I took my 2008 IS250 in to get an oil change a month or so ago and the technicians noted that all 4 shocks were leaking quite a bit of oil. The car has 88k miles. The service advisor passed this along and also mentioned that the techs had reported the same thing back in December of 2017. I didn't remember that, but I dug through my service receipts and sure enough that note was there. I asked the advisor for a quote and he said it was about $2k to replace all 4 and it would take about a day.

I ended up passing on the work and started calling around to some independent shops in town because I figured most other places could do it cheaper than Lexus, right? The first guy I called quoted me about the same at $1900 but said that he would have to take a look at the car and that it might be closer to $1700. I'm currently waiting on a quote from a Toyota dealership but I don't have much hope.

I really don't think the car rides or handles all that differently, but it's hard to say because I drive it daily and I don't know if I would pick up on little changes over a long time. I do notice that if I slam one of the back doors too hard, I can hear a squeak. Is that a sign of a worn out shock, and are there any other telltale signs?

To throw a wrench into this scenario, I'll probably be selling the car in a year so I don't want to sink a ton of money into it now unless it's absolutely necessary. But I also don't want to give the car away because it has "issues" or needs repairs.

I've searched a few other posts on here and I know $2k is a lot for this type of work so I'm going to keep calling around to other shops. My husband is probably handy enough to do this work himself (he's done some work on my car) but he's swamped with work and we have 2 kids that he'd rather hang out with on the weekend.

Thanks!

 

2k is way over the top and the other prices you've listed are not worth it either. If you are planning on selling the car and don't want to sink money into it, get a set of KYB shocks. That will save you a lot compared to OEM. My advice to you is save $1500 by having your husband do the work himself. I recently did my shocks and its not all that difficult. For the front, id advise you to get a ball joint remover tool. Auto parts stores sell them they're under 20 bucks. Use it to disconnect the upper balljoint. Once thats out of the way, its very simple. place a jack under the lower control arm, disconnect the sway bar link, remove the top 3 nuts and then the lower bolt holding the shock and its out. For the rear, you won't need the ball joint remover. there are threads you can look at, its not all that hard especially if you have a battery powered impact wrench. i say give it a shot!

 

If you plan on selling the car in a year or two, you can buy a set of used struts from ebay for around $300. They will be the complete strut and spring assembly. Much easier to replace. With new struts you have to remove the spring from the old strut and put it on the new strut. There is a risk of serious injury doing this because the springs are preloaded on the strut. You need to use a spring compression tool to relieve the tension on the assembly to disassmble. It's not hard but any mishap and the spring can decompress rapidly causing serious injury or death. With used strut assemblies it's just a simple matter of lifting the car, pulling the old ones out and putting the new ones in.

 

 

H&R are progressive springs, they won't give you comfortable ride, if you're looking for comfort buy Swift springs which are linear.

https://www.clublexus.com/forums/sus...comfort-2.html

 

You can try KYB, i know they are the OEM supplier for toyota/lexus. they in fact make shocks for the 2/3GS. As far as h&r springs, i have no experience with them. I would consider swift since they are linear but the rear sits lower than the front and i'm not a fan of that.