GenVibe - Community for Pontiac Vibe Enthusiasts

This will be my first time ever replacing any kind of suspension component on any car. Just did a little research on struts/shocks. Struts have 3 main components from what I read: Shocks, Springs, and mounts.

My vibe has 134k miles (I think I should change my serpentine belt, too), and I'm assuming I'd get a smoother ride if I replaced them. Stop me right now if I'm wrong

I'm pretty handy, and I like working on my car, but I know the springs are under quite a large force. Is this something I should take on by myself or let a shop handle it? I don't mind taking multiple hours to do what a shop could do in half the time.

If I decide to replace them, would it be fine to just do the front two, or should I do all 4? Should I replace just the shock absorbers or the shocks and mounts? I'm sure the springs are good. No rust from what I've seen.

What's the average cost of something like this? Am I looking at around $150 per strut, more or less?

What's a good brand for suspension? I don't really want low end items, and probably couldn't afford high end ones, so something in the mid range would be nice.

Struts are worn when the car starts bouncing too much.

Put all your weight on a corner, when you let go, it should bounce back and maybe rebound once. Any more and the struts are too worn. It's also very noticable on the highway when hitting a bump, car should rebound and then level out.

replace the mounts too if you plan on keeping the car for a long time. They are made of rubber and wear out too.

Your options for replacing are to buy seperate components, compress the spring and replace each part, or to buy a ready done 'quikstrut'. Compressing yourself gives you more choice in what parts you use. If you go this route, I highly recommend the ATD Tools 7585 compressor, less than $40 on amazon right now. DO NOT BUY the $15 Harbor Freight version.

Quikstruts come as a whole assemby; spring, strut, mount. They eliminate the need for a spring compressor as they just bolt right in.

After replacing struts all around on 2 different cars using the compressor method....I plan on buying quick-struts next time I need it and being done with it.

Costs vary depending on what you use, check out rockauto.com for an easy to use parts finder. KYB struts are same as OEM, Monroe is good too.

....Whoa that's a long post but it's a topic I've researched a lot, let me know if you have any other questions about it.

Found some Monroe complete assemblies for $116 at Advance Auto (after a 20% off coupon they gave me that's good for 72 hours) and some KYB assemblies for $125 at Rock Auto, and those are about $190 at some other part stores, the only thing is Rock Auto doesn't do free shipping for orders above a certain amount (at least not that I've seen) and I don't think they have an actual store location.

sideshowalan wrote:Struts are worn when the car starts bouncing too much.

Put all your weight on a corner, when you let go, it should bounce back and maybe rebound once. Any more and the struts are too worn. It's also very noticable on the highway when hitting a bump, car should rebound and then level out.

As for testing my suspension, I pushed down on the car above the tires. It bounced up once and seemed to kind of rock back and forth (not up and down) a little bit.

Gary: don't expect too much in terms of a smoother ride. You will get better road holding over bumps.
At 134000 miles I am sure the damper parts of your struts are no longer up to snug. I have 107K on mine and I feel they are at the end of their life. When cornering and hitting a bump in the corner I can feel the rear loosing contact for a split second. I am convinced new struts will fix that issue.

If you get Monroe Quick struts you get new springs that are just a tad softer.

Other than that, Sideshowalan covered it all.