At 120,000 miles one rear shock is leaking a bit. I have 18" wheels and would happily give up a bit of performance for a better ride. Since I got the car at nearly 120K, I don't know if the ride now is normal or if my shocks are really bad and stock would be great.

My mechanic says all he can get are KYB shocks for my car. Tirerack seems to show that as well. Would that work, or should I get something different to either install myself or have the shop install?

 

If just going with shocks, go with Koni or F-sport (Bilstien) shocks.

 

Choices so far:
Tirerack.com shows only the KYB Gas-A-Just Shocks for $90 each. Sewell shows 2008 IS350 OEM Replacement Lexus shocks for $170.80 each. Shocks.com shows the KYB Gas-A-Just Struts for $81 each and says those are the OEM recommended replacements.

It's odd that the terms keep changing between sites from shocks to struts.

My mechanic quoted replacement of all four shocks/struts with the KYBs for $1280. That's $900+ labor. Are these really hard to replace?

 

They are not that hard to replace. Any qualified person can swap out all 4 in 2-3 hours. It took me 3 hours to install my coils with a floor jack in my garage with never having done it before.

As for shock choices KYB's generally tend to be very low end replacements. If you don't care about performance they will probably be fine but probably won't last as long as the OEM's. I would agree with Gville350 in his recommendations.

 

According to threads on this forum, F-Sport (Bilstien) shocks are unavailable. Sewells shows them discontinued. Does you know of a Bilstien model equivalent?

 

^Interesting, never had to look before...but sure enough, not available for purchase from Sewell.

Anyhow, using Sewell's install instructions I pulled the following P/Ns on there for the shocks and what are probably shock accessories that come in the boxes. Try searching Google for the P/Ns to source the shocks. I found two sites right off the bat that DO offer PTR13-53080 for sale.

Part Number:
PTR13-53080
PTR13-53081
PTR13-53093
PTR13-53094
PTR13-53082
PTR13-53092
PTR13-53095

 

Awesome! Good Thinking! I will check it out and post what I find. Thanx