Review: Gabriel Ultra ReadyMount Complete Strut Assembly on 2015 Toyota RAV4

N

Navi

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Aug 14, 2019
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I am going to be honest and say that I did not know how this was going to go. Would I get back my Toyota RAV4 riding stiff like a sports car? Would I hear some type of squealing and bumping? According to Scotty Kilmer on Youtube the strut assemblies are "Chinese junk" and a worn out OEM strut/spring is better than these assemblies. Back in 2009 I did use Monroe QuickStruts on a 1999 Toyota Solara with 150,000 miles. The Monroes raised the vehicle 2 inches and it drove like a Honda...a bit stiff. However, the ride was much much better then before.

So it took me some time to get to this point. The Toyota dealership wanted $1400 for the complete job and told me that I would have to "leave it" for a few days. That was too much for a 2015 Toyota RAV4 with 130,000 miles. So I went on RockAuto and bought 2 Gabriel Ultra ReadyMount strut assemblies with springs for $260 total. A local mechanic wanted $240 to change out both and would take just a few hours to do it.

I just got the vehicle back and it literally drives like a Lexus. When my woman bought this car in 2015 the ride wasnt very good, but now it rides better then when we got it from the dealership. Clearly, this exceeded my expectations.

Time will tell if these shocks will last or develop noises like I read in reviews. To be clear nearly all of the reviews on AutoAnything are very positive with a few sour ones. These strut assemblies are 5 star. Probably Mr Kilmer of Youtube...a mechanic I never heard of...simply bought the wrong brand and thus declares all of these strut assemblies as bad. I sure did not appreciate his commentary on parts made in China.

scot.jpg
 
Yeah, as you mention the other thing that always worries me is longevity. They might ride great now but be much worse in a year. Sometimes it seems performance fades incrementally so you don't notice until one day, you do....

I hope they serve you well.
 
What kind of shape is the car in besides the suspension? Is it rusty? Do you plan on having the car in 50k? Will it get to 200k in your hands? :unsure:

Regardless of Scotty's comments, it's still sad to see Gabriel made in China (though they used to be made in Mexico). AFAIK, both Monroe and KYB are made in the US.

Please keep us updated on how long they last :)
 
Did you get an alignment? If not, well, it is probably way off and that may affect ride quality.
 
Navi said:
I am going to be honest and say that I did not know how this was going to go. Would I get back my Toyota RAV4 riding stiff like a sports car? Would I hear some type of squealing and bumping? According to Scotty Kilmer on Youtube the strut assemblies are "Chinese junk" and a worn out OEM strut/spring is better than these assemblies. Back in 2009 I did use Monroe QuickStruts on a 1999 Toyota Solara with 150,000 miles. The Monroes raised the vehicle 2 inches and it drove like a Honda...a bit stiff. However, the ride was much much better then before.

So it took me some time to get to this point. The Toyota dealership wanted $1400 for the complete job and told me that I would have to "leave it" for a few days. That was too much for a 2015 Toyota RAV4 with 130,000 miles. So I went on RockAuto and bought 2 Gabriel Ultra ReadyMount strut assemblies with springs for $260 total. A local mechanic wanted $240 to change out both and would take just a few hours to do it.

I just got the vehicle back and it literally drives like a Lexus. When my woman bought this car in 2015 the ride wasnt very good, but now it rides better then when we got it from the dealership. Clearly, this exceeded my expectations.

Time will tell if these shocks will last or develop noises like I read in reviews. To be clear nearly all of the reviews on AutoAnything are very positive with a few sour ones. These strut assemblies are 5 star. Probably Mr Kilmer of Youtube...a mechanic I never heard of...simply bought the wrong brand and thus declares all of these strut assemblies as bad. I sure did not appreciate his commentary on parts made in China.

View attachment 131069
Click to expand...
This guy is so biased against certain things-don't listen to him nor give him any more clicks.
 
Gabriel Ultra shocks themselves have been well-regarded on this forum. I think you’ll see good service from them. Wait a bit for the springs to likely settle before getting an alignment. I’d be interested in knowing in 6-12 months how they hold up. You can probably expect them to soften a little and come into their own over the next 500-1000 miles.
 
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In the distant distant past I had KYB struts/shocks once and they were really harsh. The Monroes as stated were very firm and lifted the car. This go-round the Gabriels exceeded my expectations. The ride was Lexusy. A refined ride that wasnt overly firm and well controlled in turns and corners absorbing bumps and me not feeling that road. I could not have asked for more. I fully expected picking up the car and experiencing flaws.

The way the economy is right now I can see us keeping this RAV4 until 300,000 miles...now has 130,000 miles. Lets say the Gabriels last 50,000 miles then I can just buy another set. Cost for 2 Gabriels about $270 on RockAuto, Labor at local independent mechanic $240...$260 including all tax and other fees. So lets say about $530 total to install those fronts. The Toyota dealership would charge around $1400 with Toyota struts. So even if they dont last as long I can just go and get another set and still be cheaper then dealership buy and install.

On other non-Toyota cars I own usually struts/shocks last 50000 miles where you can tell its time to replace. On the Toyota RAV4 the worn OEM shocks I could pretty much tell. The front end very spongy in turns and you can feel the road. The funny thing is even when new it kind of felt that way. The Gabriels seemed to take the car up to a different level of refinement.

