Need to replace my rear struts, should I go with OEM parts or aftermarket?

C

CheeseHelmet

Member
I was just about to get some KYBs from rockauto when I thought to check OMP instead. They're selling OEM struts for roughly the same price as aftermarket ones.

I should go for the OEM ones, right?
 
I have them on the front (PO had them replaced) and they're not that bad, and out of the three brands rockauto carries that's the only one I have the slightest amount of trust in. I'm probably going to end up getting them from Mazda, but I'm curious of what other people think :)
 
Are you wanting to lower it? And from what I heard kyb arent too good. If you want to stay near stock ride height you can go with oem ones from OMP or you can get stagg SHS struts. I don't remember how long ago it was but someone did a review on them a while back and started a thread in the p5 section
 
Jordysoso said:
Are you wanting to lower it? And from what I heard kyb arent too good. If you want to stay near stock ride height you can go with oem ones from OMP or you can get stagg SHS struts. I don't remember how long ago it was but someone did a review on them a while back and started a thread in the p5 section
Click to expand...

No lowering :p

I want the car to feel/look stock.
 
When I was shopping around I was able to find the fronts for 50 a piece but the rears no were about 100 a piece. So you would be looking about 300 bucks or so for the whole set. Last time i checked rock auto was the cheapest for KYB and they we like 53 a piece front and rear. But I remember shipping was pretty high. I think for the about the same price, if not just a little more, you could potentially get the Tokico's.

Rock auto shipped to utah:
KYB - $255.17

Autoplicity.com shipped to utah
tokico hp - 341.83

Now this wouldn't include endlinks which you probably will have to cut off.
I paid about 55 bucks for new endlinks shipped.

either way they will feel good but the tokico's will last
 
Last edited:
GlowstickNinja said:
When I was shopping around I was able to find the fronts for 50 a piece but the rears no were about 100 a piece. So you would be looking about 300 bucks or so for the whole set. Last time i checked rock auto was the cheapest for KYB and they we like 53 a piece front and rear. But I remember shipping was pretty high. I think for the about the same price, if not just a little more, you could potentially get the Tokico's for about the same price
Click to expand...

I looked around, the cheapest I could find is ~$420 for a set of 4 Tokicos. OMP has stock rears for a little under $60 each, you can't beat that :p

If my P5 wasn't about to rust itself in half I'd totally go for the Tokicos, but I can't justify spending that much on a car that I probably won't keep for more than a year or two more.
 
True, I was the same way and am in the same boat. I will be selling mine in the next 6 months to a year......or I may keep here and do a full motor turbo build and have it for track use.
 
I got my rear OEM struts today and they're actually made by Tokico. They're obviously not the same as the HP's but at least the replacement parts aren't random garbage. Needless to say, I'm excited to try them out.
 
I am doing my rears this weekend. Learned from doing the fronts, just cut the end links in half, then cut them off the sway. First one took me 2 hours, then decided I would just cut them off. Put a jack under the control arm (front), on the knuckle (rear) and pump it up until the sway bar is horizontal with the ground, this takes the tension off them and allows you to get the endlink off easier or to cut it in half without it bending halfway through.
 
GlowstickNinja said:
I am doing my rears this weekend. Learned from doing the fronts, just cut the end links in half, then cut them off the sway. First one took me 2 hours, then decided I would just cut them off. Put a jack under the control arm (front), on the knuckle (rear) and pump it up until the sway bar is horizontal with the ground, this takes the tension off them and allows you to get the endlink off easier or to cut it in half without it bending halfway through.
Click to expand...

I don't intend on cutting them, both the front and back endlinks are rather new. In fact, when removing the old ones I only had to cut one. The rest came off quite easily using an impact wrench.

Thanks for the advice though :)
 
Please log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

T
STFT at +25 and LTFT at -25 when at idle?! *Solved but I wanna cry
Replies
10
Views
4K
TempestZill
T
S
Use Power Steering Fluid or ATF in power steering pump?
Replies
0
Views
1K
ShinoBino
S
N
Affordable OEM Mazda parts?
Replies
0
Views
1K
nomadicsoul
N

Latest posts

Back