Front Shock Absorber Gaitor replacement

[Mr Vlad]

Well our old is250 cars are getting old and items are perishing. An example is the front suspension gaitors. Lexus price of these gaitors is a measly £190. Measly my back side. Below I hope to show you how to replace those gaitors fir the massive price of £17. Have I got your attention? Thought so lol

Right then first off you'll have to buy the rubber gaitors. I got mine from eBay from seller worldcarparts. Item FEBEST TSHB-002  reference 48157-22040.

This is what knackered gaitors look like 

Pretty isn't it NOT.

Look on YouTube how to remove the suspension unit. Be patient and ideally have someone with you when putting the shocker back in and the suspension arm.

This is what the new gaitor looks like next to the suspension unit.              Note how the new boot has a top to it. This top needs to be cut off, it's easy to do BTW.

Next once you've removed the suspension unit you need spring compressors to squeeze the spring a good inch before you undue the nut on top of the damper unit. Once the spring is squashed then remove the top mount by undoing the 17mm nut. Once top is off it looks like this              Note the top item is metal and the bottom is plastic and rubber. Because the original gaitor has perished so much Once you've removed the loose bits your left with about 2 inches of rubber which is all that's left of the gaitor. Cut that 2 inches off. What you'll be left with is the rubber ring where the top of the spring sits, it has a knook where the end of the spring sits. This is the new gaitor with its top cut off. Right OK seems to be a server error so I'll make this a 2 part post.

[Mr Vlad]

            This is part 2 hopefully. 

Above is how the new boot looks like with its top cut off. That top isn't needed as it doesn't have the recess for the spring end.

             The is the top mount of the suspension unit but you'll notice the rubber ring below it cut of it. The new boot fits on that metal ring of the top mount. Look closely at that ring and you'll see its splayed out. The new boot fits over the splayed end But it's a ruddy tight fit and I mean Tight but it goes on and won't come off.

             New boot partially on.

             New boot fully on. Ok it's not a perfect fit but that's down to how the rubber is cut but believe me that boot is not going anywhere. 

             Shock absorber fully together with new boot and spring on. The new boot is long enough that it covers the whole of the shock absorber piston.

So there you have it. The process is for any car really. The boot came from eBay and is for a Lexus car.

Don't spend nearly £200 on a new top because the boot has perished. Spend a little over £17 on a new boot and follow the above as what I did. 

As I've said look on YouTube how to remove the shocker. Make sure you've got spring compressors, they range from a tender upwards, mine cost £20. Time to do the job from start to finish is an hour. Be wary that the bolt holding the bottom of the suspension might well be seized. Mine were and I had to go to a garage for them to use a propane torch to heat the nut enough for it to expand and then get a long breaker bar to lose that nut.

Hope you find this post useful. I think same goes for the GS cars gen 1 2 and maybe 3.

[Beamish]

 

Great job Vlad.

Thanks for posting.

[Mr Vlad]

Glad to have done it. After finding out the stupid cost of replacement I took myself back in time when I did a shed load of tinkering and looked at a cost effective method. Our aging cars are coming  to a point where the perishable rubbers need replacement. 

Another cost saving post coming soon saving £500 excluding labour. 

[AFlex]

Great post Mr Vlad

I notice that this gaiter is basically a part for other toyota cars, hence why it needs to be cut - the part number you gave shows all the other toyota cars that it fits:

https://jp-carparts.com/search.php?part_number=48157-22040

 

I also noticed that on JP Car parts you can get the genuine part for the IS250 (48680-53030) for around 77 bucks:

https://jp-carparts.com/lexus/partlist.php?maker=toyota&type=242120&cartype=1&fig=4803

Obviously not as cheap as your fix, but just in case anyone did want to replace the entire thing.

 

Out of interest, other than the rubber boot, are there any other parts that need replacing? What about the bump stop?

[AFlex]

Also just noticed the FEBEST TSHB-003, which is specifically for the IS250, and only slightly more at £22 on ebay 🙂

[Mr Vlad]

Hi AF. It was only the gaitors that needed replacing as they were totally shot. No issues with anything else. The shocks themselves were almost like new. No issues with bump stops. I didn't see the FEBEST you posted on eBay when I was looking but I'll have a look because £22 for the top mount seems too cheap and is probably poor quality I'd think. Thanks for your input. I'll look for that eBay 22 quid item and report back. 

[Mr Vlad]

That TSHB-003 isn't suitable. I contacted a seller but not the ozzy one but a UK one selling that item that it wasn't suitable for my car. Seems it doesn't have the recess for the top of the spring to sit in. My option is the best and cheapest. 

[AFlex]

20 hours ago, Mr Vlad said:

That TSHB-003 isn't suitable. I contacted a seller but not the ozzy one but a UK one selling that item that it wasn't suitable for my car. Seems it doesn't have the recess for the top of the spring to sit in. My option is the best and cheapest. 

Mine is already in the mail so I will let you know how I get on or whether it turns out to be a failure! I gave them my reg and they checked against my car and said it was ok....

 

Notice that TSHB-003 only includes the rubber and not the top mount. So actually I would say £22 is actually quite a lot just for a rubber tube. TSS-058 (top the mount) doesn't seem to be in stock anywhere at the moment - I'm just gonna hope my top part is still in reasonable condition as I'm just replacing the rubber gaiter like you did. Also the bump stop doesn't seem to be sold anywhere.

