Rattle in right rear

[Laneman]

I have a rattle in the right rear of my 2000 Avalon. Dealer said it's the rear struts, wants $1030 to fix. I have 110K miles, so I imagine I need struts anyway. I was just wondering if I can replace the top mount I keep hearing about, and how hard that would be on a rear strut. Looks like the mount is behind the rear seat back.

[avalonshoe]

yea u would have to remove the rear seats to get to the struts mounts. No need to go to the dealership, just shop around.

u can tell if your struts are blown if u just take ur hand and press down on the trunk and see if the car drops with a little effort. when i had mine change, my mounting plates were cracked. i have a family mechanic who charged for struts, mounting plates, tons of other small maintenence jobs + labor for $400

if you plan to replace the rear struts anyway, i heard tokico's were the best for replacement... kyb's, oem and monroe struts are too soft, they usually bottom out even if theyre new. The car is quite heavy and the design flaw of the car are the rear struts plates where the spring sits. it tends to rub the tires. If i had known of this issue at the time, i would have had my mechanic ordered tokico instead of KYB-GR2's. My mother's avalon were replaced with Monroe or Gabriels; i forgot =(

[TMack409]

See my post on the Avalon Gen I forum: clunking rear struts

[ChiTDI]

Great write-up TMack, I'm glad someone added the point about the sway bar bushings.
I went with Monroe on the rears and have no gripe. Don't know if the KYBs are better than the Tokicos for the front, I'm still OEM as well.

[Florian 123]

I repaired the Bushings, the are split, I clued in a piece of rubber from a car inner-tube, which is about 2mm thick, this takes care of the wear of the stabilizer bar and Bushing, no need to change the Bar, took me 1 Hour no cost, the two screws that hold the bushing can easily be removed as long as the are not rusted. No need to remove any links, just jack up the car in the rear on both sides it took care of the noisy from suspension.
John in Montreal

[toyo_tech02]

The noise is the strut mount seperating. Common problem on these vehicles.

[csaxon]

It's been 11 months since the OP posted. I hope someone actually looked under the car!