My impressions after changing shocks/struts at 130k miles

Hi all,
just wanted to share my experience after changing front and rear shocks on my 2005 Prius with 130k miles.

1. Rear of the car felt "twitchy" when riding over uneven pavement in turns, so I decided to change rear shocks. Purchased original Toyota OEM rear shocks, and changed them myself. Taking the trunk interior apart took longer than the shock replacement itself. In general it's not too hard if you have experience with other cars.
After the removal, old shocks were not that different in feel from the new ones when I tried to stretch/compress them by hand. Replaced them anyway. The ride over bumps did not change dramatically. I might feel slight improvement, but maybe it's just a biased perception. The ride is still not perfect, but now I think its a feature of a solid rear axle design.

2. Front: The ride was ok, but I did feel the "surge" (momentary braking decrease) during braking on uneven pavement several times recently, though I was prepared and new what it was. Also, there was slight clunk when riding over bumps which, based on my previous experience with cars, I attributed to slightly worn sway bar bushings. So I purchased KYB struts for the front (non-adjustable, GR2), and new strut mounts and spring insulators. Changed them myself. While in there, I checked the sway bar bushings, and they were perfectly fine. Old strut mounts seemed perfectly fine too, but I replaced them anyway. Also I have found one of the rubber sleeves that protect the strut rod from dirt was torn (I had new ones to replace).

After the repair, I felt noticeable improvement in the way car rides over bumps and in braking. Not a single braking "surge" since the replacement of front shocks!

So in my case, 130k miles on the car driven on decent roads in Atlanta, rear shocks were ok and probably would lasted longer, but front ones really needed replacement, even though there was no leaks and "push/release" test showed no excessive bouncing.

Hope this will add my 0.02 to the discussions on "when to change shocks/struts"

Thanks,
- Alex

 

Patrick,

Yes, I tested the front struts by hand and they were easier to compress/extend than the new KYB. It's hard to tell how much easier. Also another thing that I noticed was larger " low resistance area" around middle position, I.e. just between compressing and extending.

Thanks,
- Alex

quote="Patrick Wong, post: 1573216, member: 37850"]Thanks for sharing your experience, I agree that it is quite possible for the struts/shocks to fail without visible fluid leakage. I also agree that pushing on a fender of the Prius is a useless exercise with regards to assessing the condition of the struts/shocks.

Did you try to compress the original front struts by hand & compare to a new part?

I changed the rear shocks on my 2004 a couple of years ago after my daughter (riding in the back seat) complained of a bad ride. As the driver it was less noticeable to me. However after replacing the shocks the ride was back to normal and the complaints disappeared.[/quote]