 

The official Lexus part includes the top mount, the rubber boot/gaiter and the bump stop - it's marked as 48680 in the picture below

[Mr Vlad]

Hi Af when you get the parts check that there is a like a detent shaped to accept the end of the top of the spring. If not then send them back and follow what I did. If they do have the detent then bonus. When you come to do the job make sure you have spring compressors before you start. 

When you've taken a wheel off 1st thing to do is see if you can undo the nut for the top arm where it joins to the hub. Mine were so tight probably rusted that I had to take the car to a garage for them to use a gas torch to heat it up then a long breaker bar. They did up the nuts again but I could undo them when I got round to do the work. Let us know how you get on. 

[steve2006]

When I first read the post with a price of £190.00 I thought surely not as the same  GS300 part (Lexus call it the “insulator”) is around £25.00.

I then realised with  the IS250 the part is integrated into the top mount hence the price difference.

Good result with the aftermarket part 😀

Mine turned into squid rings years ago, I pulled them off and fitted a split steering rack gaitor held with cable ties.

[Mr Vlad]

I thought about doing that but decided against as it'd look like a bodged job lol.

[AFlex]

Just reporting back that I managed to successfully replace the rubber gaiter on both sides with the Febest part TSHB-003.

Mr Vlad's method is just as good and cheaper, but if you prefer not to have to do any chopping of the rubber part, using TSHB-003 will probably be easier for a few extra quid. I got 2 of them for £40.50 delivered.

TSHB-003 does not come with a ridge at the top for the suspension spring, but I think this is consistent with the official Lexus part. I have noticed that since being driven for a couple of weeks, it has formed its own groove so the spring has squashed the rubber and looks exactly like how the OEM did.

I will try and post a few photos when I get a chance.

[kenhall]

I replaced the split original rear rubber gaiters and top mounts on my RX400h a few years  back with Febest units which have now gone the same way after about 4 years. It’s time Lexus woke up and fitted the more durable semi-hard plastic type (polyurethane?).

[Mr Vlad]

Hi AF. Photos of the gaitors you bought would have been great. Hope you found d the job of replacing them quite easy. How were the bottom strut bolts, did you loosen them easily?

[AFlex]

On 10/7/2021 at 12:24 PM, Mr Vlad said:

Hi AF. Photos of the gaitors you bought would have been great.

Hi Vlad - sorry it took me a while to upload these photos.

Old gaiter - totally busted:

 

Old vs new - view from side:

 

Old vs new - view from side 2:

 

Old (top) vs new (bottom) - view from top:

 

Old vs new  - view from side/top:

 

Photo on the car - you can see the rubber is already starting to compress where the spring ends at the top

 

Gave all of my rubber parts a good spraying with AT-205 polymer - found out about this on the very excellent Scotty Kilmer YouTube channel!

 

After a good dousing:

[AFlex]

On 10/7/2021 at 12:24 PM, Mr Vlad said:

Hi AF. Photos of the gaitors you bought would have been great. Hope you found d the job of replacing them quite easy. How were the bottom strut bolts, did you loosen them easily?

No I absolutely did not find it easy. The whole thing was one giant PITA from start to finish. I have particularly traumatic memories of the following steps

• getting the upper ball joint off, which was very stubborn - required a lot of hammering (i know you're not really supposed to do that with aluminium knuckles!)
• getting the strut bolt out, which was very rusty
• getting the actual strut to come out of the lower control arm - was a 2 man job and required a lot of bouncing of the lower control arm up and down
• spring compressors was probably the worst part - if you dont have them at 100% perfect opposite ends of the spring, there's a tendency for one side to want to twist around and then the whole spring bends into more of a slinky shape making it impossible to get the strut out
• I have the IS250 sport which I think has stiffer springs, making the job a bit harder
• Getting the new gaiter past the spring was also tricky, the spring likes to get in the way
• Getting the darn strut back into the lower control arm - again a lot of bouncing
• Tightening the strut bolts at 'ride-height' - not possible unless you have special kind of ramps. I sort of approximated by jacking up the lower control arm to approximately ride height. (A lot of people skip this step, but then you will just end up busting the rubber bushing in your strut and have to buy brand new struts)

Hopefully you found this job easier than me!

[Mr Vlad]

Blimey Af seems you went through the wars doing that job. That bottom strut bolt I couldn't undo whatever I did, ended up taking the car to my local Halfords who used the flame torch and a long pry bar. After that I found the job quite easy.

The replacement boots you got look spot on and better than what I did. You should post the item number so anyone in the future can use the part you bought.

Tightening the strut bolts at ride height isn't necessary. Our cars are road cars not race cars. I've never had issues tightening strut bolts whilst the car is on jack stands.

[dephrank]

On 11/7/2021 at 12:13 AM, AFlex said:

Hi Vlad - sorry it took me a while to upload these photos.

Old gaiter - totally busted:

 

Old vs new - view from side:

 

Old vs new - view from side 2:

 

Old (top) vs new (bottom) - view from top:

 

Old vs new  - view from side/top:

 

Photo on the car - you can see the rubber is already starting to compress where the spring ends at the top

 

Gave all of my rubber parts a good spraying with AT-205 polymer - found out about this on the very excellent Scotty Kilmer YouTube channel!

 

After a good dousing:

Where’d you purchase the AT-205? Found one on amazon and it’s not reaching U.K. until 5th Jan 2021.