Another OEM vs Aftermarket inquiry - struts

KYB makes great struts sold under their own brand. They also make great struts that come in boxes marked Toyota.

Sachs makes decent parts too. I have fewer nice things to say about Monroe or Gabriel struts. There are also other cheaper ones that I would actively avoid.

You don't need a dealer for a strut job- if anything they cost more. Any "undercar" chain and all of the mom'n'pop mechanics do this kind of work all day long, although not all have alignment racks and the car will need one after.

The industry trend has been towards offering a packaged spring/strut assembly featuring ultracheap no-name struts. This is so they can do the packaging & dangerous spring assembly labor overseas. That way they can use a lower-skilled/lower-paid retail technician in Canada with reduced liability and still charge you almost as much as the old way.

When this started, the only packaged strut/spring assemblies available were the worst brands because nobody wanted to take the risk.

Now some of the good brands are starting to do it this way- just make sure you get that!

 

If you're in that set of people you can also easily fit coilovers to a Prius maybe want to raise it up and down to go camping apparently I'm not sure. The strut assemblies themselves can be whipped up by almost any fab shop I'm talking about the tubing not the inserts The part that you look at the springs. I used to have those wound in California by a local shop for like $90 a pop seriously it was a while ago but still this was back in the days when struts from Toyota were $400 aside and that wasn't even complete now you can buy upper strut bearings coilovers upper pillow mounts all that stuff for near nothing for these cars. Remember deep at it's root the Prius is a Corolla.

 

Other than making sure the 12v battery is disconnected when removing the calipers, this job is no different than any other car and does not require hybrid repair knowledge.

For perspective... Here's how us low budget DIY folks would do it:

1) Ignore it for a long time

2) Buy $120 pair (cheapest) of front struts with springs already assembled to them.

3) Procrastinate for months on swapping them out

4) Finally spend a few hours swapping them out

5) Take it to a tire or alignment shop and get an alignment...

6) Pay rent with money most people would of spent on replacing their bad strut.

 

I replaced mine with KYB´s. 2 front (complete minus springs) for about $700 at a local shop.
The rear ones I did myself as it was an easier job. 1,5 hours work and $170 for 2 shocks.

 

I replaced mine with KYB´s. 2 front (complete minus springs) for about $700 at a local shop.
The rear ones I did myself as it was an easier job. 1,5 hours work and $170 for 2 shocks.

 

Dealer said that my front struts were worn, and the strut boots were torn. If I change this, it would better to just change out the strut and coil assembly together right? I ask because it seems that some people on this thread are changing the struts without the springs? I assuming that springs is synonymous with coils?

 

The upper bearing wears also, and the dust cover breaks away, and the damper
wears out, the spring wears out. You could just change the strut, but it's kinda like
change the engine oul and not the filter....
Plus it's a lot of work. Easier and faster to change the whole strut. And you should change
both.
How many miles do you have on it?

 

Generally if you're not doing a whole lot of suspension modifications and things like that it is seemingly smarter to buy a complete strut assembly with the spring already on it these springs are not rocket science nothing really super special Don't believe all the hype in the advertising If you remember 20 years ago struts would cost a thousand plus dollars to get sorted out on a car now a whole set for a vehicle with springs top plates and everything. Approx 339 or so . No need to get carried away with the humongous brand names and all the fancy stuff It's not like you're going to be autocrossing your Prius You have no sponsors nobody's paying the bills except yourself. It's kind of like other things in life You kind of get your wants desires and your real needs in the perspective and then you can move forward reasonably well splitting hairs isn't a thing here.

 

Does your suspension feel or sound worn out? Torn boots don't really effect much, but it's a great way for dealers to upsell you new suspension parts. I did my struts (with bearings but without springs) at 200k miles because the boots were torn and it looked like they were leaking, but upon removing them they felt identical to the new OEM ones (the old bearings were fine too). It's a super easy job and I imagine a good money maker for dealers. I'd be skeptical.

 

I just changed out the ones my Gen 3. I used the Monroe for both front and rear - and was surprised at how much firmer the ride was after.

Monroe seems to have given up on the rubber boot which shreds in only a couple years in favor of a plastic tube that mostly shields the top of the strut, like the shocks in the rear. The tube doesn't totally keep the dirt and stuff from getting in the top, but it doesn't wear out either.

I got the strut/spring combinations for the front so I wasn't being chased around the garage by a flying coil spring. It's a few $ more. The ones without the springs also don't seem to come with new rubber boots or anything else up there either.

Of course, I had to get an alignment. I think I could have made things easier on the alignment guy by tightening the lower strut to steering knuckle bolts all the way. It would depend on the shop of course (some do toe and go only). My guy loosens up the strut to steering knuckle bolts and adjusts the camber as well (maybe I got the wrong torque spec and put a bit too much on those bolts too). If I end up doing this again, I'll probably only give those bolts only half the torque and make sure the alignment guy knows to tighten them all the way. (I trust this guy more than the Toyota dealer.)

