There is some noise coming from the rear suspension of the Highlander. Crawling under there a little bit has me suspecting the sway-bar link rods. The car drives perfectly well, but the old gal now has close to 320K on the original suspension. I priced out new struts (the quick struts), new control arms and new links/rod/bushings, and the grand total is ~$600 with shipping and everything. Basically a complete rebuild of the entire rear suspension can be done for $600. Not bad!
Now to think about when to do this, ugh. Going to have to wait until January, methinks. So busy until and through Christmas.
While I was on RockAuto, I checked front suspension prices. They sell a "front end rebuild kit" with control arms, ball joints and all the locator rods/bushings for $500 including shipping. That's for both sides! And it's Moog parts - good quality. Just to keep going, it's $400 for a pair of new front quick struts.
So, basically, I can completely rebuild the entire front and rear suspension on the Highlander including all four struts, all control arms, ball joints and all bushings and locator rods for $1500. Wow. I think by spring I'm just going to do that. A complete refresh would be nice, and at that price, makes total sense.