Recommended strut kits

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Bookworm
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Recommended strut kits

Post by Bookworm »

From folks here (or people you know).


What strut kits seem to work best in the car? (Mine's a 2007 Vibe)

From Rockauto, I can get (as a set), Monroe, OSC, FCS, and ACDelco.

Individually, there's Sensen, Ultra-Power, Monroe, ACDelco, OSC, FCS, Gabriel, MOOG, KYB. (KYB is _only_ front).

I'd prefer to stick with just one brand on all of them, but I guess I can do front/back differently if need be.

I'm at 181k miles, and I _Know_ they need replacing.

The last time (2003 vibe), I used Monroe Quik-Struts, used my original nuts, and didn't torque them down to factory so that I wouldn't have the studs snap.

[edit]

If I search the 2007 Toyota Corolla, it has KYB for both front and rear, plus Bilstein and TRW. As this says Pontiac, I don't know how well the shocks themselves compare between the Corolla and Vibe. The Matrix doesn't list KYB at all.
zbyers
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by zbyers »

Monroe or KYB seem to be the higher recommended ones on FB.

The Corolla ones do work. However, I believe you have to remove the studs and swap them with the Vibe ones (as they're a little smaller). It's something along those lines. I haven't actually done that, just know others have mentioned something about those.

I'd avoid the Sensen. They're bottom of the barrel.
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Bookworm
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by Bookworm »

It looks like KYB only has the front struts as complete sets - both Matrix and Vibe.

I'm tempted to just get KYB for the front, and OSC for the rear. With my arm the way it is, I'll probably have to go pay my local mechanic $50 a corner to install them.
zbyers
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by zbyers »

Bookworm wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 8:36 am It looks like KYB only has the front struts as complete sets - both Matrix and Vibe.

I'm tempted to just get KYB for the front, and OSC for the rear. With my arm the way it is, I'll probably have to go pay my local mechanic $50 a corner to install them.
There is another member on here (now primarily on FB) in teh big city of Houston who might be able to help ya out too. However, $50/corner isn't too bad installation cost, honestly.

Rears are easy peasy. Two 14mm studs inside the car, one 14mm bolt in the upper wheel well, and then a 17 or 19mm nut for that bottom stud. You can do the rear with tires on.

Fronts are also easy, but require a little more effort. I'd consider buying new sway bar links for the front, especially if you haven't replaced them. They're usually a PITA to undo.
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by Bookworm »

zbyers wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 9:33 am
Bookworm wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 8:36 am It looks like KYB only has the front struts as complete sets - both Matrix and Vibe.

I'm tempted to just get KYB for the front, and OSC for the rear. With my arm the way it is, I'll probably have to go pay my local mechanic $50 a corner to install them.
There is another member on here (now primarily on FB) in teh big city of Houston who might be able to help ya out too. However, $50/corner isn't too bad installation cost, honestly.

Rears are easy peasy. Two 14mm studs inside the car, one 14mm bolt in the upper wheel well, and then a 17 or 19mm nut for that bottom stud. You can do the rear with tires on.

Fronts are also easy, but require a little more effort. I'd consider buying new sway bar links for the front, especially if you haven't replaced them. They're usually a PITA to undo.
Oh, I've done it before. It's that 10 lb right arm limitation. Just popping the main bolts off of the struts will take more force than that. More annoyed about _having_ to pay for it because of the limitation, but I want the problem to go away, not make it worse.

Sway bar links are usually fine to remove - it's making sure you have lock nuts, not crush nuts, on the replacement. If you have crush nuts, you'll have to use a grinder to cut them off when they fail.

Never done the rears, though I read that some people had to cut pieces to make them fit.
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by zbyers »

Bookworm wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 9:40 amNever done the rears, though I read that some people had to cut pieces to make them fit.
I honestly don't think I have heard of anyone having to do that. We've replaced them on...4 or 5 of our Vibes now and haven't had any issues outside of rust making it difficult. Being in Houston, that should hardly be an issue for you. :D
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Bookworm
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by Bookworm »

zbyers wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 11:09 am
Bookworm wrote: Thu Jan 30, 2020 9:40 amNever done the rears, though I read that some people had to cut pieces to make them fit.
I honestly don't think I have heard of anyone having to do that. We've replaced them on...4 or 5 of our Vibes now and haven't had any issues outside of rust making it difficult. Being in Houston, that should hardly be an issue for you. :D
I'll bow to your experience. You have about 4 or 5 times the experience I have with shocks on the Vibes :)

Weirdly enough, having driven five cars into the dirt, not including my wife's two, and this one, for a total somewhere above 1.3 million miles (at a guess), I've only changed shocks on a car once. LOTS of brakes, alternators, radiators, carburetors, and other things ending in 'or' or y, but not shocks.
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olliesshop
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by olliesshop »

First of all sorry about your arm and hope you're back to normal soon.

