Zereldo

Its safe to assume that fluidfilm (sticky oil) may be mistaken for hydraulic fluid (sticky fluid). I'm leaning towards leaky strut nonetheless.

Car does not bottom out over bumps, it's just a touch too bouncy. The car currently has a set of winter tires on 16 inch wheels, so that may be a contributing factor. The other two cars I have (XJ and M550i) are stiff riding vehicles with 20 inch wheels and low profile tires so my assessment may not be correct.

I will be wiping off the fluid film and monitor the struts for a week to find any leak. Based on my understanding, the first tell tale sign is an obvious leak from the struts, second would be a clinkig noise (not present in my case). The mechanic asked me to compress the struts by pressing down on the trunk deck lid and the should bounce once and a rebound but no more than that. Given it keeps rebounding, that will indicate it's a bad strut.

w84me

as far as I know, a clinking noise is from bad strut mounts, usually the fronts. ES350 definitely a bouncy, soft riding, less road feel that an M550i. I have an E60 with sport pak. not sure if one can press down on struts far enough to detect bounce, coil springs may be too strong. a speed bump will give you a bounce that should recover quick, if it bounced up and down a few times after going over the bump, they are probably bad.

Hayk

iTrader: (1)

Good advice all around I would only caution against eBay. Lots of counterfeit sales going on at places like eBay and Amazon with genuine looking boxes and markings. Unless you can verify the seller is an official Lexus dealer, I would search on parts.lexus.com for the best price.

Zereldo

Update! Albeit a late one.

I confirmed the fluid around the struts and suspension components was fluidfilm (rust preventing oil), not hydraulic fluid. I still feel the car is a tad too bouncy but as mentioned above, the car Is riding on 16 inch wheels.

Now that I know what the struts cost and basic difference b/w oem and aftermarket. I will set a budget for it in preparation for when the struts do need replacing. I do hear occasional clicking sound from the front when backing out from my driveway (it's quite steep). I assumed the sound was a result of chassis flexing when the rear is on the road and front on the driveway still.