Recommendations On Rear Struts 91 Ls400

[914lps]

At 115,000 miles the rear struts are getting soft. Fronts are still real solid. But I need to start thinking about changing out the back units. I have at most another 10,000 miles or so before I must do it. So, what do you folks recommend as replacements? After market Vs., OEM. I do not have the Auto suspension

[90LS400Lexus]

I recommend the factory struts- which are also available at your local Toyota dealers. The ones for the rear of my 90 LS400 were $51.00 each. They are made for Toyota-Lexus by KYB, but they are softer than the heavy duty ones that KYB makes. My car had the KYB GR-2 on it, replaced by the previous owner, which made the car have good handling, but the ride was too firm for my tastes. The cost of replacement was $100 at a local independent shop. You may already know, but you must also get an alignment. I did not know this and it ruined my tires after about 1500 miles. The rear seat also has to be removed for replacement, as does the rear package shelf.

I still have the KYB GR-2 rear struts that came off of my car (with about 2000 miles on them) that I was going to sell. They are still in the trunk of my other car. The owner paid $79. each for them- so some are expensive, but for ride quality and price- I would recommend the geniune Toyota struts.

I wish my car had the struts that your car has. I wanted a soft, mushy ride. Even with the new Toyota struts, the ride was supple, but not as "cushy" as I wanted it to be. The front was wretched- very firm and harsh.

@ 115K, I would think yours would still be OK. These typically last to about 200K before they get really mushy for most peoples taste. The original struts on my car were not changed until 223K. I guess they all are different though...

At 115,000 miles the rear struts are getting soft.  Fronts are still real solid.  But I need to start thinking about changing out the back units.  I have at most another 10,000 miles or so before I must do it.  So, what do you folks recommend as replacements? After market Vs., OEM.  I do not have the Auto suspension

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[lexus400]

Just an FYI, you do not need to take out the rear parcel shelf, just the bottom and

back of the rear seat. You can access the top strut bolts easily enough and leave the parcel shelf intact. Also, you don't need to remove the rear axle either. With the spring compressed, you can wiggle the strut in/out with a little work. You'll be a few inches short getting the old strut out, just compress the shock tube down from up top and that will give you enough clearance to get it out. Put a little grease on the side of the strut when putting it back in. You'll know what I mean when you se it... it's really close and binds for just a couple of inches on the side of the wheel well. Once you get past that, you're home free.

Bob

[914lps]

Thanks for the input. I'm not a great do it yourselfer on cars. So I'll have this done for me. $100.00 for labor sounds real good. I can live with that. I know about the rear seat. I have seen the how to on Lexis.com.

You would not want worn out or going out shocks. Not only will bad shocks hurt your car (eats tires), but they can become a danger.

I know mine are getting soft. If I bonce the back of the car, it does not leval off as fast as it should. Also on some of the roads I drive, on the up and down dips, I bottomed out doing 110 miles an hour. Not a good thing (bottoming out). 8 months ago it did not do that. So, I'm slowing down on those roads to about 90, and the ride is o.k. Just for the record, I only do speeds like this with no other cars in site, daylight, good weather, and very stright roads. If you are wounding... I have not yet toped the car out. My GPS has recorded a top sped of about 138 , and I know the car had more. This car can and will curse allong all day at 110 to 120.

And just for the record... No tickets on my DMV... None. I do drive fast, but only when safe, on roads I know.

[90LS400Lexus]

About the package shelf- I am only going by what I was told by some members here when I was going to have mine changed. Some mentioned it was necessary to remove the shelf. I have no clue, as the shop did mine and I did not ask what all had to be removed. As far as the axle- no, it does not have to be removed, but an alignment is required (as many here will tell you), as will your local Lexus dealer, because it somehow throws the alignment out on the rear. I did not believe it, but only after about 2000 miles, my tires were ruined, because that shop did not know it had to be aligned, nor did they do alignments there. <_<

As far as the suspension- I am not sure just how "soft" your struts are, but some cars come from the factory with very soft suspension. A friend of mine has a 2004 Isuzi Axiom 4dr 4WD SUV. I have driven behind it before and it has a lot of bounce with it, but not to the point of being dangerous, many of the new Buicks are like that as well. I have been behind other Axioms before, on rough roads in town and notice that they have very soft and bouncy suspension and they are new. As far as being dangerous- you are right- at a certain point- they can be dangerous if they are very soft- I saw a Chevrolet Lumina APV van the other day, with totally worn out (or removed) rear shocks. The woman hit one bump and it bounced about 35 times and it was bouncing hard.:whistles: Now, this would be very dangerous. At 110 mph, I would imagine that any car would bounce a bit. Do you have a track or open course where you are able to drive at those speeds? Sounds a bit scary to drive like that on public roads.....

