Bmore430

Strong arm brand struts are cheap and available online through amazon and eBay. used them on my 2005. work great and a few minutes to install.

Mark levinson or base System? Try pulling stereo fuses and disconnect battery to reset the system? The factory amp is a problem area to check into

I use royal purple 5w30 with Motorcraft fl400s oversized filter. you can go to 8k to 10k mile intervals with a quality filter and full synthetic.

If you are going to do the bushings it's smart to do the endlinks as well. many upgrade to the factory sport rear sway bar and bushings. For the endlinks you can use oem or aftermarket poly like the Energy 9.8169