Opinions Wanted: "Unity" Front Strut Assembly $75

My opinion is OEM is best.

Reasoning for that is if you were to buy a generic "Gabriel Strut", you would find the ride quality to be very poor. You would waste money and more time doing it a second time with the quality OEM part.

 

It really is not a big deal to replace the coil springs if you have a decent spring compressor, as I pictured in my thread about how to replace the front struts.

 

You can take the strut assembly to a repair/tire shop (Pepboys, Firestone tire, etc) and they'll compress the spring and reassemble the new strut. Obviously you need to bring the necessary parts. $20/strut is the market rate in my area.

You can get free loaner tools at the big chain auto parts store (Pepboys, Autozone, etc) to swap out the old strut yourself. There is an element of danger involved, but if you are careful and compress each side slowly and equally, should not be a problem.

 

Sage thats an excellent way to go. I'm with you on the spring swap out. If not messing with the springs its a breeze to replace.
Thanks for the link thats how I'm going.

Only issue you may have is the 2 really big nuts that hold the bottom of the strut to the knuckle are on there really good.
Hit them with a little PB Blaster first.

Prepare by buying a 10 foot piece of 3/4 in EMT tubing at HD then cutting it in half in front of the store (takes 30 seconds with hacksaw) then you have 2 five foot breaker bar assisters for $4.00. Keep one in the trunk to break off wheel nuts if you have to change the tire. Life saver.
Easy as can be busting bolts off with a five foot breaker bar.

While your in there it may be worth it to replace the stab bar links too. There pretty cheap. I have not done this yet on a Prius and some cars are a pain as they use as hex key socket on one end.
Some cars are not bad. Maybe Pat can weigh in and say how bad they are to remove. But your already in there car jacked up and dirty as hell so might as well git it. Stab link replacement is pretty good bang for your dollar. They take alot of wear.

Take a real good look at lower ball joint while your in there. And shake the wheel hard in all directions. Spray rubber conditioner on the cv joint boots (Black Magic Protectant) and lube up the chassis especially the lower control arm pivot bushing area. I like to apply some lube to the strut spring perch end top and bottom. It keeps that spring quiet. And you can get a good gander at the back of the rotor and see how its doing.

And the front end will need an alignment. And beer.

Good Luck.

 

Yes sir they are. Never lost one yet. Just need a little love.

 

Yes. Give it a good beating. Bust the nuts loose on the ground then tighten them back up enough to perform this test when in the air.

Should be tight on all axis's. In out forward back. You can lift the tire up too too and listen for any creaking and find the creak and lube it. Just don't hurt yourself. Easy to pull a muscle there. I like to stretch it out real good pre flight and take some alieve also. But I'm old.

Oh almost forgot while the wheel is off I grease the mating area of the tire to hub contact area.
I use 100% synthetic wheel grease. When wheel back on its sealed but it prevents the wheel form getting stuck pn the hub. Comes right off next time.

When the tire is off I wash it real good front and back. Especially the inner rim you can't see. Any road debris stuck there will affect wheel balance. I push out from behind the center beauty cap. After the wheel is on I pack that castle nut hole with syn grease. Then pop the center cap back on. It prevents that castle nut from rusting onto the threaded knuckle spindle. If rusted on real bad its wheel cut off for the nut and then if you mess that up its new knuckle time.
50 cents of grease prevents all that.

 

You now have the option to "rebuild" your front strut assemblies at a later time if you want, just get the necessary replacement parts, and have a shop do the compression and reassembly for you.

KYB front struts (333388, 333389) $56.51; Monroe running $70.74
KYB front strut mount (SM5215) $56.99 or Monroe front strut mount (905957) $55.30 [to save a few dollars]
Toyota front dust seal (90303-22002) $4.60
Toyota front insulator, upper (48157-02070; big rubber boot) $16.31
Toyota front insulator, lower (48158-47010; large and thick diameter rubber wrap for bottom coil) $10.68
Total pricing for KYB and Toyota = $145.09 (Parts price only per strut.)
ADD $20 for strut disassembly/reassembly
TOTAL $165.09/strut

When I replaced my original struts at 127K miles (way overdue, esp rears), the front strut mount, front lower insulator, and rear upper insulator were in great shape. You could consider reusing these, esp the insulators.

