soft suspension

Soft and bouncy on flat roads most likely point to worn out struts. Bad struts can cause tire wear in unique patterns. Older tires with less thread usually give you a stiffer, noisier ride. Inspecting the struts may show leaks, but struts have known to fail without leaking. I would say most of a strut's life is gone by 50K miles. Not because of the iron and steel parts but because of the rubber parts.

There are a few rubber bushings in the control arm and sway bar that should be inspected for wear. Ball joints should also be inspected. You want to make sure the struts are responsible for the bouncy ride and not loose suspension components.

That generation of Camrys also have problematic strut mounts. Bad strut mounts can shorten strut life. If proper diagnosis lead to struts and if you are not getting clunking, squeaking noises from the front strut mount areas and are willing to reuse the mounts, then just change out the struts. Rubber boots and strut bumper should be inspected and replaced if necessary.

There are other options in replacing the entire strut assembly that includes new bearing, strut mount, rubber boots and bumper, new spring and strut with an assembly like the Monroe Quick Strut. The assembly costs about the same as a new strut and mount at $210 each. Cost wise this is a better deal, but I am not sure about the SensaTrac strut in it. Monroe's Reflex is good, but production is only ramping up slowly to replace the Sensatrac.

Monroe Quick Strut:

I personally prefer the Gabriel Ultra with 9 stages of inertia sensitive valving that offers a smooth ride at low speeds and good control at high speeds. Check out their G-Force video on the web. AutoZone's occasional buy-3-get-1-free deal costs about $250 for all four corners. This is a much superior strut with a wider comfort and control zone than the stock Toyota one. There is not much of a valving in the stock strut.

Gabriel G-Force video:

BTW, the excellent Bilstein is not available for this generation of Camrys. And I'd stay away from KYB, aka "Keep Your Bilsteins". Most of the struts you buy offer lifetime warranties. Monroe will even pay $50 labor per corner during promotion to swap out their struts if you don't like them within 90 days.

snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote:

First check tire pressure.