JMW256

Great work on your project RX300. So as far as upgrading the struts you would be looking at an 08 to 2013 Highlander. This upgrade is beneficial due to raised spring perches on the struts allowing a slight lift ( about 1 inch) and improved clearance to run bigger tires. Thats the good. The bad is there is only so much room to space out the struts. Meaning that with your current spacers and attempting the Highlander struts together it wont fit! Another option is Strut spacers and stiffer coils. An ideal trial would be to do subframe spacers to effectively lower subframes and help regain some of the original geometry. Then go forward with additional spacer height. Bottom line there is only so much lift without major modification. Hope that helps!

Hi all, I wanted to share with my modified 2004 RX330. It has a Northwoods 2 inch strut spacer lift 245/65/17 Yokohama Geolander At tires (No Rub) Moto metal wheels and a cargo basket. Recently I custom fabricated a front Prerunner bar. I have been modifying the early year RX 330, 350 and highlander platform for the last 15 years. If you have any questions or comments let me know.

Hi everyone, I want to you my latest addition to my RX330. A custom design and fabricated prerunner bar with a skid plate. Going to add lights in the future.

Interesting. It appears that the second gen Highlander front struts do fit the second gen RX and provide .5 inch lift. Has anyone tried this?

Yes this thread is alive and well! Congrats on the purchase of your 09 RX350. If you are interested in a 1.5 inch lift why not check out the Northwoods performance lift. I used it on my RX330 and it is a high quality kit well worth the price. Great thought on running the longer front 08-13 highlander struts in front of the RX. I am not sure if they will fit but well worth looking into. As you know the rears work and allow space for a larger diameter tire than the originals. If you have any other questions let me know. John

Check out the Monroe application website. It gives detailed specs of the OEM Lexus struts and the Highlander struts.

So I am running a 245/65/17 tire (29.5 diameter) on aftermarket rims that have a 5.5 inch backspace. The 235/60/18 has a diameter of 29.1. It appears that you are running Lexus rims which will have a backspace of about 5.6 to 5.75 inches. You have 3 options to improve clearance. First you can run the wheel spacers. H@R makes an outstanding quality 1 inch wheel spacer that pushes your wheels out and helps with the sidewall clearance issues but not so much the issues with the rear lower spring perch. You can get a little crazy and blow the wheel out past the perch with thicker spacers but it may cause some wheel bearing issues and the look may not appeal to you. Second option: purchase new wheels with a back space of 4.75 inches. Then you wouldn't need to worry about any potential issues with a spacer and get the benefit of more sidewall clearance. Third do the highlander rear strut conversion. That would solve all your rear tire clearance issues. I do believe that Nathan at Northwoods performance would be willing to sell you the front strut spacers and front anti sway links separately. You may need to add a 1/4 inch spacer to the top of the rear Highlander strut setup depending on your specific needs. The picture below is a 255/70/17 tire on the rear of my 2013 Highlander. 31 inch tire. Notice the clearance. That would be the same strut setup on the rear of our Lexus RX.

Hey guys just wanted to give you some information on the Gen 2 RX max tires size. I have the light blue RX 330 posted a couple pages ago. As you might know I lifted it with the Northwoods lift. I am running a 29.5 inch diameter tire (245/65/17) Yokohama Geolander AT on 17 x8 rims with a 5.5 inch back spacing. It is really tight in the back by the lower spring perch. There is 1/8 inch clearance. I have never had any issues with scraping. You would have to use some wide wheel spacers to push the wheels out past the perch to run anything bigger than a 29.5 inch tire. So Brickwall used Toyota Highlander 08-13 rear struts which allow a 31 inch diameter tire to be used. This is a direct bolt in and also gives a little over an inch of lift. I lifted a 2013 Highlander and ran 255/70/17 tires on 5.5 backspace rims. The Highlander suspension is very similar to the 99 to 09 RX.

I lifted my RX330 with Northwoods Performance 1.5 inch spacers and that worked very well. The nice thing about these spacers is that they are bolt on and don't require disassembly of the strut, also the camber is built in. You will need shorter front anti sway bar links.

JC welcome to the forum. It is my understanding that the FCS struts are middle of the road. Cost effective but not the quality of others. I think most would agree that OEM are the highest quality followed by KYB then Monroe and Gabriel. You wont need a wheel spacer with the tire size you selected. My snow tires are 235/65/17 and they run on stock wheels with no clearance problems. If you decide to run spacers less is more. I run H@R TRAK wheel spacers 15 mm on my summer wheels. They are high quality but not cheap. I chose the spacers since they are hubcentric and are not bolt on. I did need to replace all the wheel studs with longer ones. Not a big deal. I feel this is a safer route rather than the adapters that are bolted to the hub then the wheel is bolted to the adaptors.

Jason, Thanks for clarifying that. For those of you who are not aware. Brickwall made a huge discovery for our Vehicles. He discovered that by running 08-13 Toyota Highlander rear struts there would be a 1.25 inch lift and the ability to run larger diameter tires due to a higher spring perch. I believe a 265/70/17 is possible (31 inch tire) with proper offset. On my Light blue RX330 posted above I used Northwoods 1.5 inch steel strut spacers and was able to run a 29.5 inch diameter tire 245/65/17. It is VERY close but does not rub.

Brickwall Welcome back!!! Can you please give some details on your rear strut mod upgrading to the 08-13 Toyota Highlander struts. l looked into the mod and found some differences. For example the lower strut mount bolts on the Lexus are 15mm and on the Toyota Highlander they are 17mm. Also the Highlander lower strut mounts seem a little more offset. Did you use some bushings for the bolt size difference? Lastly did you have to use camber bolts in the rear? Thanks!

I have tried to message Brick a couple times and did not get a response. He may have moved on.

Thank you Jonah. I am really surprised how well the RX330 handles with the lift. There has been talk on other forums about how a mild lift will screw up the suspension geometry and handling. That is not true. If you ever decide to lift your RX350 F sport that would be really cool. I also use my RX for outdoor adventures. Looking forward to seeing pictures of the roof rack.

Sure thing, Northwoodsperformance.com. The spacers are the same as the 01 to 07 Toyota highlander. Ask for Nathan the owner and he can give details. Much better quality than the Russian spacers. They have a kit that includes 4 spacers, front end links, and hardware. I am also going to lift my 2013 Toyota Highlander with their Gen 2 Highlander spacers. It has nearly the same suspension as the 04-09 Lexus RX series.