Out with Monroes, in with KYBs

[Bottom_Feeder]

I've griped a few times over the past few years about my negative experience with Monroe Quick Struts on my wife's Corolla. They were solidly made and the install went fine but the results were disappointing. Both the shock valving and spring rate were too soft making it feel like I did not replace the worn original struts with new parts. On top of that, one of the mounts got noisy and eventually the bearing failed requiring me to take one apart to fix it anyway. Total buyer's remorse. I've never been happy with them.

KYB has since released their own Strut-Plus for this car and I decided to spend $250 to swap out the Monroes. What a difference! The valving is firmer and the spring rate now feels correct. The front end feels way more planted like it should have with the Monroes. After an excellent experience with KYBs struts on my Impreza and now this, I don't plan on buying Monroe products again any time soon.

 

[Indydriver]

KYB supplies OE for many Japanese makes so I would expect them to have a good replacement for Corolla. I put Napa/Monroe replacements all around on my Tahoe and they were fine. Are you absolutely certain you got the correct application first time around? For example, I took my Mazdaspeed3 to a shop for new shocks and they proudly recommended KYB. So, I said fine. When I got the car back, it just didn't feel right. I searched the KYB website for the Speed3 application and there was none. I called them and they confirmed that they made replacement shocks ONLY for the Mazda 3, not the Mazdaspeed3! I had the wrong shocks on my beloved little speedster. I went back and demanded Bilsteins which were great.

 

[BrocLuno]

Generally prefer KYB on strut equipped vehicles.

On spring and shock systems, I like Monroe Sensa-Trac shocks for a nice ride

 

[28oz]

Put Monroes on my Quest because of nice rebate on Rock Auto. I quickly regretted it. Within 20k miles, or so, they were just as soft as the old ones. Much better experience with KYB. I would choose them any day over Monroes.

 

[Audios]

Monore is lifetime warranty, we use had one fail after 2 years on a civic and they covered the refund for a set of KYB like you installed. If you have your receipt, its worth the phone call.

 

[FCD]

Haven't had a good experience with Monroes either, my Capri had a set of Monroe rear shocks on it about 20 years ago, and they clapped out in a few years, 15-ish years ago it had a set of Koni Yellows put on it and they are great, still like new.

 

[Wolf359]

Yeah, they're lifetime warranty. At least get a new set and maybe just sell them on craigslist. They had a bad set at one point.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Originally Posted By: Audios
Monore is lifetime warranty, we use had one fail after 2 years on a civic and they covered the refund for a set of KYB like you installed. If you have your receipt, its worth the phone call.

Originally Posted By: Wolf359
Yeah, they're lifetime warranty. At least get a new set and maybe just sell them on craigslist. They had a bad set at one point.

Yeah, I've been thinking about that. I'm sure I could pull the invoice from Amazon but I don't know how many miles are on them. 25k or so. I have the KYB boxes so shipping them back would be easy also.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Always check for gabriel Ultras, best bang for the buck IMO.

 

[Drew99GT]

I agree; had Monroe OE Spectrum struts installed on my Corolla a few months back and they are as soft, if not softer than the completely blown 100,000 mile Monroe Sensatracs they replaced, and one is very noisy.

If I still have the car in a few years, I may just get KYBs.

 

[Lolvoguy]

+1 with the OP

Installed all four struts on a 97 Escort with 150k miles. Within a very short time the car felt soft again (like I never replaced all four shocks).

I eventually decided to dump the car to avoid the hassle of changing the struts AGAIN!

Like others have said, never using Monroe again! Total waste of time and labor (money) to get installed.

 

[DBMaster]

I used Sens-a-Trac dampers on my 89 Accord. No "Quick Strut" kits for that car. All four corners had spring on shock design. I replaced the OEM dampers at 150,000 miles and was quite pleased with the Monroe units. I replaced them again at 300,000 miles - getting all four free under the lifetime warranty. Honestly, though, I don't think they were worn out at the 300,000 mile point. I think that your level of satisfaction is going to be heavily application dependent. I don't plan to use a quick-strut type of assembly on my Mazda3 if I ever replace the struts. I have spring compressors and I have seen plenty of posts on BITOG indicating that the hardware in the "quick" assemblies tends to be a bit chintzy.

 

[RichardS]

I put Monroe struts on the buick about a month ago. I'm not impressed by the ride, but I'm not too upset about it, either. Will definitely go OEM or better next time around.

Glad you're liking the KYBs!

 

[slacktide_bitog]

I used Gabriel's quick struts on a 3rd gen Camry, and they were good.

I have Monroe quick struts waiting to go on my 4th gen Maxima. Right now, they have cheap Chinese quick struts installed by the previous owner.

 

[Charlie2015]

I replaced all four corners on my 98 accord with KYB complete strut assemblies. Very good results and very affordable. Cost around $430 dollars and took about 2 hours.

 

[mister_two]

Put Monroe quick struts in all four corners of my Accord, the car drove about the same as before. No better and no worse but after a year it does make various squeaky noises. I figured the car had 200k with the original OEM struts and with the Monroe rebate it was an inexpensive maintenance item. About a month ago, my sister's V6 2004 Camry need new struts. Bought two KYB strut plus and it made a BIG difference. Of course her old struts (especially the pass side) were totally shot. This may not be a apples to apples to comparison....

 

[nthach]

Only reason I would get the Monroes is the warranty. I installed them on my parent's old van and it rode OK, if not softer than the OEM Ford/Nissan shocks. A friend's Tahoe has the older Sensa-Tracs on it. Of course it feels a little wallowy.

 

[Bottom_Feeder]

Monroe's warranty appears to be for defects, which makes sense. I'm not real sure I could get them replaced or refunded because I simply didn't like them which is what it comes down to. Maybe the too-soft spring rate could get some traction but I doubt it.

I'm real close to just throwing them in the metal recycling pile and forgetting about it. Lesson learned.

 

[Drew99GT]

Monroe apparently warrants the OE spectrum line for wear as well as defects. The shop I got mine from said if it gets bouncy, bring the car back and they'll put new ones on for the price of labor.

 

[Wolf359]

Originally Posted By: Bottom_Feeder
Monroe's warranty appears to be for defects, which makes sense. I'm not real sure I could get them replaced or refunded because I simply didn't like them which is what it comes down to. Maybe the too-soft spring rate could get some traction but I doubt it.

I'm real close to just throwing them in the metal recycling pile and forgetting about it. Lesson learned.


Never had an issue returning them. They just ask you why and you just say that the damping isn't good. I've gotten them at Advance Auto before and they didn't really care, just needed some answer to put down on a form and they gave me a new set. One time I found out they were defective as I felt they were sitting a little low, found out about it on the forums and I called them up and they sent me a new set and also paid for return shipping. They even offered to pay for labor, but I never got around to it as I just paid a mechanic $80 to install the new set so wasn't too worried about it.