Front Struts - Should You Replace Both?

carpers

My 98 Lexus ES300 starting developing a front end creaking noise at just under the 50K warranty mileage. The Lexus dealer said it was the front left which would be replaced under warranty, but said that Lexus will not authorize replacement of the right since it is not leaking. Should I (can I) insist on this for reasons of safety and handling? Do I have any recourse in appealing Lexus' decision? (I suspect that if I asked 10 Lexus dealers after the warranty if they would recommend replacing both struts if 1 was defective, that 9 would say yes)

Thanks for any input!

Mr_Shiftright

No, I don't think you have any recourse except paying for the other one yourself, as they are obligated only to replace a defective part. Depending on how long you own the car, I'd consider picking up the tab for the other one, just to have a matched set, but I don't see any calamity if you don't....maybe you'll get "lucky" and the other one will eat it under warranty as well.

lngtonge18

You will not be able to get them to replace a non-defective product just for your piece of mind. However, I wouldn't worry too much about having 1 new shock and 1 old. Shocks nowadays generally last a long time, so the old one may be perfectly fine for another 100K and you just wasted money on something that didn't need replacing. My mom's 92 Accord has 188K and has never needed to replace any of the shocks. They still work just fine, with only a little more float than thay had when new.

Mr_Shiftright

Well, if you put new shocks on the Accord you'd notice a big difference. You have nothing to compare it to, is why. But your point about struts being long lasting is a good one...my only concern is that there seems to be a lot of complaints about Camry struts on this board. Maybe I'm just seeing all the bad examples, and not the success stories out there.

carpers

Based on the above, I think I'll wait on replacing the other strut. If I detect a handling problem, then I'll reconsider. As an aside, I just sold a 96 V6 Camry with 140K miles, and both struts were OK, so my experience with these has been fine (all the more reason to be confounded with the problem with the Lexus strut at 50K). I do agree with the above, however, that if both were replaced on the Camry, that I would have noticed a difference. Thanks again.