Grew up in the rust belt so excuse the rust in the pics but wondering how I can tell if the front strut is bad? it looks pretty much the same on the other side. The rubber is pretty like deteriorating, but no overt signs of leaks. Car still springs back if you push it down. It's always felt like I can feel the bumps on the roads (no change from baseline, or at least no sudden change). Are these signs that the strut is failing? If not, what should I look for to know the strut has failed other than oil leaks
The torn piece in the photo is just a dust cover, it won't affect performance (besides allowing road grime to possibly affect it's performance in the future) and doesn't make the strut worth replacing on it's own, in my opinion. If drivability and tire wear seem normal then I'd not worry about it.
How many miles on your Prius, on those struts? They usually last around 100-150,000 miles. Depending on the types of roads your drive on. If you drive mostly highway miles, they usually last longer. In the city where it's bumpier they won't last as long. They will always bounce back because of the spring. But it shouldn't be easy to bounce the strut. Since it's a gradual decline, you may not notice them wearing out. But when you put new ones on, you'll notice. Mine seemed nice, until the last 3-4000 miles before I replaced mine. What a huge difference when I installed new struts! And then I could tell just how bad the rear shocks where! After replacing them, the Prius really was smooth over the same bumps. Don't get cheap ones, unless you like replacing them often. And for the front struts, get the whole assembly. Buying only the strut, you will have to disassemble them, then assemble them. Buying each part seperately will cost you a lot more, and you'll have to assemble them. And don't forget the sway bar links....
In the aftermarket you can also find non-variable rate spring versions of this strut The coils will be a little tighter together the variable rate springs tend to get squishy faster It's just a product of that design The generation 2 comes factory was variable rate springs too. I have some non-variable rate springs on struts on another car that seem a lot more responsive when driving like unwinding downhills and things like that. I bought middle of the road priced strut assemblies with these type of springs already on with top plates and everything very reasonable like for the two fronts it was $150 or something maybe 160 I could get cheaper but that's not the goal here.
Ahh I see. I'm only at 94,000 miles. I'm not convinced that my struts are bad, but didn't know what to think about the dust covers being completely gone almost What made you ultimately pull the trigger to replace them?
Those plastic boots always tear. They don't last. For any car. What kind of driving do you do? 94,000 miles is not a lot of miles. Likely in the next 50,000 miles or so you should start looking to replace them. But if you don't feel the "thud" going over bumps, and the car seems stable in higher speed corners, they're probably okay. At 326,xxx miles, I figured it was time. I knew at around 250,000 miles they were getting weak. At the time I didn't have the money to replace them. Going over the painted arrow on the interstate and getting a pretty firm thud, made me decide to spend the money and time to replace them.
I’ll add that I changed my struts at 200k miles, they looked like yours and the rears even showed signs of leakage (the upper portion was clean with what seemed like oil). Turns out they weren’t leaking and I noticed zero difference in performance. In hindsight I probably could have got a lot more mile out of them.
Looks like nearly every car that rolls into South Main Auto (YouTube garage in New York State). Salt has gotta go.
Haha, yea this baby has spent a decade in Syracuse, NY. We are literally known for salt potatoes T_T yea, not much driving. Was previously used just for groceries but last few years put a lot more miles for travel and work. Starting to show more signs of wear or at least degradation after spending the decade in salt city
