Good idea to change out rear shock mounts?

for my 2006 mazda 3 2.3l hatchback, i assume i will need new rear shocks soon since they have about 95k miles on them. i was reading around and seems like the rear shock mounts are susceptible to breaking or whatever in our cars. so i was thinking of just replacing them with new ones when i get the rear shocks done?

if so, do i have to stick to oem or are some of these rockauto ones decent? which would u recommend. i am in canada btw so pricing is in cad

DORMAN 924412 (aluminum): $13
WESTAR ST6981 (aluminum?) : $25
DORMAN 924412HP (steel): $35
MAS SM851559 (steel) $49
KYB SM5619 (aluminum?) $17
MOOG K160229 (aluminum?) $17
MONROE 906981 Strut-Mate Shock Mounting Kit : $22


so i guess we have the choice between steel and aluminum, i assume the no brainer answer is the steel or stay with mazda oem?


thanks!
 
For that, I would not do OEM. I would probably get the steel ones.

On the car I have, they were still perfectly good and I just left the originals on. The rear shocks are really easy to pull so no big issue if I need to replace them later.
 
For that, I would not do OEM. I would probably get the steel ones.

On the car I have, they were still perfectly good and I just left the originals on. The rear shocks are really easy to pull so no big issue if I need to replace them later.
thanks! when they do break, is it the middle part that breaks or is it the actual metal part? cuz idk i still dont even think aluminum should break. the part looks pretty strong from the pics aha
 
Anodized aluminum is fairly corrosion resistant and typically lighter than steel. I would not assume that steel must be more durable. I had KYBs on my 89 MX6GT for many years and they never gave me any problems. The caveat is that I live in San Diego, so no snow.
 
I replaced the mounts on both sides of my 2011. I believe that the mounts are one of the parts that carried over from gen 1 to gen 2. In my experience, the mount broke at the point where the mounting bolt secured it to the unibody. A crack went right through, once it was broke, the strut was just dangling and the ride became pretty unsafe. If you are a diy'er, then as someone mentioned above, it is not a crazy hard job to do, I did it in my driveway. But if you are asking a shop to do the work, then maybe its not a bad idea to do the work while the car is already on the lifts.

As for which part to use I went with the dorman aluminum 924-412, grabbed them from Amazon with same day shipping because I was in a panic on sunday about being able to drive on monday. Installed them in June of 2019....still going strong. did both sides.
 
I replaced the mounts on both sides of my 2011. I believe that the mounts are one of the parts that carried over from gen 1 to gen 2. In my experience, the mount broke at the point where the mounting bolt secured it to the unibody. A crack went right through, once it was broke, the strut was just dangling and the ride became pretty unsafe. If you are a diy'er, then as someone mentioned above, it is not a crazy hard job to do, I did it in my driveway. But if you are asking a shop to do the work, then maybe its not a bad idea to do the work while the car is already on the lifts.

As for which part to use I went with the dorman aluminum 924-412, grabbed them from Amazon with same day shipping because I was in a panic on sunday about being able to drive on monday. Installed them in June of 2019....still going strong. did both sides.

Same happened on my 2010 mazda 3
 
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