since the problems I was having in the post you found, I inspected my struts and my LR was shot. Icould just pull up on the wheel well, the LR had no pressure from struts when i pulled the car up and down.. compared to the RR which I could notice the dampening. (my use of words correct here?? sorry if wrong..)
Also, if you feel around the top, you would see leakage of the gas if they're shot.in my case it was really grimey.
your creaking, check the faq, there's one on creaking rear suspension.. it's the bushings for rear stabilizer bar i think. it psses me off, I used waterproof grease and the creaking went away.. but came back 1 month later. only takes about 5 minutes to fix though.. make sure you don't jack the car up much or you'll find it impossible to get the bracket back on..
My rear was really really wobbly with the bad strut. I changed the strut with Factory since I liked how they felt and handled, and haven't had the problem since.
The problem I had skipping, on big turns such as going out / in freeway ramp, is lot better and figured out it's normal for some skipping. I was driving a rental car (05 subaru outback ) and it did the same thing. However before i fixed the strut, it felt like my entire rear flexed out of shape and was going to go out of control...
Changing the rear struts isn't as bad as you would imagine if you never did that before. It was my 1st time, i think I should have my rear alignment done, but all in all, following the FAQ REALLY helps getting it accomplished. You just need a garage or something without nosy neighbors since you need to use a hammer to whack some parts off. just something to keep in mind to save some money.
I stuck with Stock struts even though i considered replacing all 4, because i had KYB struts before on 2 diff cars, and though that's not listed as one of your options, it was an aftermarket strut that made the car ride uncomfortable in some cases. i do a lot of driving, so i rather have something comfortable, yet with pretty good performance.
sorry for long post. hope it helps some people.
