i'm not a big fan of these at all but at $145 to your door. is there a cheaper option that is as good or better for a set of all 4?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/KYB-G...spagenameZWDVW

 

yea alot of ppl will give u crap about them, but i cant afford blistens/konis etc and im not autocrossing, its my daily driver so i went with the GR2 struts up front and gas-a-just in the rear, i did them with my sportlines about 3 months ago and man do i love them, they even matched my color scheme after i painted the gas-a justs silver

u really cant be the price and the gas-a-justs really are a nice peice...trying to compress them with my hands hurt lol but i would def do the gr2's up front and gas-a-justs in the rear. car feels a millions times better than the stock 130,000mile crap

gas a justs are like 30$ something apeice and will bring ur total to like 180$ something from summit to your door.

 

i'm extremely confused. the $145 is for 2 front gr2 struts and the same in the rear? why would i want to buy anything else from summit?

i am not a fan of kyb in any way but for a cheap replacement is there anything better as the last quick strut replacements i bought at autozone were monroes and ran me around $60 a piece for them.

 

i think im going to use these too with a set of 1 or 2 inch drop springs.

 

Not a good idea. Well, not if you want the car to handle or ride well after a few months.

 

If you're looking for least expensive you can do the whole package at AZ for under $100 (~$30/strut and ~$15/shock). I've used the KYB GR2s and the ~$40 Gabriels. On a daily driver with fairly fresh springs I couldn't tell the diff.

'Course I'm mostly tooling back and forth to work, about a 70 mile round trip, not exactly setting any skidpad records....

Oh and I have seen the cheaper Gabriels puke oil all over the inside of the wheelwell.

 

yes were talking about a fun little daily driver. nothing needed special here so cheap is good. when i went to az their cheapest setup was the gabriels but they were still above $50 a strut? hmm. i'll check again then.

to the other about kyb's and lowering springs... don't do it. the kyb's are not setup for the lowered adjustment and you'll blow them out quickly. i guess this would be just as true if you left the worn out factory springs in there too though. my plan was to pick up a set of cheap replacement moogs for the cheap strut/shock combo. $200 for the whole setup would be nice versus $600 in koni's and another 200+ for "performance" springs just to get me to the party store..

 

I had good luck with the moog replacement springs for my TA. Got them and the replacement front bushings from O'Reilly's. Springs ran around $130. The new moog bushings definitely added some flex to the front end and a little squeak. Probably no more than when new but a big diff compared to the 20+ year old bushings.

The high end Gabriels from AZ (~$40/20) aren't bad for a highway car. No shipping and life time warranty. Check the AZ website, the gabriel struts were 30.99 and 40.99 for my zip code (29073).

 

bc the GR2's are soft and its worth paying 10$ more for the gas-a -just in the rear where the stiffer shocks are needed vs the GR2's. the gas-a-just have higher pressure and are monotube design so they will last alot longer as well. its about spending the money for a better product and when its only 10$ a shock then why not if its a better performance peice, my car handles great with sportlines and GR2s up front and gas-a-justs in the rear... just my 2cents. Gabriel and monroe are crap and they fail alot hence the oil all over the inside of the wheelwell. KYB has a good warrenty too. cant beat the price and the performance. and i have poly everywhere and i have hardly any squeeks but it handles unlike anything ive ever had before. i out drive mercedes AMG and BMWs all the time

 

if spending more were the issue i'd just buy koni or bilstein as you can't compare. if i'm going cheap i'm going cheap. granted it's your opinion which i appreciate but $100 for all 4 corners is cheap enough i don't care who's name is on them.

 

I'd like to qualify what I posted above a bit. By no means am I recommending the Monroe or Gabriels as a 'performance' or 'quality' strut. They are simply an inexpensive replacement that does a fine job (for me) on a daily driver that sees a lot of mileage, especially with the lifetime warranty from AZ. No shipping, just take the bad strut in and walk out with a new one.

