My mom has a 1998 Toyota Camry with about 120,000 miles.

Unfortunately, I live too far away to be able to help her with car-related issues. She has a local shop that is fairly trustworthy. They do good work, albeit usually too much of it.

Long story short she had it in there for a noise and they recommended she replace the rear struts with Monroe Quick Struts. (The noise is completely unrelated to this.) I called and talked with the mechanic and he said just leaning on the car it drops significantly and the struts are definitely the originals. At any rate, their quote is pretty high (over a grand with an alignment), so I told my mom to go ahead and pick it up and wait on this repair. In the meanwhile she took it to Costco, where she bought her tires, and had them take a look at the tires. There is no unusual wear, which tells me that the struts aren't completely dead.

Thus, I'm considering replacing the rear struts when I next travel to see her. And while I generally despise Monroe, I'm intrigued by these quick struts. They are complete assemblies, with new springs and mounts, fully assembled, just plug and play (basically, I'm guessing a little over an hour a side).

I found them online with a coupon deal for $282 shipped (the shop would charge $598 for them, then $350 in labor which included the alignment). Assuming these Monroe products are not complete junk (they come with a lifetime warranty) I'm curious if anyone here has used them. They would make this a very simple (and much safer) DIY since the springs aren't involved.

Thoughts?

(Also, if anyone lives in Phoenix and wants to give me a hand at some point, I'd much appreciate it...sadly, I'd probably be doing this in early July...ugh.)

Check the price on oem parts as well. Sometimes cheaper and better for the application. Keep in mind there is a chance it will also need the upper strut mounts. Many oem parts are cheaper than aftermarket. Many are not.

Also get the part numbers needed and the years they were used. If up to currently a very low milage smashed toyota could be a source. Thinking something like 20k or less miles. I would think 150.00 would do it local to me for a pair but I have to see the car usually before they pull them.

Some wreckers do mark the total miles on the parts in their shelves though. As you probably know the wreckers are a good source of interchange information..

I replaced my front OEM struts at 50K due to NYC Roads beating the snot out of the front end plus Chryslers design choices and I was not really that impressed. They were taller than stock, (the front was up 1/2" and in 25K it never went down to OEM ride height), there was a chirping due to the crap quality of the Monroe Spring Seats that came with the set (rubber was like a cheap pair of Costco sneakers) but the install was a breeze. The OEM set came out in one piece (no spring compressor needed) and the new set went in and torqued up easy. No alignment was needed, we just made sure to mark the knuckle and brace the hub. I did it in my parking space with 2 floor jacks and an 28V impact gun. My price was $205 from ********. The local Chrysler stealership wanted $250 just for the struts, plus renting a spring compressor, plus more time in doing install. So yeah it saved money but I wasn't thrilled with the result.

The labor charge seems excessive as this is a 30 min a side type job and an alignment here is $35.