KYB struts gone after 135k

so who votes tokiko here? I'm looking for new struts as well. One that will prevent the rubbing in the rear. i've heard tokikos are stiff which is good...but im not sure

+1 for tokico

+ all four corners on my car.


Had 'em on for just under a year w/ H&R springs. Sits at a great height, and it rides like a champ. Got ~20,000 miles on 'em. Probably more.

+1 tokico. Plus they are BLUE!

haha quit it with the blue.

i got blue suspension.

am getting blues soon

Go for it, dude.

me too

(just sitting around waiting to be installed though)

Just arrived today. Eshocks.com has great customer service and price. I highly recommend. Only bad thing is that my stuff was backordered for 3 weeks.

you know these and kyb are just as good as your pepboys brand monroes right. if you want better handling id go blue. yes and they are blue. but if you want oe quality go with these.

yeah and rears do go faster alot of bouncing in the rear. my front are still blue, but my blues went in about 2 yrs, so was working at pepboys so i got myself some free monroes in the rear. yes free === FIRED!!!

does anyone know how good the bilstein shocks are? do they drop it any compared to kyb's?

i might get bilstein after 60k more miles....lol.

Here are a couple of sources that I found real quick from a Google search. And I've had both Bilsteins & KYB's on my 74 1/2 Bug, the Bilsteins win out to me performance and longevity.

Those sources

http://eshocks.com/Bilstein.asp?gclid=CLyxkvOLuZMCFQ0Bswodel_ICg

www.ajusa.com

www.car-stuff.com/bilsteinshocks.htm

www.autopartswarehouse.com/shop_brands/bilstein.html (I've used these folks for my 95' Tacoma)

There are a few Good luck & Happy Motoring

i dont think your struts do the droping its all springs

yes, that is true

Some struts do lower the car a little bit. Not many though. I think Tokico Blues?

Those twin tube Bilsteins should be comparable to the KYB's in ride quality and feel, considering that they are OEM replacements.

Quite different from Tokico Blues which give a ride that's somewhat firmer.

^^^ there ya go...

Blue = Tokico
Silver = KYB
Black = OEM & Bilstein

I'm planing to install this bitch this weekend. My strut boots should come in tomorrow. Anyone interested in a DIY? I know there is already one on Vamp's site.

It's probably going to be night and day from my old worn out KYBs to the new Bilstein so it's going to be hard writing a good comparison review.

just take some pics. i dont think anyone here need a diy. pics are always fun.

yea! Strut Boots are here! $67 including shipping from Rockauto took only 3 days!!!


This is the size difference between the bump stops of the front and rear. The rear is the longer one. The boots are exactly the same down to the model number even though one is from KYB and the other made by Federal-Mogul Corp.

Okay guys....bad news. DO NOT BUY BILSTEIN STRUTS FOR THE 98-02 COROLLAS!

The fronts fit fine but the rear struts are too short so they won't fit. GRRR!

And also as I was doing the front struts, I discovered that my driver's side drive shaft is broken as like broken in half. So yeah.....more bad news.

I tested out the ride driving like a grandma since one of my drive shaft is broken so I really can't say too much about the new struts as I didn't go do wild and crazy turns but they feel like before. Also, the rear struts are the same KYBs so I really can't comment on the ride difference.

The good news is that my old front KYB struts were pretty much done for. When I press down on the strut rod, it took at least 10 secs before they recoiled compared to the Bilstein. But the funny thing is that on the one rear strut that I took off, the old KYBs still recoiled as fast as the Bilsteins....which leads me to believe that the rear strut is still okay. Even though the tire shop told me that both my rear struts were bad as to the reason why my rear tires were cupping and wearing out badly on the inside edge, I think the rear struts are still okay.

Here are some pictures as promised.

I had a set of DM5's on my old spec v! Man, that looked like at lot of work!

nice pix.

Thanks guys. I always see those DM5s on Spec Vs and Civics....lol. I like them because they look like TRD rims and are 2.5 pounds lighter per rim! I hate the centercaps on the DM5s because you have to use these shallow lugnuts which always strip. I just brought my 4th lugkey because of this.

well your struts are doing waaaaay better than my old ones. i would pull up on it and it would just go back in!!!

Okay...another problem. The rear strut that I took out two days ago only to discovered that the Bilsteins did not fit just broke. It is making a loud clunk on every bump in the road. It even makes the clunk when I bounce up and down on that side. I thought I didn't tighten a nut so I decided to take the whole strut off and reinstall everything. Well.....the center nut does not want to come off...all it does is rotate the piston rod! The piston rod is smooth so it is slippery as hell and damn near impossible stop it from rotating!!! WTF. So yeah......my car is officially a POS.

My driveshaft is broken and my rear strut is blown and seized. Does anyone have an tips on how to get that center nut off the center plate up top? I even took a impact wrench to the nut, all it did was spin the piston rod all around. I have to get that nut off so I can save my spring. Does anyone have any experience in cutting a piston rod in half?

hmm when that happened to me the impact wrench was able to knock it loose. Yoy should be able to cut the piston rod with a sawzall or hack saw

did you use the impact wrench on it with the spring compressed and out of the car or how did you do it? In any case, I will have to life with the loud clunks until my rear strut problem fitment issue is resolved.

i believe I was not using spring compressors because I was working on struts with shorter lowering springs.