Stu

I want 4 new shocks on my LS. They are 10 years old, have 130,000 miles and the car's ride is not what is was when I got it 5 years ago. I drive on lousy city roads and want to resore the butter smooth ride !!!

Whats a fair price for this, parts and labor ? I don't want to get cheated.

Secondly, can the car be lowered an inch easily with some aftermarket shocks that are similar in ride quality to the OEM shocks, or will I need new springs too ?

Thanks

Lavrishevo

iTrader: (1)

Your looking at around $100 each for the shocks and $400 or so for the labor. RockAuto has good deals on KYB shocks. I would not personally go with with anything else but KYB as they are the OEM manufacturer.

Are you sure the shocks are the problem? Does the car dip when braking? Can you rock the suspension with your body weight? If not, then most likely your shocks are not bad and you should look at your lower arms, maybe ball joints, inner and our tie rod ends, etc.

Jabberwock

Lowering the car requires change of springs or installing coil overs (shocks with built in springs). Springs are what hold the car up off the frame mounts and generally determine ride height/stance. Shocks function primarily to dampen the motion of the springs. Coil overs are integrated spring/shock units that are typically highly adjustable and relatively expensive upgrade. Springs to lower the car are relatively inexpensive but may result in a harsher ride due to shorter, likely stouter spring.

Bocatrip

I recently had my front 2 shocks replaced at Lexus. The ride was fine, but I was having a really annoying noise coming from the front end that was not easy to diagnose. I finally brought it to Lexus for their $99 diagnose charge which is then credited if the repair is done by them. It turned out to be one of the front struts and I let them do it. It cost me a total of $725 (which is pricey) but the car is quiet as could be as well as riding somewhat better. My rear shocks are fine. I did not replace the springs or the shock towers.

semar

If you had the shocks replaced at Lexus - why did they not correct the fault?
I would have taken the car back and told them to fix it.
Unless you brought them your own shocks, then you are stuck with the extra cost.
You are lucky that they accept your shocks and work on your car at all.
Here they send you away, dont even want to talk to you

Legender

That is a good price from Lexus... I had my front shocks replaced at Davenport here in the DFW area and IIRC it was closer to $900... you got a great deal on those. That was on my 2004 LS. It did fix the noise problem I had as the one strut was leaking fluid and was only acting as a dead weight.