Cost of Shock Replacment?

I can't speak about the Prius in this case, but a few years ago I paid $900 to replace the shocks and struts in a '98 Camry. They told me the parts themselves are not that expensive but it is labor-intensive. I mentioned this to a friend who is a DIY type of guy, and he said he once replaced the shocks and struts in his old Jeep Cherokee and confirmed that the parts didn't cost much but it was time-consuming work. Hope this helps.

 

of course he does, evan i'm a little scarce on the tech lately because we're doing massive preparation for his college and stuff.

both shocks for $450 installed?!?! if that's oem parts, jump on that now. they tend to run a couple hundred a piece, plus maybe 4ish hours of labor to rip apart the back end of the car to get to the mounting bolts.

if they're letting you get off that cheap, might as well add strut mounts to the order because it's no additional labor to tear things down, just parts cost. they are wear items and do need to be replaced periodically.

for the record, the $80 struts online are not worth it. we know from experience, we went oem on everything else suspension wise on our other car, but weren't willing to drop the cash on oem struts. we saved the money with some cheap ones, but it was a bad move.

 

Strut your stuff

Galaxee, we often see KYB brand struts and shocks on ebay etc. for about the price you mention. Are these the ones you consider poor?

 

I kinda remember that the dealership wanted $700, for labor alone, to swap in the Sportivo shocks and springs. I went to a local performance shop/garage and got it done there for $200, if i remember correctly.

 

we personally got gabriels most recently, and would not recommend them.

kyb is actually the oem manufacturer, but of course they can make the a/m ones of poorer quality than the oem contract. they are cheaper that way in both senses of the expression. those are alright, we bought some of those a couple camrys ago. definitely a quality difference over oem though.

 

does your shock make noise when it's goingover bumps?

An easy way to test your shocks would be to apply a downward force on the rear of your car and see how it bounces.


If you push andand it goes downand back up and stops then you're shocks should be ok. Now if you push down and it goes down up down up ... then ti's bad....

 

well, even if a shock is performing ok, if there's a leak it's a goner.

seepage can happen, but if there's oil on it, it's on its way out.

 

need advice

to access the rear shock you have to remove the seat.
Any hints on how to remove bottom seat?
Do I need to remove upper seat and how do you remove it?
What is the procedure for removing the strut including jacking up the vehicle?
Do I remove the tires from both sides?
I have a used strut assembly including the spring and plan to place the entire unit in as is. Do you recommend spraying any nuts or bolts with penetrating oil?
thank you

 

can anyone explain how to remove the back seat of 2003 prius?

 

LAME my left front shock has a seepage too, not a leak but where the camber bolts are there's some oil, touching the metal part of the shock (where the rubber boots covers it) there's a small amoutn of oil but not much... (wiping it down, there's no film of oil until a couple days later) if i had to predict probably 10000 more km before some more oil starts going out.

I'm debating if I should practice my skills with the spring compressor and just replace the left shock, or go all out and replace front shocks (2) with spring already installed hmmm

 

Hi Phil,

If you see oil seepage on either front strut, I recommend that you replace both front struts. This is not hard to do; the coil spring is fairly easy to compress. If the rubber boots are not in perfect condition, then I suggest that you replace them as well.

I replaced the front struts on my 2001 at ~60K miles although no oil seepage was evident. One was obviously bad because when compressed, it took a very long time to extend. The other was marginally bad as the effort required to compress was less than a new strut.

Earlier in this string the comment was made that it is possible to ascertain the condition of the struts/shocks by repeatedly pressing down on the bumper and then assessing whether the car quickly recovers. In the case of Prius, this is untrue. The only reliable way to assess the condition is to remove the suspect part and test it with the spring removed; but this takes so much effort that you'd might as well replace the part with a new one.

 

can you clarify where the film is? the boot that covers the piston is one thing- if it's above the spring seat and you get just a little film of oil, don't worry about it for a little while and keep an eye on it to watch for worsening. but if you're seeing oily dust buildup below the spring seat, down where the camber bolts go you definitely need to replace it soon.

but the boot and the camber bolts are pretty much on opposite ends of the assembly.

patrick- out of curiosity, why do you say the bounce test is ineffective on a prius? it's meant as a quick exam, not as the end-all of suspension diagnosis. even a failed strut will pass a quick bounce test on any car for a while until it's very much worn out.

 

Hi Galaxee,

Well - I think you answered your Q in the last part of your msg above...

I know of three potential ways to test a strut or shock:

• bounce test (which my 2001 Prius passed fine although the struts were quite worn. I pushed it up & down like a madman, then upon release the car rose back up and stopped, no multiple bouncing.)
• look for oil seepage (easy to do but it is possible to see no oil seepage while the strut is worn; or to see oil seepage while the strut is still good <compared to a new part>. Hence this test is not particularly accurate.)
• remove strut assembly from vehicle, remove the coil spring, and compress manually; compare to new strut (which is the most accurate but takes substantial effort to do)

For fun, I attached TSB SU007-06 which shows Toyota's suggested guidelines to evaluate oil seepage testing.

At ~60K miles, my 2001 front struts had no oil leakage but were definitely bad when compared to new parts. OTOH, my 2004 rear shocks at ~30K miles showed oil seepage on one shock, sufficient to replace per the TSB; yet when I compared its resistance to a new part I found that shock was still OK.

 

oh, DH was just wondering about your comment above because the prius is no different than any other car in terms of the bounce test.

that tsb pretty much reflects what DH said above re: evaluating oil on the strut assy. though it's a nice guide for the uninitiated.

 

hm when i try to jounce my front it so stiff it won't even jounce! It feels like if i press any harder down on the bumper i'll crack the bumper before it jounces!

when i put the car up on the hoist i saw dry oil all the way down to the knuckle bracket, and under the spring seat. But when touching near the oil seal case (with the rubber boot covering it, had to push it up) there was little to no oil on the metal part. I even wiped it a few times and saw very almost like its leaking from the spring seat instead I'm not sure. I'll try to wipe it again the next time I use my car and see if i can gauge how much oil is actually leaking.

sometimes when reversing or going up/down elevations when turning, you can hear creeks and flexes in the rear suspension (epically with the rear seats folded down), does the rear have a sway bar that has bushings to check?

When changing struts what's the best way to mark the camber bolts so that I don't lose my current alignment settings?

 

Hi Phil,

Any oil on or below the spring seat is coming from the strut assembly. If you see oil reaching down to the bottom of the strut, that clearly fails Toyota's suggested test per the TSB that I attached.

Your rear suspension noise might be due to bad rear shocks, or it might be due to the sway bar mounted within the beam axle. Yes, there are bushings and they should be examined.

You will definitely lose your camber adjustment when you change the front struts for two reasons:

• You are installing a new strut body which potentially has slightly different dimensions compared to the old strut body
• Some camber adjustment is possible when you loosen the two bolts holding the bottom of the strut to the steering knuckle - you can move the bottom in and out slightly. Marking the bolts does nothing to preserve the existing adjustment.

Don't worry about it, just have the front wheel alignment checked after you do this work.