It’s a 06 Hyundai Tucson with 197k km (122k miles). The struts have never been changed.
The strut only is a good amount cheaper than the whole assembly on Rock Auto so I was wondering what would everyone suggest. I can borrow a strut compressor tool for free.
Installing quick struts is so much faster and safer. Get them!
assemblies are easier to install, but tend to be sold of unknown or questionable brand
I would avoid Monroe assembles like a plague - they failed on me after ~10K miles (Subaru Outback)
I’ve always been having a good experience with KYB, although they are in the same price bracket
if you go more expensive like KONI, you will not get wrong
I recommend changing everything but the spring, whether you use a quick-strut or choose to do the strut assembly yourself. The rubbery bits such as the spring seat pad, the bumper stop, and the upper mount, become hard over the years and no longer isolate vibrations. New rubbery bits make a big difference in the quiet and ride of the finished job. Except for the upper mount, these bits are pretty affordable, and if you’re going to do the job they’re worth changing. If you decide to use a “quick strut” you’ll get everything but the upper mount anyway.
I agree with @the_same_mountainbike. If you have the skills and the tools and the time, you can save some money with this way of doing things. Or, like me, you figure why not spend the saved money and buy better struts. Depends on the car, of course. If its a regular “go getter” of a vehicle, and you were ok with it for the first 125,000 miles, then you don’t need the ultra wonderful Koni shocks, do you?
@TheMidnightNarwhal Do you really need this repair or just think you should because of the mileage ?
Those were the ones I was looking at…
They do offer lifetime warranty though so you should be able to get a new set for free right.
Well, at 122k miles shouldn’t it be changed much before? The ride is pretty shitty when driving, Hitting a hole or a bump feels more like “hitting” it than riding over if you know what I mean.
I did look at them visually and I could see some oil on them.
This is what sold me on them, then I found I’ve lost receipt and whatever I needed to keep to get that warranty in first place, and then I though “jeez, am I to reassemble my suspension every year to get that free-lifetime-warranty??” and simply tossed them in the trash and went for KYBs, which lasted around 4 years before I’ve sold Outback.
Yeah but maybe it was just a bad unit, altought I must admit I see some people say alot but surely there are more happy people than unhappy.
The other quick strut brand there is on Rockauto for my car would be FCS but that’s in the economy subsection. At 102$ a piece, they also have lifetime warranty. Interesting… but never heard of FCS.
my coworker listened to my rant and said “well, bad you did not ask, as I had bad experience with Monroe too, would have warned you…”
maybe somebody would tell about their positive experience, but so far I’ve seen a negative one unfortunately
KYB: I’m on 5th replacement set (all different cars), did not have any problem yet (knock on wood)
As I live in snow, salt, and rust country, I don’t recommend putting an old spring on a new strut unless you do a thorough visual inspection. In all my years of replacing struts on cars driven in snow, I have never seen one that wore out the struts but still had good springs. My wife’s 2012 Fusion got new struts in October and one of the front springs was broken already.
Yeah
I think I will go with the FCS quick struts.
If I bring the old strut ass’y in, my auto parts store will do the spring compression job and install the new strut that I purchase from them for a small fee. Suggest to ask your parts place if they offer that service.
Struts are 160$ each for strut only at store nearby and on Rockauto they’re 106$ for a quick strut. I think I’ll just go with quickstrut.
That’s an easy decision … lol … Best of luck, let us know how your new struts work out and any unanticipated problems you might have experienced. .
That would be interesting to know how these FCS struts perform 30-40K miles down the road, but at that point this thread will be long forgotten 
Yep lol. especially that I don’t plan to keep the car for a whole lot and probably only do 5k km a year, actually I might keep it as a winter beater.
But they also have lifetime warranty but damn is their website bad.
After new “Napa” struts for rear, bushings and swaybar links still feel the bumps (2,000 camry 4cyl…the warranty only 2yr.
I seem to remember that the Napa struts are actually relabeled monroes