Drive carefully...... :)

Thanks for the input.  I'm not a great do it yourselfer on cars.  So I'll have this done for me.  $100.00 for labor sounds real good. I can live with that.  I know about the rear seat.  I have seen the how to on Lexis.com.

You would not want worn out or going out shocks.  Not only will bad shocks hurt your car (eats tires), but they can become a danger.

I know mine are getting soft.  If I bonce the back of the car, it does not leval off as fast as it should.  Also on some of the roads I drive, on the up and down dips, I bottomed out doing 110 miles an hour.  Not a good thing (bottoming out).  8 months ago it did not do that.  So, I'm slowing down on those roads to about 90, and the ride is o.k.   Just for the record, I only do speeds like this with no other cars in site, daylight, good weather, and very stright roads.  If you are wounding... I have not yet toped the car out. My GPS has recorded a top sped of about 138 , and I know the car had more.  This car can and will curse allong all day at 110 to 120.

And just for the record... No tickets on my DMV... None.  I do drive fast, but only when safe, on roads I know.

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[914lps]

I have had the car for about a year and a half. It was my dad's, he bought it new. He had to stop driving, so I bought the car from him. I have put at least 25,000 miles on it. Most of it high speed cross country driving. On the same roads. So, I have noticed the difference in the ride. I also have no doubt the added forces of the speeds did not help. So I know the struts are starting to go out. But because of the way I drive, I can not let them get any worse.

Like I said I drive carefully. When in a major metropolitan city I behave and stick to the flow of traffic. This is also why I do not mess around with maintaining the car. I keep it in good shape, and inspect it. Keep the windows extremely clean. I keep the car aligned, good tires, good pressure, and have the car looked at by a mechanic when I do my oil changes every 3,000 miles. I also change out all fluids at least 2 times a year. I have had high speed driving training. And like I said, there is a difference between going fast and speeding or driving unsafely. If the conditions are bad, I slow down as much as needed. In fact in bad weather even in 75 mile per hour areas I will slow down as much as needed to maintain safety. Even if it is 40 miles an hour or less. And it’s not just weather that I will slow down for. It is any condition. The car, traffic, construction, the road condition, or even going though open range country. I hope you understand. I’m a strong believer in the “basic” speed law, of driving only as fast as is safe to do so. I have seen the results of bad driving etc. I’ve been they guy pulling the bodies out of cars, or picking up the body parts, etc.

My high speed driving is done on long stretches of open desert roads. And even though the speed limit is 75, most ties the semi rigs are doing 85 to 90.

My cop friends have told me that if a driver is driving safely, but only speeding, most of the time they will ignore a car going up to 90. Around here the Highway Patrol curses at 120 to 130. I hate to think what goes on in Montana, as folks there are us to no daytime limit ( I think they went back to a limit). Around here most of the time open roads. Good weather and no traffic.

I get by going faster as I do it carefully, and if pulled over.... Lets just say buddies don't write buddies tickets for just speeding.

[90LS400Lexus]

Understandable. In many cases, you have to "go with the flow" or get pushed. Larger cities and freeways seem to be the worst for this. There have been times that on our local freeways, that I have had to do 80-85 (maximum) in order to keep from getting pushed by other drivers and/or 18-wheelers. :o :D

Our speed limits on the the Tennessee freeways/interstates (at least most of them) and all of them on this end of the state is 70 MPH, but they will typically allow you to 80-85 MPH. I have occasionally seen some people approach the 100 MPH mark before- passing my like I am setting still- even when I am going 75 mph. My uncle knows some TN state patrols and in a 55 MPH zone, many will let you go up to 69 MPH before they stop you. I have a relative and a good friend on the local police force and from what I can gather, it seems to vary from where you are at.

I can understand the drive on the long desert roads. While I have never been out west, I have seen movies that show those long, straight, lonely desert roads and can understand why someone would want to "hurry" through. If I recall, some of them are wavy and I can see where your car may be doing some excessive bouncing. For me, those struts would be perfect, because I mostly do city driving and even when I am on the freeway, our interstates are not wavy, so that would not be an issue.

Perhaps if you get new struts, you can sell me your old ones and if I ever get another LS400, I can install them on my car. :D

Anyway- as mentioned, if I were you, I would go for the genuine Toyota-Lexus struts. They allowed my car to have a smooth ride, but I wanted "cushy". At least they were better than the overly firm KYB GR-2's that were on it.

Good luck.

[914lps]

It's not if I do it, but when. I would expect to do it in the next 30 days or so. If you want the old ones make me an offer.

But first I have to deal with a tune up, and trying to fix the Idle control valve. I f I fix the valve great. If not I'm looking at 600.00 to replace the dame thing. So right now and for the next week the lexus's top speed is zero.

Not having a good car week. My 84 Saab decided to have a radietor leak... Getting fixed now. So, I'm driving the 4x4 truck around. Good thing about having 3 cars. One is always running. Bad thing, is paying to keep 3 cars running