Typical boring suv with many varied options for struts but none of them are performance oriented. 2007 rx350 lexus. Rear struts for sure need replaced with only the typical manufacturers of crappy aftermarket struts showing options unless I was to spend $250 per corner for lexus struts. I don't.
Perusing rockauto.com the TOP of the heap there in prebuilt struts is Gabriel and Monroe. Are they worth the premium over the other no name prebuilt struts? That's me being lazy. I can and have put struts together from the base struts.
Would it be "worth it" to buy the bare Sachs struts and do the whole thing myself? Or should I just get the cheapest prebuilt and toss it in there? Or is paying the premium for Gabriel or Monroe prebuilt struts worth the extra cash?
I'll answer the is it worth it question with another question, How long do you see yourself keeping the car?
Sachs is OEM quality and I would get that if it's a long term keeper.
If it's a 1 year keeper then FCS to keep it on the road. Then the question is does the 45 minutes to rebuild them worth the $60-70 price difference. No one can answer that as we don't know how much time you have to wrench on it.
The prebuilt are great value when you consider that bump stops and mounts are already included.
I would be fine with either for a non-performance application.
I would even try the FCS. If I remember right, I came across a Mazda rallyx thread on here a while back and the car was running these and the owner was happy with them. I think they were a run-what-you-brung thing more than a choice. But if they can survive that I figure they can't be too bad.
In reply to bmw88rider :
Thats the question of the day. It does have some other issues as I need to change all the fluids except the oil because that was the only fluid the previous owner ever changed. 225,000 miles on it. I have all the time in the world to rebuild the strut but of course will have to add strut tops, gaiters and bump stops to the shopping list. Ultimately After reading your response and the one after it, I'm going to throw a set of FCS full units on it, then I can see what else needs to be done over the next year. That way if the trans or one of the diffs go out I can not have done all the work and expense for the better units just to ditch it in the junkyard.
I did the complete Monroe units on my 160k mile Expedition and they have been great. It's a quick swap, you get everything you need, and the quality is good. We just completed a 2900 mile round trip in that truck (and reaching 170k miles upon return home) and they still feel like when we installed them.
I would 100% use them again.
In reply to Loweguy5 :
Thanks for the info. Glad to hear they worked out.
In reply to Loweguy5 :
After additional research (consisting of comparing ebay to rockauto prices and selection) I decided to go with the Monroe Quick Struts. They are $20 more per unit than FCS but seem to be much better quality. For an extra 80 bucks, thats worth it.
