that was bent where I had been jacking it up. Easy fix to bend it back with pliers and no more noise. So that was my garage win of the week. Thanks to everyone who responded.

 

UPDATE: Getting a clunk when turning in the front end. Could a strut have failed already? Bad sway bar end links? Have appointment wednesday for shop to replace rear struts, using their supplied parts for quote of 350 to 400. Can't beat that. Will have them check the fronts too.

 

WOW, that's a steal. For my Camry, I paid $120 or so just for ONE. It's the Monroe all in one strut. I don't really like them. The front struts sit alot higher than the back. I am sure other brand are better than Monroe. Later,one person suggested me KYB.

 

 

 

Update: had them take off the front ebay cheapo complete strut assemblies I bought which were horrible. Luckily i saved the old oem strut assemblies. Got KYB gas a just installed on all 4 corners. Shipping the ebays back to seller for refund. Ride is amazing now. Hugs the road.

 

Like they say, you get what you pay for. That doesn't always apply but I'm sorry that in your case it did. I learned from modding my 2GS to just pay more upfront and do things right rather than trying to save a little money with inferior parts.