westopill

Checked there. Price is about the same as MyLParts.com. mylparts is actually about $10 cheaper. Nice to know there are other options though.

heartygrn

I just replaced the fronts with KYB and they seem good to me. It's like a different car now, no more nose dive under braking and the car is more in control. I'm at 194K. I guess anything is going to be better than struts with that kind of mileage. I replaced the front mounts with OEM but honestly my originals looked just fine to me and I would not have thought twice about re-using them if I hadn't already spent the money on new. Based on that, for the rears I'm going to just replace the struts with KYB and re-use the mounting hardware.

westopill

Should I replace the OEM coil springs that have 150,000 miles on them or is it ok to run my old springs with my new OEM struts? I'm thinking that if the springs are worn out it will wear out the new struts quicker.

430SLOwner

For what it is worth ... 87 Customer Reviews for KYB Shocks & Struts - 5 Star(68) 4 Star(12) 3 Star(2) 2 Star(3) 1 Star(2)....

430SLOwner

Maybe. If the spring is in a good shape, it can be re-used with the new strut. Please be very careful when working with the strut coil spring compressor....

Johnhav430

I wish we had more choices. Believe it or not, my wife's GM SUV has Bilstein B6's available (cost less than OE list, but B4's are more the equivalent of OE, even cheaper). Why can't Lexus have those as well?

Maybe it's me, but I've seen some really negative comments on KYB and I used them on all corners of my Nissan, terrible. All I can really go by is the warranty. It would seem any great product in this space is warranted for life (like Bilsteins).

Johnhav430

If you look at the pic, can you believe my wife's GM SUV can have that yellow product with the blue boot? Her originals leaked at only 70k.

430SLOwner

Sorry to read that and sorry for your trouble. Drove many GMs and seems like quality over past couple of decades not as good as previews century. Perhaps our government's onerous automobile regulations bear significant blame. Still waiting for the media's report of how blood-guzzling lightweight government mandated autos are resulting in the maiming and killing our country's drivers when involved in collisions....

westopill

Just ordered sport struts for the front, should be here Monday. I'll be ordering parts one by one since it'll be expensive and I'll be doing essentially a full suspension overhaul in the spring. I'll be keeping posted on here, so if you'd like to know the difference between stock 160,000 mile struts and brand new sport struts, stay tuned.

Thecar

I don't see how we can blame US regulations when Toyota and Honda follow the same regs and have much higher quality than American stuff.

SlowLS430

I put OEM Lexus sport shocks on the rear of my 2004 LS430. They appeared to be functionally identical to the shocks that came off. What came off were KYB GR-2 struts. Both the OEM rear sports struts and the KYB aftermarket units are made by KYB, although the part numbers are different.

I want to give away the KYB GR-2s I removed. These are not for sale. They are free. I just want them out of the my garage. ClubLexus rules prevent me from putting this in the Marketplace, since I don't have enough posts. So here they are, up for grabs to anyone who can use them.

They are located near Portland, OR.

Will not ship. It these are still here at the end of 2019, they go to the metal re-cycler.Angry

Priority determined by date of contact via Private Message.

Thank you.

Johnhav430

I'm a huge advocate of never using all in one replacements. walk around any tire or muffler shop, all you see is struts with coils strewn around the dumpster, taken from vehicles--all in one is a huge money maker for shops--saves valuable time not compressing the springs. Bad quality for customers.

Sorry to hear OE's are made by KYB. I have experience with Excel-G's (aka GR-2's) on my Maxima, and a disappointing one (I think OE was cost prohibitive on a 14 y.o. car back then). If not mistaken OE Nissan back then was Tokico, and the KYBs were not good. So disappointing that Bilstein makes B4 and B6's for non German cars including GM, but they don't make anything for our LS430s. One never knows maybe OE Lexus is held to a higher standard and they are not simply aftermarket KYBs. But I had a similar experience using genuine Nissan rotors in Nissan boxes, they were not the same as what came off the car. Made in USA and rusted badly, unlike the originals. Hard to comparison shop with Japanese cars, where European it's 100% transparent. On this car, if we replace with OE and something is not right, then chalk it up to the supplier on an old car, but I would NOT think so. Aftermarket anything is possible, trial/error. my bet on the LS is OE.

edit As always YMMV. Often aftermarket is good with Japanese, like the Centric rotors, Aisin timing belt kits, it's all over the place. My wife's Bilstein B6's barely cost more than online Genuine GM, which leak in as little as 50-70k (why do the job over and over?), like $116 and $87, F/R respectively, and lifetime guarantee. I am going to buy new coils @ $52 each so I can assemble off of the car. I also plan on getting an adjustable wrench type torque wrench used in hvac, because the top nut cannot be tightened from above, must use a 22mm with hex end and have a 9mm socket going through it to hold the piston

ONashir

I did mine with kyb $360 get the boots and bumpers
I have no issues so far 20 k

CA2WALS430

I replaced my 2 fronts on my 04 2 years when one had been leaking for a bit. I think at the time I ordered them from MyLparts, and the dealer here in Salt Lake City did the labor. Fast forward 2 years to Tuesday morning backing out of my garage and I said "what's that?!?" looking at a new little sludge pile under where the rear wheel was. It exploded! Service advisor said he has only seen 2 cars in 10 years have a strut actually blow, but he showed me the pics from the bay of my drenched strut. Needless to say, lot going on in life right now and I need to travel with the car for Thanksgiving so I said go ahead. Let's not even talk what 2 struts are at a dealer these days. I can't complain much, original strut is almost 20 years old and there are some brutal roads here in SLC.

I am still a believer in OE vs. OEM. I authored a thread about it a while back. Just because KYB is the OEM for the original strut does not automatically mean the aftermarket KYB is the same strut. 4 of the cars I have owned including my old Honda Accord had amazing original struts on them, lasting longer than any after market story I have heard. I am kind of convinced on OE for those things, so whether Bell, MyLparts, or just getting reemed at the dealer, I think it is worth it. At least they were able to give $100 off, so the 2 struts are now only $110 more than Bell was charging.

Generally speaking though, struts usually degrade gradually so even if not leaking they are not as robust but you just don't notice it. I am one who just keeps driving if they aren't obviously shot, but I could see the argument of just doing it, knowing they've outlived their expectancy. Anyway, looking forward to getting the car back tonight.

CA2WALS430

Well, relationships with dealerships can have their reward. I picked up the car and was startled with another 10% discount that appeared since yesterday. Still expensive but now more worth it; now the price it would have been if I bought from Bell. I will of course give Bell business next time, but I ordered a bunch of stuff from them just recently, so everybody's happy. Car feels good of course, and assurance is restored.