Found leaking strut on rear driver side, and 2 corroded exhaust hangers. Fixed the hangers.

Replacing the strut and coil is out of my wheelhouse, need to find someone to do it.

 

A little update...

The new rear "quick struts" I purchased from AM-Auto Parts (1A Auto - same company, apparently, as 1A Auto was listed as the sender on UPS tracking) on eBay arrived on Thursday. A friend of mine who works at a Sears Auto Center hooked me up for installation yesterday, so I took it in.

I assured him they should be a fairly easy installation based on everything I've seen online, so he said he could do it for $10 per side, as long as it truly was easy.

Mid-way through, he sent a text stating how easy the job was going. He was shocked, being it's a Lexus, as everyone there said there was no way it would be easy. Bonus points for recently replacing the sway bar links and using anti-sieze.

He was able to give me the "fleet pricing" for an alignment, so I jumped on it, as it was needed.

When he drove it around the building from the service bay to the alignment bay, he said he heard some loud noises coming from the rear. Thinking the new struts didn't fix the problem I've been battling, and leaning towards the last item that wasn't replaced (axle carrier bushing), I was a little disgusted. When it was on the alignment lift, he and another guy were pulling, pushing and jerking everything possible in the rear suspension in an attempt to find the noise. Oddly, the noise was coming from the left side... I kept thinking to myself that the noise I had been hearing had to be on the right side, but there is this crazy monster known as sound transference, so I went with it. Finally, he said to hold off on the alignment, and take it for a ride to confirm the noise.

As soon as we hit an irregularity on the pavement, my heart sunk... the rattling/banging noise was atrocious! It sounded and felt like the strut was going to blow through the body, and it was definitely on the left side. Meanwhile, I couldn't really hear anything from the right side anymore. My first thought was that new strut was defective. We decided to swap it back out for the old strut, since there were no noises from that one, until I get a replacement from AM Auto. Back into the service bay...

We decided to keep poking and prodding one last time before the swap. He was underneath, and I was at the wheel. I kept pulling from the top as he checked around. I noticed the strut was moving a tiny bit as I pulled out on the top of the wheel, leading us to believe there was an internal failure with the new strut. As he was taking everything apart again for removal, a revelation hit me... check the nut that holds the strut into the strut mount. When he pulled it out, he started checking for any play in the mount with a little pry bar. There was a little movement. I told him to try tightening the bolt with the air gun. He did. The nut went down about 1/4" more. He checked the nut on top of the other side by looking through the access holes. They now looked even. We never thought to check them before installation. He re-installed the new strut. We pulled on the wheel, no movement or noise. He drove it back around to the alignment bay. When the door opened, he gave me two thumbs up. He did the alignment, I paid, and drove away.

Total cost for the struts, installation and alignment: $219.91
Struts: 164.16
Installation: $20
Alignment: $49.50
Sears points redeemed: $16.91
Tax: $3.16

There are a couple takeaways to this story:
1) If you buy quick struts, make sure the top nut is tight before installation.
2) If you've replaced/checked/tightened everything except the rear struts while trying to tackle rear end noises, it could be a loose nut on the strut. Maybe that's what the problem was this whole time, to a lesser degree, but at least one strut was showing signs of failure. They were due anyways with 135,000 PA pothole miles on them.

The noises are about 99% gone. I still get a little noise over some bumps, but it's nowhere near what it was. Maybe the nut on top of the other strut could use a little more torque, or maybe there's still something contributing. At this point, I'll take it. It's miles better than before.

I'm going to contact the seller to let them know what we discovered. Maybe it'll help them to make sure the quality check is a little more thorough before shipping.

 

Great to hear you only needed to pull out a couple of $100. Bills & some change from your wallet RedGemini , excellent pricing for what you accomplished in repairs.
Pot holes are killers in Spring, I hear a light thud noise from what think is from the rear passenger side or it could be noise from the tailgate.
No leaks for the struts although 137,000 miles later, they may need some attention eventually.
Which brand name of struts did you purchase

 

Yeah. I'm happy about the price, as money is really tight until I finish school in May. The brand is listed as "AM Autoparts," so nothing special. Neither of mine were leaking, either. Carfax shows the fronts were replaced about 60k miles ago, so I'm not in a hurry to do those. As long as these hold up decent for the foreseeable future, I'll probably get them from AM-Auto again. With a 10 year warranty, I'll take my chances on them. I've dealt with AM before, and their service is good.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/131919190366...%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

 

Definitely not your average problem. Congrats on finding it.

 

Great deal, even with the Canadian dollar exchange, although unfortunately does not ship to Canada.
I imagine the shipping cost must be a factor, when the time comes most likely I will have to find a supplier in Canada.
Struts (nothing urgent) will have to get to the back of the line with some other future repairs/ maintenance required.