FYI, whatever you do, don't get MOOG strut assemblies. I installed a new set of front struts 3 months ago and they've been nothing but trouble. They clunk like crazy and also the rubber spring insulator (between the spring and the upper seat) was misassembled. Here are the pics showing the problem and after my fix https://www.smugmug.com/gallery/n-R7MS4z/

So now, I've decided to replace the MOOG struts with good ones, which sound like it's KYB, Monroe or OEM. Is that the right choice for the front?

I also need to replace the rear struts, which are a pain, since I have AWD. Is OSC the best brand for the rear?
Tim
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jolt
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by jolt »

I have used KYB struts on a mini van I had and I would have no problems using them again. I would say the KYB's are close to OEM and the Monroe's are a little softer. After my Monroe quick strut install on my Vibe, I would buy the parts and put the struts together myself. You can read below what I found with the quick struts I had. By the time I found something that would fit and bought the end caps for the top of the struts to seal the upper bearings, the Monroe quick strut did not save me any money. In the end they did not save me any time either.

I copied my reply from this thread: viewtopic.php?f=11&t=47212&p=526808&hil ... oe#p526808

I just put Monroe Quick-Struts in my 2009 Vibe 2.4L. If I had to do it again, I would not buy the Quick-Strut. There, that was the quick answer. I would spend the roughly $50 more and buy the parts and put them together myself.

Here is what I ran into:
1. One of the struts had the upper rubber spring seat folded inside the spring so that the spring was metal on metal with the strut. I had to compress the spring and pull the rubber spring seat back out so the spring sat on the rubber. If you have to get a spring compressor to fix a new strut that is not assembled properly then what good is a Quick-Strut.

2. Both upper support bearings had no grease in them at all. When viewed from top of strut, you could look down into the upper mount plate and see the balls and the retainer in the ball bearing as the bearings are not sealed. No grease in the bearings at all. Now the shop manual states to apply grease to those bearing when assembling the struts so I had to pack the bearings with grease before installing the Quick-Strut. Do you think a shop would look or take time to do that to a Quick-Strut?

3. The Monroe Quick-Strut center shaft, where the upper mount plate attached with the big nut on top, is way longer then the stock strut shaft. So much so that the shaft sticks up above the top of the upper mounting plate. The problem is that the upper plate rubber covers will not go on because they are flat to fit the stock struts were the strut shaft sits below the upper plate. So I can not put the stock rubber covers on the Monroe Quick-Struts which then can lead to water/dirt/etc... getting into the grease I just had to put in the upper bearings.

4. I emailed Monroe support about the issues above and the only response from them was a automated email saying they received my email. I have never heard back from them so I guess support from Monroe does not exist.

I know I could cut the top portion of the shaft off but then my lifetime warranty would be gone. If you read replies about problems with the Quick-Strut, most of them are about noise and upper bearing failures. From what I have seen with the above issues, those problems for others are very understandable. The biggest glaring hole here is the total lack of Monroe tech support for their product. You would think that a company would want to correct these issues if they have production problems assembling the struts, but that does not seem to be the case here. They must want to keep replacing these unit under warranty. This then may say something about the companies warranty too. If they can not respond to issues like the above to correct these problems, do you think you will be able to get a hold of them for a warranty?

Anyways, I think I found some rubber strut caps for a KIA that will work with the Monroe Quick-Struts. The ride seems to be a little smoother with the 17" tires. Only time will tell if the Monroe struts hold up. This reminded me that I still have to check the toe-in on the front.
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olliesshop
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by olliesshop »

Great summary ... It's frustrating that I had virtually the same problems with the MOOG assembled struts. I had the folded rubber spring seat (1), the shaft was too long (3) and no beneficial support (4). I did call MOOG, but they said the clunking was not the struts, it was something else in the suspension that I screwed up. Then when I wrote to them, after finding the folded rubber seat, they didn't reply. Very sad for MOOG, since I was a fan of them before, but now they've lost my future business.