A few years ago, I did this for my Gen 2 Prius. I don't know if it was shipping damage, or what, but one of the lower front struts had too small of a gap to go over the steering knuckle and I wasted a lot of time muscling it into place. These days, I'd go to the hardware store and get a bolt, a couple nuts, and a couple washers to spread the gap at the bottom of the strut a little, but I didn't need to do that this time.

I don't remember needing to pull the calipers, I didn't disconnect the accessory battery. Other than that, the only thing that makes this a bit unique is having to take out the windshield wipers/cowl to get at the three nuts at the top of the front struts. The struts/shocks are no different for a Prius than a lot of the non-hybrid cars out there. It does seem to be beneath the dignity of a lot of the low-quality mechanics to work on a Prius. They also seem to have trouble with taking the thing on a test drive after they're done. They can't figure out how to get the engine to run. These are the types that would rather dowse themselves in $20 of unleaded and light a match rather than drive a Prius, which seems to be the vast majority of them around here.

The biggest pain was to get to the top bolts for the rear shocks. Toyota may have fixed that for some of the latter Gen 3, but mine required me to take the interior apart in the back. Maybe there's a way to reach under the side panels after you've got the floor panels pulled out. I hate the way the aftermarket used a different nut on top of the rear shocks. (What's the new torque spec with the different thread?) The aftermarket protective cover was also plastic, versus the metal of the OEM, but I don't care much about that.

Just my two cents, and how I do it.

 

On the G2 you will not need an alignment as long as when you reassemble the strut to the hub you remember to tap it all the way in or kick it with your foot with the bolts drawing up just a little so that the hub seats all the way in towards the car not sprung out towards you or the road there's a definite clunk you tighten up the bolts a little bit You put your hand in the center between the two nuts and bolts you just put through the strut and the hub and you push it towards the car clunk If you let it go it'll pop back out Don't tighten it popped back out push it in tighten the bolts You're alignment should be within a few 16ths of where you took it apart and if you use the same alignment guy pretty regularly He will tell you that he'll show you this is what it wasn't it whatever My alignment guy knows me real well and every time I change struts and brake parts and all this kind of nonsense and I shoot the car over to him and he's like he takes a quick look at his like no worries you're within a few 16th you're golden no problem and then when I get a new car and I do all the stuff I bring it to him he aligns that car initially if he knows it's going to stay with me every few years or so I'll send it over to him just have a look at it make sure we're straight generally there are no tire wear issues etc and that's that springs don't generally go flying around the shop that is a myth I've blasted them apart with no spring compressor before nobody got hurt the spring and top plate assembly tried to force my hand to the ceiling like I was given the Hitler salute to the crowd about it to not under that kind of pressure I promise It's under some but not that kind Go mess around with some truck springs or tractor springs that's where you're talking about getting hurt You can just take a wheel and sit it on top of a strut assembly sitting on the floor Lean on it blast the top nut off with your Mac gun and it'll go clunk and you'll lift up the tire drop it on the floor in the spring and the top plate will fall on the ground and y'all will all be standing there laughing or making a video as they do now when we were doing this video cameras didn't exist then But anyway don't be too scared No lies or arms are getting taken out doing this and cars with coilovers you can just adjust the spring tension nut run it up then just blast the nut off because there's no tension You just removed it yeah regular struts don't have this adjustment I'm well aware.

 

Approaching 120,000

 

Yes this is a generation too you're not even broke in that good yet If it's a generation 3 well you're a little bit better than broke in. At that kind of mileage on a generation too you might notice the new struts a little bit You shouldn't have any croaking or groaning or any of that going on in your suspension at this mileage even living where the suspension is used a bit more than places where it's not still at this mileage it shouldn't be but it could be overloading the car you know five large people and luggage so on and you know all of that it's possible just not real likely.

 

You're probably good for another 50-100,000 miles....
Same with the rears.
Are they making noise when you turn? Or going over bumps?

No reason to get an alignment, the only adjustment is the toe. And that shouldn't change.
I can get aftermarket bolts for to do a camber adjustment. But, you don't really need too.
Caster is the 2nd most important adjustment, toe is the most important one.

I replaced mine with the monroe set from rock auto. I now believe it was a big mistake.
The rears were wrong and I had to send them back. And they charged me shipping, even though
it was their mistake. I ordered the KYB.

And now the right front seems to be making noise. I'm hoping it's the
ball joint, and or control arm bushings. Which I'm going to be replacing next week.

If they noise doesn't go away, I'll be sending them back and getting the KYB for the front.

 

Ok, I will get a second opinion on whether the front one needs to be done. The person who does my tires did concur with the dealer that the rear shocks are in need of work. From what I am reading, that process is a lot easier. I will search other forums to find out more.

Thank you all!

 

The front and rear struts both connect to a hub which holds your brake rotor wheel bearing etc I wouldn't necessarily say the back is any easier than the front they're one or two less connections You don't have a tie rod and the end link or sway bar connections of that type anyway they both take about the same amount of time to take off the car shove the other part back in the car apply the nuts and bolts tighten them up I mean if you want to say one is easier than the other I guess the rear has two less bolts you'll need to undo essentially.