Cheapest struts worth buying?

Mid_Life_Crisis

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2007 MS3
Money is tight at the moment and I have no choice but to replace at least one strut. At 55,000 miles it makes sense to do both.
What is the best of the bargain struts? I just need something to get me through to next spring. I do like to push the car a bit, so something sporty that will last 6 or 7 months will do fine.
Thanks in advance.

Same question for tires.
 
Struts

Option 1. Your best bet is try to find some OEM take offs on all the Mazda forums. I just gave my drivers side front strut to a friend for his Mazda. I had 25,000 miles on my odometer and already a leaky passenger side strut.

I would not mix an OEM strut with another brand, (Koni, Bilstein, KYB). I would only get another OEM strut, both ideally, but one in a pinch should get you to Spring.

Option 2. That being said, KYB G2s are a decent strut for a low price. But your still throwing good money after bad on a bargain basement strut. Just save your money for Konis or Bilsteins and try Option 1 above.
 
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i was going to caution you about getting used oem struts, specially from an unfamiliar vehicle, but since you're only going to need it for 6 months then i guess it'll do. otherwise, i think monroe makes shocks to fit ms3's. you can use those turds in the meantime until you buy tokicos, konis or bilsteins in the spring.
 
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As I mentioned, at 55,000 miles I am going to replace the pair. Even if they were the same brand, if one was new and the other had 55,000 miles of wear on it, the difference would be night and day between the two sides.

I have no choice but to replace them now. I hit something in the road and the strut bent on the passenger side. Got me home, but I won't drive it except for very short, slow, trips around town. I'm taking my wife's truck to work and leaving the car for her in case she absolutely has to go out while I'm gone.

Thank you for the suggestion about the KYBs. I found those on the web and while they sounded like they had potential, there were so many reviews ripping them for poor quality that I got kind of scared off them. Have you ever used them yourself?

Edit: the post about the Monroes posted while I was originally typing this. I think that is the way to go for now.
 
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I saw the Monroes also, and they are the lowest price of all brands I recognized. I couldn't find much for them by way of reviews for some reason.
I think I'm getting those and calling it done until spring. With winter coming up I won't be pushing the car very hard anyway.
 
take the negative reviews of the kyb's with a grain of salt. grassroots motorsports magazine actually used the g2's to go rallycrossing in their 1996 dodge neon acr:

http://grassrootsmotorsports.com/project-cars/1996-dodge-neon-acr/

neonsusp.jpg


neonstruts.jpg
 
+1 blackmica_es

I have KYB G2s on my 02 Tundra truck. They are are a gas charged monotube design and are much better than the OEMs.

Grassroots Motorsports Mag is my monthly periodical. This is a great data source for tech tips, brakes, suspension, drivetrain and tire reviews for tracking and daily driving.

FYI, after you buy your Konis or Bilsteins, keep your KYBs or Monroes as spare parts. Almost all quality grade performance dampers like Koni, KW and Bilstein are rebuildable. If and when these dampers blow out you can put the spares on while waiting for them to be rebuilt and shipped back.
 
FYI, after you buy your Konis or Bilsteins, keep your KYBs or Monroes as spare parts. Almost all quality grade performance dampers like Koni, KW and Bilstein are rebuildable. If and when these dampers blow out you can put the spares on while waiting for them to be rebuilt and shipped back.

This is an excellent point. I suppose I knew this but didn't think of it, if you know what I mean. Thank you.
 
I mentioned this on another forum - stay away from GR2's on the MS3. KYB makes them for the base 3 and do not have sufficient damping to match the MS3's stiffer rates.
 
So the OP's question remains and I'm curious to hear more myself.....what's the cheapest new/not used damper available for an MS3 application?
 
If you're really curious you should use the internets and search a few mfg sites yourself.
I checked the Tokico site this morning and once again, nothing for the speed. They make replacements for the CX7 though, which I find strange.
Most everything else they sell is for older Mazda's from the 90's. For example, who the hell puts Tokico's on a 323?
Must be a matter of not enough demand/market for the mazdaspeed line to make it worth mass producing something by the big guys.
We are pretty much left with coil over kits, or OEM apparently.
 
Money is tight at the moment and I have no choice but to replace at least one strut. At 55,000 miles it makes sense to do both.
What is the best of the bargain struts? I just need something to get me through to next spring. I do like to push the car a bit, so something sporty that will last 6 or 7 months will do fine.
Thanks in advance.

Same question for tires.


Considering the recent information regarding the Koni applications on this forum, I would gather you could use Mazda 5 struts made by any of the companies that make them, but don't make a Mazdaspeed3 specific strut. That is if you just want an OEM replacement that would dampen your car sufficiently but be relatively cheap.

Using this info, the KYB struts can be found here - http://www.kyb.com/pdf/kyb_catalog.pdf
And the Monroe site uses an ASP page - http://www.monroe.com/catalog/ecatalog.asp
 
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