So based on your post, I'm pretty sure I'm going to put them together myself this time, with either OEM or KYB parts if they're available. Any advice on the best place to purchase the parts? I've searched around on the web with moderate success, but I'm also thinking about getting the parts at a local store I like.

I sure hope it works out good this time around.
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Bookworm
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by Bookworm »

KYB is the OEM, as I recall.

The problem with KYB for this purpose is that they don't make rear strut kits. I REALLY don't want to get into spring compressors.

I put the monroe quick struts in my 2003, and the only issue was a folded rubber boot, which didn't really affect anything. That was when people were saying that if you torque to full specs, especially with the provided nuts, you'll shear the threads on the top bolts. So I reused the original bolts and didn't torque completely, and they worked fine.

Turns out that the rest of the noise was from the bad ball joins, not the shocks :) So, I'd advise that no matter what, if you're at the point of replacing shocks and struts, check all the control arms and tie rods.
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olliesshop
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by olliesshop »

Bummer about the rear shocks. I know that really limits the choices you have. With mine I have to tear mine apart anyway, since I haven't found anybody that makes the kit for AWD.

On the clunking, mine didn't make any noise at all, until I put in the struts, which leads me to believe that it's the struts. Although, I can't be 100% certain. But I did put in new ball joints and sway bar links a few months ago. I've also rechecked all the torques 3 different times.

Hopefully we'll get this figure out.
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by jolt »

olliesshop, as for parts places; Rock Auto Parts has the widest range of brands from any one supplier and parts pricing is pretty good too. The thing you have watch for with RA is the shipping costs. You need to try to get all your items from the same warehouse, if possible, to keep the shipping cost down. If you search around on the internet, you will find 5% off coupon codes for RA, which helps too. The bad thing with buying parts on the internet is return shipping cost as what you save up front can go away very fast if a return is required for a part.

Buying the parts local is good if you run into a problem with the parts and need to return something. Local is cheaper if warranty on parts is required later as there would be no shipping cost involved. It can be a gamble as to which is cheapest in the long run. Also most strut manufactures have rebates on struts and shocks about twice a year. So if you watch and time it right, you can save money with a manufactures rebate also.

Another thing I ran into with my 2009 Vibe is trying to find what spring rate the springs are that the manufactures use in their assembled strut units; this was a concern for ride height of the car after strut change. For my 2009 with a 2.4L engine, some manufactures listed one part number to fit all 1.8L and 2.4L. Other manufactures like Monroe list one part number for the 1.8L and a different part number for the 2.4L. The struts are the same part number for both engines but the springs have to be different on the heavier 2.4L; hence the different part number. If you look up the springs, the 1.8L spring is a different part number then the 2.4L spring but here is the kicker in that the 2.4L list different springs if the car has a the manual transmission or a automatic transmission. So these "quick strut" manufactures are cutting corners and consolidating parts to keep the manufacturing cost down. They do not build the assembles with the same parts they sell over the counter. If you want to make sure you have the same spring rate and the same OEM type parts, I would say you are better off buying the parts and putting the struts together yourself. Now if you have 250,000 miles on your car already, you may just need something to get you by and a "quick strut" may be all you need.

Your clunking noise, did you check the sway bar mount bushings as some here have had to change the rubber mounts for the bar. You checked the strut shaft nut in the upper support bearing assembly to make sure that was tight? Is the noise coming from one side or the other? Is your Vibe a 2009-10 and have the steering column noise?
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olliesshop
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by olliesshop »

Thanks Jolt ... Given all you've said I think I'm going to go with OEM parts and then assemble the struts. Now I have to figure out which are the right parts and springs. With regard to Rock Auto, I like them and actually got the current struts from them, but I'm way beyond their return date, since installed them 4 months ago. I've looked at them now and they don't seem to have OEM parts, though. So I'll probably have to go somewhere else and spend more.

With regard to the clunking. It was "clunk-free" before replacing the struts, which leads me to believe it's something I messed up on both sides while replacing the struts, or it's the struts themselves. I've replaced the sway bar mount bushings before, but I probably should replace them again. I also triple-checked all the torques on everything that was removed. I then decided to put new sway bar links on, since the noise is somewhat similar to a bad sway bar link, but that didn't make a difference. After a couple of months, the noise was still there, and driving me crazy. So I fabbed up a 21mm impact socket to tighten the shaft nut (but cutting the square part off and welding the two pieces back together). The tool worked great, but the noise remained. I even snapped the top of the shaft off, right above the nut on one side.