One of the issues with purchasing replacement struts is that there's really no mid-grade, high quality, 'performance' option between the inexpensive stuff and the high-end Koni/Bilsteins. KYB may be considered by some to fill this gap, but I'm not entirely happy with the KYB's. Yeah, I'd like to be able to afford Koni's but if I could I probably wouldn't be driving a 23 year old stock LG4 (it would at least have one of the iron truck LS motors in it ).

 

yea i understand cheap is cheap, if u want cheap then get cheap we all wish we could afford konis/blistens... i was just implying that the gas-a-just rear shocks are good performance shocks much better than the gr2's/monroes/gabriels etc and for there price i dont kno why u wouldnt want to put them on your ride when they are 30$a shock when the gr2's are 20$ and they will outlast the gr2's, monroes and gabriels etc... thats all but if u want to go cheap then go ahead, im more about getting the most for my money.

 

Don't want you to think I disagree with you. I've got the GR-2 struts and Gas-Adjust shocks on my camaro. I tend to spend a little more money on pieces/parts for it, but I'm not putting 18K miles a year on it, either.

 

20-30 shocks aren't really worth that even. both are terrible in any comparison to the better shocks out there but either do the job and in that case the cheapest the better for me.

 

Kandied,

I'm not so sure why you're so quick to dismiss the KYBs...I did a lot of research on here before I bought mine (I too have the Gas Ajdust and GR2 combo mentioned above) and I'm extremely impressed with them. I've driven 3rd gens comparable to mine with Bilsteins...the difference was so minimal, I didn't bother to spend the extra $$$. I run SLP Bilsteins on my '97 Z28...I'm all about quality. To be honest, while the KYBs won't hold up in the long run the way Bilsteins will, I can't believe how little disadvantge there was to Bilsteins for the gross difference in cost. If there was a significant advantage to them, IMO, I would have put Bilsteins on the RS as well...

FWIW, don't even bother with Monroes...I ran Sensa Tracs on my old '89 Formula, and they were pretty lousy. The ride mushed all up, and it didn't hold in corners nearly like I expected. Live and learn...

 

yeah im going with the gas adjusts, for the money, the warranty etc. even if my lowering spring kills em itll take years, as i do about 3-5k a year.

 

For me the cheap option is Tokico HP's or sometimes called Tokico Blues. You can get them from some guys on Ebay for like $250 all 4 or sometimes even cheaper. I've used these on lots of daily driver 3rd gens, always works out great (even with pro-kit springs). I've tried KYB GR2's and then I tried these, liked these better. But everyone got their own preferance.

 

Not at all happy with my GR2's. Traced a steering issue down to a bad strut this past weekend. Probably less than 5000 miles and the rod wouldn't spin in the strut causing the wheel to be hard to turn. Stock height as I've got replacement moog springs in.

 

Outside if the Koni or higher end tokico I wouldnt compare anything in the same sentence to Bilstein.

KYB suck on our cars, ride like a brick even when everything else is good and stock.

I have/am running Bilstein and KYB currently on my cars

I am talking about the regulars, not the GR2(not played with them)

I have noticed some deals on Tokico on ebay and GP's and wondering if the are not a good second best option.

later
Jeremy

 

I've got the GR-2/Gas-Adjusts. The GR-2's may be okay on old worn out stock springs, but they don't seem to control the new moog front springs very well. I put in moog 5665/5662's at the same time so I can't say for sure. The gas adjusts seem okay in the rear, though I guess the rear is less criticle. The fronts pogo on minor bumps, though they seem to handle major shocks pretty well. That always seemed weird to me, I guess the more they travel, the more damping force they have?

 

I agree 100%...my previous 3rd gen was an 82 Z28 with moog replacement springs and initially the KYB GR2 strut, and gas adjust rear shocks. It rode HORRIBLE so I initially took out the gas adjusts and put in Monroe GasMatics. That helped, but in the end, I put Monroes on the front too. The KYB's were on the car less than 5000 miles (was a daily driver)

current third gen (87 formy) has hotchkis springs and Koni single adjustables...but the car isn't my daily and I was willing to spend $$$ for the auto-x performance.

IMO if you want cheap buy some Monroes...the Gabriels tend to wear out quickly.