We have been keeping up with the maintenance doing things like trans, transfer case, and rear diff flushes. We have changed the spark plugs and all filters and doing 5000 mile oil changes.

So, yeah, this Toyota will be here for another 5 to 7 years, 130000 miles. I dont see things getting better with the economy any time soon.
 
I will report back if there is any problems with these Gabriels. However, this particular vehicle is driven on average about 18000 miles per year unlike my other fleet vehicles which are driven 70,000 miles per year. It is used for commuting to and from work and other personal tasks.

My experience on my fleet vehicles is usually the shocks/struts are gone by 50,000 miles where the car can still pass Fords "bounce test" but as the driver you know they are gone by how it rides and corners/brakes. I kind of think the shocks/struts were gone a while ago on the RAV4 but the main driver of it just didnt notice or care.

I gave the RAV4 a thorough test drive noted how it drove. I will periodically give it a test drive, but I bet we wont really know for at least 2 years.

The rear suspension is shocks on the Toyota RAV4 which are two bolts, but one of those bolts is very tricky to get off requiring a very special tool. I had the dealership take care of that and I was charged $200 per side. If brought to an independent mechanic they would struggle with it because its only really known by the techs at Toyota how to get that bolt off. Genuine Toyota shocks were used for the rear. Total cost was like $500 by the dealership for those two shocks including the price of the shocks.
 
I know that Midas gets about $950 to use those Gabriel all in one quick parts on my wife's GM SUV, fronts only. It is a serious time saver for shops and greatly yields margins.

We used Monroes quik struts on my 1998 Nissan and I regretted it, main thing was the ride was different, second was the height.

So when my wife needed front and rear, I too ordered from Rock, Bilstein B6's front and rear, and I ordered every single piece a la carte all GM OE such as boots, bumps, mounts, sway bar end links, sway bar bushings, etc. By the time it was said and done, paying a garage to install, it probably cost about $800. It's not gonna get done in one shot, and I get it, some will say how much time did you spend/waste online trying to get the best price, when I was done in a weekend....but it's gonna be on the car for years and the ride is better than original....my .02

btw nothing pleases me more than when I see a truck/suv with yellow and blue shocks, implies quality
 
Navi said:
The rear suspension is shocks on the Toyota RAV4 which are two bolts, but one of those bolts is very tricky to get off requiring a very special tool. I had the dealership take care of that and I was charged $200 per side. If brought to an independent mechanic they would struggle with it because its only really known by the techs at Toyota how to get that bolt off. Genuine Toyota shocks were used for the rear. Total cost was like $500 by the dealership for those two shocks including the price of the shocks.
Click to expand...

I must just not be cool enough to find the secret handshake because I was intrigued but all three videos I just watched make it look like a couple 17mm wrenches (one ratcheting of course) get the job done. What am I missing? Or can I not know unless I'm a card-carrying Toyota technician??

edit: and if it's me I'm 100% flipping that lower bolt around for future service. To put the exposed threads facing FORWARD to get hit by every bit of road debris and salt or mag chloride spray is DUMB. I'll take my chances on it "falling out"
 
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It looks and sounds like a few 17mm wrenches. However, there are a lot of people on the internet who seem to have trouble with that one bolt. If you notice in the videos, the people who make them always have an easy time in getting it off, but they had somehow loosened that bolt before the video was made and so they were easily able to turn it for the purpose of making the video. A bolt like that exposed to elements I can imagine would need a breaker bar, but such a bar cant fit and so you can only use 2 smaller box wrenches. In reading forums on actual people who did it versus people who made videos for profiting off of views there was some work involved in loosening that bolt. Also one forum post said it seemed all day for an independent mechanic to change these shocks.

Notice how many videos there are of changing calipers and there are a few bolts on the calipers I know from experience which cant be turned with a simple box wrench like I see on Youtube, but more like a big breaker bar...

Thus I really didnt want to mess with it because I simply dont have the time. The independent mechanic quality around here is kind of "iffy" thus I brought it to the adults at Toyota who probably encountered this before.

The "special tool" I talk about is more like a compact air or electric ratchet. Sitting there with two box wrenches...I know its not going to be that simple to remove when others on the internet have had some trouble.
 
I’ve used Gabriel ultra readymount struts on a couple different vehicles and ultra shocks on several more. Always been pretty happy with them. I have KYB on my Honda accord and Toyota Tacoma but didn’t want as firm a ride for the sequoia so I used Gabriel.
 
Navi said:
Thus I really didnt want to mess with it because I simply dont have the time. The independent mechanic quality around here is kind of "iffy" thus I brought it to the adults at Toyota who probably encountered this before.

The "special tool" I talk about is more like a compact air or electric ratchet. Sitting there with two box wrenches...I know its not going to be that simple to remove when others on the internet have had some trouble.
Click to expand...
I just watched A1 Auto's video for the Rav 4 rear shocks... The bottom bolt can't be removed until a large bottom bracket is removed first. The top bolt has serious clearance and access issues. It does look like a seemingly straightforward job that is one rusty nut away from being a multi-hour swear-fest. They were honest about the difficulties.

Nothing wrong with making educated decisions and choosing when not to DIY, as well as when to DIY.
 
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