It sure is frustrating :(
Tim
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zbyers
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by zbyers »

olliesshop wrote: Tue Feb 04, 2020 4:11 am Thanks Jolt ... Given all you've said I think I'm going to go with OEM parts and then assemble the struts. Now I have to figure out which are the right parts and springs. With regard to Rock Auto, I like them and actually got the current struts from them, but I'm way beyond their return date, since installed them 4 months ago. I've looked at them now and they don't seem to have OEM parts, though. So I'll probably have to go somewhere else and spend more.

With regard to the clunking. It was "clunk-free" before replacing the struts, which leads me to believe it's something I messed up on both sides while replacing the struts, or it's the struts themselves. I've replaced the sway bar mount bushings before, but I probably should replace them again. I also triple-checked all the torques on everything that was removed. I then decided to put new sway bar links on, since the noise is somewhat similar to a bad sway bar link, but that didn't make a difference. After a couple of months, the noise was still there, and driving me crazy. So I fabbed up a 21mm impact socket to tighten the shaft nut (but cutting the square part off and welding the two pieces back together). The tool worked great, but the noise remained. I even snapped the top of the shaft off, right above the nut on one side.

It sure is frustrating :(

Rockauto doesn't have quick struts for the rear for the AWD, however, they do have JUST the strut listed. I didn't check under a Vibe, but they are listed under a matrix.

As for the clunking, I would check the sway bar links. I know you triple checked those, but those have to be VERY snug to keep them from making ruckus.
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Bookworm
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by Bookworm »

I want to reiterate. My 'clunking' in the front turned out to be bad ball joints. The guy that I passed to car onto said they fell apart when he unbolted them.
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olliesshop
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by olliesshop »

zbyers ... Good idea! I've looked for Matrix parts, but never on Rock Auto.

With regard to the sway bar links, I made the new ones as tight as I possibly could, with fairly long wrenches, but was unable to get a torque wrench in there. I'll give that another try. It looks like it should be 74 Nm (54.6 ft. lb.), which seem doable. It sure would be nice to not tear everything up again.

Bookworm ... On the ball joints, I just replaced those about 6 months ago and they have worked great since then. So I doubt they went bad while I replaced the struts. I agree, though, when they go bad they sure are noisy.
Tim
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mikemalvo
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by mikemalvo »

I second olliesshop on the MOOG struts. I did 3 sets warrantied on my vibe. Of course I had to pay shipping. RockAuto said talk to MOOG about it and MOOG says to talk to RockAuto about it. So now after three sets of front and rear struts and paying the shipping, and 3 alignments later, I gave in and bought the KYB’s for the front. Thank god I work at a shop and have an alignment rack but the amount of money I lost dealing with this “customer service” would have paid for the KYB’s. I had called MOOG twice saying what’s up and they said they’ve never heard anything like this before. I just pulled them out last night and they have the same problem as described with the spring insulator and the mounts sounding like sandpaper. The rears also sag and bounce worse than my originals with 130,000 on em. Clunking, popping, banging. Oh, and MOOG tried to blame the noise on something else. The whole front end is brand new with all MOOG parts. Well after telling the guy on the phone that he went quiet quick. Anyhow, go with the KYB’s. They ride much nicer and are actually quiet. The person on the phone said that all Monroe and MOOG and some other companies are one now so I’m not installing anything Monroe or MOOG again. I’m getting pretty good at changing my struts, with getting tools out and cleaning back up it’s about 20 min for both sides :roll:
Milesb
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by Milesb »

I replaced all 4 on my 2008 with Monroe Quick-Struts. The install went and well and they seem to work as expected. RockAuto was running a deal and I got all 4 for around $350 which seemed like a good deal.
Can't speak to other brands.
SmokingWill
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Re: Recommended strut kits

Post by SmokingWill »

Info for everyone I just worked with Scale Suspension based out of Quebec, Canada to have a coilover kit designed for the 09-10 Vibe GT and AWD

after 3 spring changes we have found a good fit that keeps the original ride quality and allows for lowering to get better fitment

https://scalesuspension.com/product/pon ... over-copy/
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