Struts.. which ones are good, and not so good?

[dosmastr]

Hi guys,

My lady’s 94 prizm has suffered the roads of Camden nj and the rear struts are DONE (I can bounce it with one hand, and he bounces like 3 times)

I’m looking around for new struts, OEM would run about 145 a piece shipped.
Also saw on ebay a brand called Sensen, they say they have a lifetime warranty, 61 bucks for the PAIR. Made in and for China though….

I’m not normally one to cheap out on parts but the OEM’s lasted 20 years, I don’t need the next set to last that long, 5 to 10 would be quite sufficient, the car is closing in on 200k and we will start having kids in the next 5 years so she wants a full size sedan when that happens. (But she’s not all about getting an SUV so I think I can deal with just a bigger sedan)

I know eric’s got a video up on compressing the spring to transfer it over, the tools he uses, they available for rent?

Topic

[Lorrin Barth]

On a newer car I would just buy the shock or strut. Do springs wear out – sometimes. The thing is anytime you take these assemblies apart they end up consisting of more parts that you would suspect. So, lets say the spring cushion is shot – chewed through by the spring. So, you need one of those. Or the bellows or something else. You may need several additional parts. On an older car a quick strut is good because you get it all and it all is new.

[David Nichols]

I’m thinking scrap metal for the old stuff.

[David Nichols]

[quote=”barneyb” post=94926]On a newer car I would just buy the shock or strut. Do springs wear out – sometimes. The thing is anytime you take these assemblies apart they end up consisting of more parts that you would suspect. So, lets say the spring cushion is shot – chewed through by the spring. So, you need one of those. Or the bellows or something else. You may need several additional parts. On an older car a quick strut is good because you get it all and it all is new.[/quote]

If the ride height is really good, it may be more about just the strut, but then the pad was really worn when I did that, the bearings were great, OE from the factory there were no dust covers. I couldn’t face the possibility of dirt ruining new struts even if I’d had them 7 years before install. 🙂 Long story short, great point. You get a lot out of replacing it all if you waited a long time for replacement. Just the dust covers were really expensive and I lived with the worn out pad for the shock.

[David Nichols]

@barneyb and thanking him for thinking about one or the other being bad rather than the whole thing.

Thanks, looking at my rear suspension again, honestly the struts from 7 years ago still have great return on them, so really I may have been downing Monroe struts when it’s just that the springs, shocks, have been older since 7 years ago and that’s what I really needed to replace back then…granted that was a long time ago, the struts may not have been “well” back then either, I don’t remember. But remember this, I’m certain that Monroe quality while good, is below OE standards. My dad, rest his soul, had a nearly new Toyota Corolla, and those struts performed much better. Remember also that for my car the higher end Monroe struts aren’t available, this is an analysis of their sensotrac from 7 years ago (my front struts are newly installed from product bought that long ago), which I believe they now call economatic.

The Moog is what I’m leaning toward most. I found their shocks alone for about $80 and since only $34 more dollars replaces everything, I think the ready strut is simply the best deal. I’ll hold on to the old struts just because they aren’t actually bad.

Something surprising. The Moog drops an inch for about every 800 lbs. I found some struts for sale that was a lowering kit downgrade (my words aren’t mistaken) that for every inch drop they hold an additional 125 pounds. Wow…they’re too low to get my tires flat on the road already and now with no weight at all it’ll be worse? Finding the pounds/in. on shocks has turned out to be very difficult, but since the Moog is amazing, my decision is made. (One of my concerns for a long time is that I like to load up the car a lot when traveling with my family, I needed heavier duty springs. Since I can’t find how much pounds per inch on the OE, I guess I’ll just find out after installation what’s up.)

If it’s months before I report back on the results, don’t be alarmed, I’m just waiting on the IRS to have the funds to proceed with my plan.

[David Nichols]

[quote=”AutoBravado.com” post=95152]@barneyb and thanking him for thinking about one or the other being bad rather than the whole thing.

I found some *struts for sale that was a lowering kit downgrade (my words aren’t mistaken) that for every inch drop they hold an additional 125 pounds. [/quote]

I added a star while quoting myself, I meant to say shock here.

[David Nichols]

The Moog ready mounts in the back turned out positively amazing for me. I can feel them doing better than my dad’s newer same model of car…back when it was only 3 years old.

It’s very smooth. My ride height is back so my exhaust no longer scrapes exiting the driveway. I had to turn so perfectly to avoid the scrapes. At the end, it scraped with my family in the car no matter what I did.

My catback system from 9 years ago is rusted in two places, heavily on the outside of the muffler, and where it was scraping on my driveway. Only minor rust there, but still.

I have a flow master muffler ready to try out, but while the muffler looks super rusty on the outside, it’s not leaking yet. Plus, amazingly enough, this magnaflow muffler still is super shiny on the inside. So, who knows when it’ll leak, but I’m ready. No loss if I never put it on, it’ll fit on any of my cars.

[EricTheCarGuy]

That sounds like a win. Thanks for the updates. Most mufflers are made of stainless steel so they typically resist rust. However I usually see issues at the welds and seams if they do crop up.

[Author]

Replies