Thanks to all for the advice. I've always heard Bilsteins were great. Price will be important as well, so I'll look them both up and see what's what.

Back to the noise in the back suspension:

I fastened the splash guard back up to the top of the damper with, ahem...coat hanger...well...just to see if things quieted down.

It still doesn't feel or sound right. I think these are the original dampers. I bought the car with 69,000 miles on it, and I've never replaced them. Now I have 158K on them, so they MUST be ready for retirement.

Has anyone done just one axle at a time. Is that okay, or does it introduce unwanted over/understeer problems?

Mark