Replacing struts on 2007 4R sport edition

[walterlaughlin]

My mechanic recommended I replace all 4 struts on my 4R, which is an 07 with 92k miles. He said all 4 struts are leaking. He also said there is some other part that needs to be replaced as well, which is a dealer part that costs a lot of money. I'm wondering if the mechanic is trying to screw me, or if he doesn't know what he is taking about. Anyone else have to replace the struts on their 4th gen 4R? Any advice would be appreciated. I think I'm looking at a repair bill in the 2K range, which seems pretty extreme.

 

[Champ306]

rock auto dot com is your friend. buy new struts and shocks and install. save yourself the hassle of dealing with a thief.

 

[delz05]

Sounds like you have the XREAS decision to make... replace with factory parts or toss out and use conventional struts and shocks... cheaper to go with a conventional set up.

plenty of threads outlining the process and alternatives... hit the search buttons...

 

[cmoua]

I think the dealer price is normal. You'll need to replace the whole XREAS once there's a leak. Most ditch the XREAS and put in after market struts which is much cheaper.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

My mechanic recommended I replace all 4 struts on my 4R, which is an 07 with 92k miles. He said all 4 struts are leaking. He also said there is some other part that needs to be replaced as well, which is a dealer part that costs a lot of money. I'm wondering if the mechanic is trying to screw me, or if he doesn't know what he is taking about. Anyone else have to replace the struts on their 4th gen 4R? Any advice would be appreciated. I think I'm looking at a repair bill in the 2K range, which seems pretty extreme.

Sounds like XREAS, he's probably talking about having the central dampener on each pair replaced. The factory parts are extremely expensive for the XREAS system, which is why many just ditch it when it starts going south (most seem to live to the 100k+ range, which is pretty long considering most shocks are considered to deteriorate after 50k for the average vehicle.)

Honestly I would probably go with a good set of Bilstein 5100's a lot of people are pretty happy with them as factory alternatives to the XREAS. When you go to get the parts quote, don't specify your vehicle as an XREAS; just tell them its an SR5 or Limited without XREAS as some places get a bit snarky about it not being the right part for the vehicle.

 

[walterlaughlin]

Thanks all for your thoughts on this