 

After a little more driving with them, I think they're showing their cost. They're not terrible, don't get me wrong, but you can tell they aren't top shelf. They're a little noisy. Still nothing near as noisy as before, but they're anything but quiet over bumps. I'm not sure if there could be something else making noise that I didn't hear over the other noises, though. Maybe there's still a bushing on its way out. Maybe the spare tire needs tightened even more. Who knows? The mechanics were primarily using the spare to grab onto for bouncing it on the lift, so maybe it worked a little loose.

I'd even say they're a little on the firm side, which isn't terrible, but maybe that's contributing to some added noise. I'll also hold off until we get some warmer weather to see how they seem. It's been well under freezing here the past couple days (mostly 20º F +/-), and some of that could be adding to it. Maybe they need some time to break in... I don't know.

BUT... for the price I paid, I'm not going to complain too much. It was cheap enough, and it's much better than it was.

Now to find a way to get these da*n headlights to stop building up moisture... grrrrr! This is my 43rd vehicle, and I've NEVER had an issue with moisture/water in any of the lights. This will have to be a warm-weather weekend project, if I ever get the time...

 

43rd vehicle? Wow - how long do you keep a car? How old/rich are you? I'm kinda jealous.

 

Check this out. There is a website named rockauto.com that will ship to Canada as well as other countries. In the top left corner use the pull down menu to select Canada for pricing. I looked up the strut assemblies for my 07 and they only had the brand FCS, which I have never heard of. I have used this website for many parts and have never been disappointed.

 

I've been buying and selling/trading cars since the first car I bought when I was 17, nearly 22 years ago. I usually keep a car 6 months to a year, sometimes longer, sometimes shorter. I often have 2 cars at a time. I'm planning to keep the RX and my Kizashi for a while. We've had the Kiz for over a year, and no immediate plans to let go of it anytime soon. Depending on how the RX treats me will determine how long I keep it, but I'm planning to keep it at least 2 years, or much longer, as it's ideally the perfect vehicle for me and my needs. I might have to start checking into details of my warranty on the RX, as a transmission might be in the future, and I'd rather catch it while I have some warranty left, of course.

 

Have dealt with Rockauto in the past, purchased several parts for my previous vehicle, a 05 Equinox. They are a reputable outfit with competitive pricing including shipping to Canada.
When the time comes, they may be my best option. Although at times a large outfit here has a buy one, get the second at half price.
Depending on the brand offered & price, it could be worth comparing to Rockauto.

 

Same here, although no where near 43 vehicles.
As there is a mandatory annual vehicle inspection before registration of a vehicle here.
An inspected vehicle puts the price up & most consumers here look for that, than "as is" vehicles. Naturally I look for "as is", to save $$$$.
Last year I purchased a Astro cargo van only to haul 500 books (I'm a professional photographer/ self publisher) as it was less expensive to purchase the van, inspect it & get the books myself than have the books delivered.
Kept the cargo van 2 months (it was a terrible family vehicle), saved $2,000. on delivery charges & actually made $700. profit when I resold the van with an inspection after repairing several issues on my own.
Then owned a 05 Equinox for about a year which also turned out to be profitable when sold. Then the RX came up for about $2,400. US, I jumped on it that same day. $150. later, the RX was inspected & plated.
Now the RX certainly meets my needs, hopefully for as many years as possible to come.

 

I believe I read in another update post you were not 100% satisfied with this setup...
I first noticed some cupping wear for the rear passenger side on the all season tires from the previous owner. I installed some used very inexpensive winter tires when I purchased the RX for the Safety Inspection knowing they will be only used for one winter.
Appears as I have some pronounced cupping wear (photo) on the rear passenger side winter tire which translates to a weak strut that needs to be replaced. Due to your experience, I will go with replacing the rear Struts only, than going for Quick Struts. I will have to do that before purchasing 2 new all season tires. Sigh....it never ends, more $$$. Hopefully I can find Struts & Tires on sale here, although Struts I can get shipped. Thinking going with Monroe Struts as it seems some CL members were posting KYBs offer a rough ride. The 2 Tires I will have to stick with Michelin for matching.

 

The seller sent me 2 more struts for free after I complained about them. I haven't installed them yet, but did notice they're a different brand than the first set. They could be better. I'm hoping to get them swapped out this week.

As for tires, just make sure you match the tread depth. I'm not sure how sensitive Toyotas are, but mismatched tires and AWD is a bad combo in general. I know Subarus are tight for tolerances. As little as 3/32 can cause torque bind.

 

Actually the used winter tires were fine for even wear all around before installing them, but definitely of the never heard of the brand cheapo variety.
Still, the Michelin tire on the same side had the same wear pattern before the winter ones.
Now minus the Tailgate Glass I could hear a more pronounced noise from the Passenger rear, plus doubtful the struts were ever changed on the RX, now reaching 138,000 miles.
Timing Belt & more wasn't done either.
The front tires are fine as the driver side rear tire.
What brand of Quick Struts did you purchase first & now what brand for the replacements