Hey everyone I'm pretty new to the Lexus club I bought a 2000 Lexus ES300 and all honesty I want to rebuild the car part by part to the originality of the car when it came off the show room floor type style with some updated upgrades for this Lexus. with that being said I've ran into a confusing issue and can't tell what this front bar is that snap the other night after spinning out the car to avoid hitting a deer or anything else for that matter I'm trying to identify what this part is along with its part number is anyone know what it is I'd be very thankful again! cause the dealership at Toyota says its a sway bar another shop is saying its a ball joint arm I just want to get the right part and replace it properly and with the best part to replace it with along with any other suggestions PS never rebuilt a car before but want to so this is the car I'm choosing to do it on LOL.

I Took 2 Photos To Try To Help Hopefully Someone Can Help Me.

The Bad Side Is The Passenger Side Front

 

Sway bar. You can see on the good side the sway bar link that connects to the strut. Odd thing to break I've never seen that outside of rust issues. 48811-33080 is surprisingly only $100 at a dealer.

 

Yeah The Deer Was Standing In The Road & I Went Hard Right & Then Hard Left Which Caused Me To Spin The Car 360 Backwards I let off the gas and brakes by the time I was Backwards LOL but heard A Snap Sound When I Turned Hard Right When I Bought This Car It Had 175K miles On It Bought It With A Check Engine Light On And Noticed some repairs that had be done to the passenger side front fender since it doesn't line up with the door / body damage where looked like a possibly small hit before I bought the car did an overall inspection of the car before I bought it they want it 5k Used dealer in NC and has a vacuum leak on it but I wasn't too worried about that part since I was going to be rebuilding the car one part at a time.

The car has 178K on it now and it is a 24 year old car the farthest backwards I can see for the maintenance log from the original owner stops on the 37K marker which is when the tittle is changed which goes to the 2nd owner after that no other records can be found anywhere for this car.

however I'm fixing the problems with in my downtime to say since this is my 2nd car.

and I'm now the 3rd owner but I know Lexus / Toyotas are built to last. I'm working on this car since, this car will most likely out last most cars current today.

But thanks!

 

Do you know what are good options for rebuilding the suspension front wise since I'm starting front to back, and should I go all OE parts or can I go with other more quality and efficient parts brands? LeX2K

 

Buy as many OEM parts as you can afford, I'd go OEM on the sway bar links aftermarket here is terrible. Check amayama.com often parts are cheaper even with shipping from Japan. Useful site for looking up part numbers
https://www.japan-parts.eu/