How long before replacing struts?

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: IndyIan
Usually I wait until one is clearly bad(bounces like a basket ball on broken pavement, loses road contact and grip) then I replace both at that end of the car.
CRV is still on original struts with no issues yet. The Focus has the right rear one starting to become at little bouncy, so it may be time to replace the rears soon.


Rear of the focus is a separate shock and spring. You can replace them easily without even jacking the car up -which is nice!


Originally Posted By: JTK
Is CarX a local shop? $1030 seems extremely high. I would have guessed half of that.


I had both struts out of my car , replaced the strut bearings, and installed in about 1:30. Not bad.

Didn't fix the problem but still!

 

[dlayman]

My 05 civic started leaking from the rear right strut at about 275k miles. My 03 has original struts with no problems at 165k miles. That seems very early to need struts on a Civic.

Your aftermarket struts might wear out quicker than if you left the OEM's on. You don't seem to have any real evidence they need replacing. They're just trying to upsell you, IMO.

 

[mclasser]

Sounds like they're just arbitrarily going off mileage without any evidence the struts are actually bad. Leave it alone.

My Accord still has the factory struts.

 

[Kira]

Travel about and ask other shops how much they'd charge to do struts. I'll bet you'll find that "your guy" is rather high.

You can even go to a Honda dealer and ask how long you can expect your's to last. It'll be longer than any 75K.

PLUS, it's Autumn. All the shock specials are going on now. Kira

 

[2010Civic]

Leave them alone. 75,000 miles is nothing.

 

[Lubener]

It would take some pretty harsh roads to wear out a set of struts in 75k miles.

 

[Subdued]

you need an alignment, not struts. If there's no leak or no bounce, your struts are fine.

Dump that shop. Ridiculous.

 

[supton]

Originally Posted By: slacktide_bitog
If the car rides good, you don't need new struts. You'll know when they go bad, when the ride isn't any good, too bumpy, but if you don't feel anything wrong with them, then there probably isn't.


I disagree. On my VW I could never tell when they went bad. Yet when the struts came off, they clearly had no dampening--the last set I returned under warranty, so I got the chance to inspect. Then again, that last replacement set felt just the same as the dead struts. I flat couldn't tell the difference. Didn't help that the shop put them at full soft (against my wishes). Car passed the bounce test with dead struts too, and I've read elsewhere that the bounce test isn't valid.

Originally Posted By: Lubener
It would take some pretty harsh roads to wear out a set of struts in 75k miles.


Conventional wisdom on the VW MkIV platform was that the OEM struts were junk, and were in need of replacing around 40k. At any rate, we seem to have the roads for it around here.

 

[Vikas]

Unless he is replacing them with OEM Honda ones, leave them alone.

 

[mjoekingz28]

I had almost 300k on a Saturn and it rode fine. Now I have a Cobalt and it has been bouncing excessively for many miles (now at 150k). So it varies.

 

[Lubener]

Strut replacement is a good money maker for shops.

 

[DBMaster]

I probably never should have replaced the dampers (89 Accords did not use "struts") on my Accord. I was stuck in the old paradigm of cars from the 70's needing shocks every 25K miles. I think that was sold to us all by shock manufacturers. I put Sensatrac dampeners on the Accord at 150,000 miles and then again at 300,000 miles. I never noticed much difference even though the Monroes were gas charged and the OEM units were not.

The car had coil on shock assemblies at all four wheels but they were not referred to as "struts." I'm not sure what the distinction is, but I used to call them struts.