Strut replacement

Discussion in 'Gen 3 Prius Care, Maintenance & Troubleshooting' started by Mellyman666, Jun 9, 2025 at 11:01 AM.

  1. Mellyman666

    Mellyman666 Member

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    I'm looking to change my suspension on my Prius- got it checked by a mechanic and he confirmed it was indeed my struts. I'm looking to change all 4; instructions for the front seem pretty straight forward and easy to find, especially that I am looking to get a loaded/pre-assembled coil and replace everything (whole strut assembly + sway bar, links, control arm if necessary, etc)

    However, for the rear, I've run into some problems as I don't find any pre-assembled struts for the rear on rock auto, which led me to question if there was even coils in the rear (no idea if cars can be made without this lol) because all 'rear' parts, are just shock absorbers (when I look in the pre-assembled sections), but on certain sites, I find individual loose pieces for the strut assembly in the rear. When I look, I don't see the coils in the back like I do in the front, but google tells me 2010s have coils...so would rather be safe than sorry and ask pros


    So my question would be what am I looking for to replace rear struts as well?

    PS: don't try to convince me to just bring it in, I may not be a mechanic but I have a very hard head and will figure it out :p I've changed my own head gasket with A LOT of support from this forum, so I'm hoping the same can happen for the suspension.

    Thank you so much
     
    #1 Mellyman666, Jun 9, 2025 at 11:01 AM
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2025 at 11:57 AM
  2. ChapmanF

    ChapmanF Senior Member

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    If you bend your head down behind your gen 3 Prius and look, you'll see that year does not have strut assemblies in back, it just has ordinary shock absorbers and ordinary coil springs next to them.
     
    #2 ChapmanF, Jun 9, 2025 at 11:24 AM
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  3. Mellyman666

    Mellyman666 Member

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    Yes this was another reason for my request because when I looked I saw no coils yet google was telling me a 2010 did have coils! Thank you for confirming :)
     
    #3 Mellyman666, Jun 9, 2025 at 11:56 AM
  4. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    The rear have a separate spring, independent of the shock.
    I would steer clear of rockauto. I went with them, and one of the front's failed in just a few hundred miles.
    Took a while for a replacement. Then a few thousand miles later, the other one failed, and so did the
    replacement one.
    There "lifetime" warranty, is for a "one time" replacement. Then they do a refund. It was a pain.
    I went to autozone and got the complete strut. 3 year warranty. I've never had a problem with autozone
    in 35+ years.
    You likely don't need control arms. They last a long time!

     
    #4 ASRDogman, Jun 9, 2025 at 12:08 PM
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  5. Mellyman666

    Mellyman666 Member

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    thanks for the info. Do you know what the company of the struts was? Since Rockauto is like the distribution center, unless they have a house brand I'm unaware of
     
    #5 Mellyman666, Jun 9, 2025 at 1:31 PM
  6. ilhouhou

    ilhouhou Junior Member

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    I did mine last year at home, bought a few tools. my back was in pain for three days. but really good experience. BTW, I bought KYB black.
     
    #6 ilhouhou, Jun 9, 2025 at 2:45 PM
  7. ASRDogman

    ASRDogman Senior Member

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    I forget what the brand was. It was "supposed" to be a good brand though.
    Said "made in china" on the box and strut. I should have sent them back then. butttt....
    I "think" they were monroe. That used to be a good brand. But all these places have your
    stuff made in china because it's cheap. And the quality is now cheap.
    The ones I bought from autozone are Moog. Several thousand miles on them and no issues.

    I am driving about 75% less miles now so I think they will last my lifetime.

    Anymore, it doesn't pay to get cheaper, because it's just that, cheap crap. It's very sad.

     
    #7 ASRDogman, Jun 9, 2025 at 6:16 PM
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