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What Brand Struts Should I Buy?

by mikejax20, February 3, 2011



my options are monroe gabriel and kyb. ive heard alot of complaints that these 3 brands go out easily but theyre all my budget will alow keep in mijnd im just looking for power out of my rolla not crazy side ways action so i wont be doing any fancy maneuvering or any thing so wich brand would you recommend

Personally, out of the three - I'd go with KYB for the Corolla. Also depends on the condition of the springs and if you plan on running any aftermarket performance springs. OEM springs, those should be fine. Gabriel and Monroe are well known brands, but quality had really dropped for those setups. At the shop, the Monroes and Gabriels were replaced as soon as we put them on the car. At times, it got unreal - we'd get a pallet of new struts/shocks and have a pallet of defective ones heading out.

KYB GR-2 are not much more than the KYB OEM ones used by Toyota (badged KYB Excel in some cases), price wise, but are considered a good upgrade for the car. Smooth ride like OEM, but slightly firmer valving. Monroes and Gabriel, depending on the series, for the same price range tend to be valved softer to a more compliant ride. Some people like that, but if you compress the suspension for an extended period of time (carrying a heavy load, pulling a trailer, "spirited" driving) you could greatly shorten their lifespans.

Tokico struts are pretty decent, cost a couple dollars more, but are also more aggressively valved. This would be a good match-up if you plan on running a slightly lowered or performance suspension.

Fish,

Its been a while. How are things going?

I was going to say KYB as well.

But I didnt realize that gabriel and monroe were THAT bad. Had bad experince with gabriel, but sepparate issue...

tdk

thanks for the advice

Fish,

 

Its been a while. How are things going?

I was going to say KYB as well.

But I didnt realize that gabriel and monroe were THAT bad. Had bad experince with gabriel, but sepparate issue...

tdk

Things have been moving along nicely, thanks! It has been a while, good to see you back on the boards!

 

Yeah, to be honest, I believe that the Monroes have getting better, but for the money, I'd personally get KYB or something else. Even in OEM applications, example Buick Regals (Monroe Sensatrac is OEM), owners are switching over to KYBs to get a better ride and longer service life. Still, Monroe is a giant in the OEM arena - so they must be doing something right/people like them.

Gabriel struts, we just had lots of unusual problems with, most appear to be spotty quality control issues - even their G-Force premium performance struts don't compare to the more or less stock KYB GR-2, according to some owners on the Nissan forums that I troll from time to time.

Pretty sad, as 20-30 years ago, both of these companies were the premium shock brands to go to.

Guest MarkJ

I'd hate to revive an old thread, but definitely avoid Monroe struts. I replaced all 4 struts on my 98 with Monroe Quick Struts and they only lasted about 20K miles. Napa's struts are essentially rebadged Monroes.



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