The above prices are more than the complete assembled UNITY Strut. Both manufactures have a limited Lifetime warranty. But, the KYBs might be better quality part? Only time and your experience will tell. Do let us know after tens of thousands of mile and also write your feedback on Amazon.

Amazon has free shipping, and possibly no Tax for you.
Toyota parts were from Camelback. Free shipping if you exceed a certain dollar amount, so consider adding some additional maintenance parts to your order.

 

I agree with the concept of using steel tube to extend the breaker bar. However I would modify Ed's suggestion as follows: Cut one 3' length and one 5' length, because 5' may be too long depending upon the location of whatever you are loosening.

The only item that the 5' length would be clearly useful for is the axle nut, but you need a way to keep the 12 point socket from slipping off the nut which is not easy if you are 5' away.

I haven't needed to replace the front stabilizer bar links yet, my 2004 has 182K miles now. I believe you will need to use a hex key socket to hold the stud in place while removing the nut.

 

KYB is the main supplier to Toyota for struts and shocks and is the best quality replacement. I got complete KYB front strut assemblies for my daughter's 2005 Corolla; they were easy to install and restored the ride and handling to like new. I have also replaced the individual struts, front and back, on a previously owned 2007 Camry with KYB with excellent results. Monroe is so-so, not the quality they used to be. I would not even think about risking my money, time and effort to install no-name struts unless I personally knew someone who had done it and test drove the car.

 

From the Amazon picture, the complete bolt-on front strut replacement looks complete. The upper insulator looks like a copy of Toyota's upper (rubberish) insulator boot. Hard to tell if there is any lower insulator in this same picture. However, on Unity's website, and a close-up of an unknown front replacement strut assembly (LINK), there appears to be something there.

Contact Unity in Florida (telephone, email, and web entry form provided), to be certain. I'm sure they would be more than happy to respond, as they are probably eager to gain market share.

Their website claims:

"Complete Strut Assemblies include all the components required for strut replacement in a single, fully-assembled unit. They feature pre-assembled replacement bearing plate, upper and lower spring isolators, upper spring seat, coil spring, boot kit, and a premium strut."

No mention of a dust seal, but that isn't so critical in my opinion. If I recall correctly, the KYB strut mount plate uses a sealed bearing vs open bearing in OEM. This dust seal absorbs the oil/grease from the exposed bearings in the upper bearing plate. It probably helps keep debris from getting into the open bearings as well. When I had changed my front struts, this seal was very oil; see attached picture.
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The description says it's for 2005-2009. Does anyone know if it will work on 2004? Is there a difference?

 

Since my car is making a huge racket I decided to call and get some on the way. I talked to Mickey at complete struts who was more then helpful and he verified that they will fit the 2004 body style. My prius has over 150k on it and I can't justify spending an extra $120 for the brand name stuff. Plus they are located here in Florida so I'll have them tomorrow.

 

The Autonation Toyota Gulf Freeway (Houston, TX) parts website shows that one strut will fit Prius up to 3/2005. So there may be some minor differences...
2004 Toyota Prius Parts - AutoNation Toyota Gulf Freeway Parts

 

I got the struts today and installed them in about 3 hours using the jack that came with the car and less then ideal tools. If you have an air compressor and a decent jack I dont see this job taking much more then 1.5-2hrs tops. Anyways if you have an 04 they should fit fine. I am pleased with the struts and the ride is no different then the stock ride. I would recommend these to anyone. The company was also very helpful and easy to deal with.

 

Also the dust seals came installed on the struts. Pretty much plug and play