Ok, even though my wife said her RX drives fine, I am replacing the front struts anyway. Hey, need to do it sooner or later.

Got my KYB struts. They were made in Japan and look to be excellent quality in terms of fit and finish.

On a separate order, got my KYB strut mounts - what a mess! One was made in China. It looks good, just like OEM with orientation arrows and "L" stamped for left side. Bearing is Koyo, identical to what came from factory. Only problem was no new mounting nuts and bearing grease was on the bottom of the mount indicating someone had removed the bearing from its plastic bag and was checking out the fit. In fairness to KYB, this may be a restocking issue.

The other mount was made in India. This mount looks entirely different and of inferior quality. No orientation arrows and no indication of which side. More concerning was the bearing which was unbranded and was quite inferior looking compared to the Koyo. The bearing races were separated and ball bearings were scattered all over the box. Again, the separated bearing could be a restocking issue, but I would not put the made in India mount & bearing on my car, period.

I decided to buy Toyota strut mounts and bearings from Toyotapartsales.com. They have the best prices I can find plus have a 10% off coupon. I would use KYB if I could get the ones made in China, but I can only get them on-line and don't know what I bought until they are delivered. My local parts store stocks KYB mounts but they are made in India.

 

I'm making this a second post for those who already read the first one and may not see an edit.

I found another parts store which had two KYB mounts Made in China. I checked them out. First box was 100%. All parts there and wrapped in plastic. Bearing was Koyo OEM. Second box, not so good. Bearing was unwrapped and it was unbranded looking different and inferior to Koyo.

KYB USA responded to my e-mail. They told me that they accept annual returns from all their distributors. Unfortunately, non-KYB parts are "sometimes" placed in KYB boxes and returned for this annual credit. KYB does not quality check every returned box but they do re-distribute every returned box.

My conclusion: Ok to buy KYB struts but fork out the extra bucks to buy Toyota strut mounts and bearings.

 

Thanks Art for the follow-up. I realize IT IS POSSIBLE, but have a very hard time KYB would package anything with inferior Indian made bearings and parts. What do those Indians know about making bearings, why they seldom even come out of their tee-pee's LOL! Shame on KYB for not being more heads up on something like that, can leave a bad taste in a hurry that would be hard to erase.