Monroe OE Spectrum shocks bad in 20,000 miles

[zzyzzx]

I've personally never had an issue with Monroe's. Having written that, I would not buy any new old stock strut and expect it to actually be any good.

 

[dfarr67]

At the end of the day, buying Bilstein instead Monroe, in my case was really pennies on the dollar.

The original Bilsteins on my Trailblazer took years and about 160,000km to slowly fail. The Monroe's took a fraction of that to be clunking like a rez rocket on cheque day.

I was doing soooo much work to my old toyota that I just didn't have 1k for bilstien shocks and there is very little in between- I ended up using kyb gasadjusts for now. kyb has a monotube but few reviews and a reputation for hard rides, oem isn't out there, finding my favorite sachs was about impossible at that time...

 

[Rust_Belt_Pete]

Old monroe OE spectrum were made in USA and were very good shocks. New ones are made somewhere else and well.. yeah.

 

[vwmaniaman]

I have had really a good ride from my Monroes. I have them all around on my Ram 1500 and in the rear on my Mazda 5. No complaints here. The truck rode so much better than before and it tows our 5th wheel too.

 

[willbur]

Old monroe OE spectrum were made in USA and were very good shocks. New ones are made somewhere else and well.. yeah.

That's been my experience

 

[big_eight]

I replaced my strut assemblies with Monroe quick struts less than a month ago on my Subaru Forester. So far the ride is better than OEM we will see how they hold up though. If not, I'll invest in some Bilstein strut assemblies.

I've attached a pic of the new front strut assembly installed because why not?

 

[silversport]

2012 Traverse I recently acquired has Monroe Quick Struts installed in March (like those pictured above by big_eight) and the ride seems fine but I don't really know how the ride was when new...and it is a large FWD based SUV...

Bill

 

[zzyzzx]

Old monroe OE spectrum were made in USA and were very good shocks. New ones are made somewhere else and well.. yeah.

I haven't bought them in a while and mine were always made in USA. I tried a Gabriel once and won't buy those again.

 

[nascarnation]

Old monroe OE spectrum were made in USA and were very good shocks. New ones are made somewhere else and well.. yeah.

When I purchased these I expected the Monroe brand to be a step up from generic third world parts. However I can't say for sure where the shocks were manufactured.
To have them both degrade to essentially zero damping but not significant external oil leakage tells me the piston seals must be completely failed. I've seen a LOT of bad elastomers in parts lately, sourced from God knows where....

 

[Trav]

I had to put KYB on my Outback during the vid, no OE available and it even took a month to get one of the front KYB. They have over 30K on them and 3 or 4 years (not sure), they seems to ride better than when I first installed them. for Subaru they seems to be a good strut and shock, no complaints.

 

[Hootbro]

Replaced my OE steering stabilizer on my Gladiator with a Monroe one and so far been pretty happy with it. The OE one developed a dead spot with less than 15K miles on it.

 

[nascarnation]

I got a set of KYBs from Amazon - seller: the KYB Store
All the writing on the boxes is in Cyrillic lettering lol.
The shocks themselves have "made in Japan" metal stamped on the body.
The car feels much better especially at higher speeds.

 

[mougly]

KYB or SACHS

 

[CharBaby]

I replaced my strut assemblies with Monroe quick struts less than a month ago on my Subaru Forester. So far the ride is better than OEM we will see how they hold up though. If not, I'll invest in some Bilstein strut assemblies.

I've attached a pic of the new front strut assembly installed because why not?

View attachment 297544

I’ll give the “ride quality “ to Monroe when their new. Heck, I’ve even commented on that til they all failed within 2 years. Then the poor customer reviews just cemented my opinion of them. And the poor reviews just keep coming.

Hay, they used to be great aftermarket shocks & struts. I still have 4 Monroe-Matic GAS on the Firebird FORMULA in my signature that I put on in 1988 to rid of the crappy OE. And I had a set(4) on an ‘88 ACCORD that I put on in ‘95 for over 11 years til I sold the car w/340K miles in ‘06. They were a good product at on time and a go-to brand! And they may in fact work well for customers on certain vehicles. Who knows?

Even though they’re warrantied for life, you still gotta pay someone to install them unless you can install them yourself. And pay for another alignment that we otherwise wouldn’t have needed if we would have just purchased a better product. But we won’t know til we try!

 

[Arc]

When I purchased these I expected the Monroe brand to be a step up from generic third world parts. However I can't say for sure where the shocks were manufactured.
To have them both degrade to essentially zero damping but not significant external oil leakage tells me the piston seals must be completely failed. I've seen a LOT of bad elastomers in parts lately, sourced from God knows where....

I bought a set a few years back on ebay and they were leaking within a few days on the front. I still think they must have been tampered with because it looked like a thick grease coming out around the piston seals. Ive never seen anything that thick come out of a shock.

 

[big_eight]

I’ll give the “ride quality “ to Monroe when their new. Heck, I’ve even commented on that til they all failed within 2 years. Then the poor customer reviews just cemented my opinion of them. And the poor reviews just keep coming.

Hay, they used to be great aftermarket shocks & struts. I still have 4 Monroe-Matic GAS on the Firebird FORMULA in my signature that I put on in 1988 to rid of the crappy OE. And I had a set(4) on an ‘88 ACCORD that I put on in ‘95 for over 11 years til I sold the car w/340K miles in ‘06. They were a good product at on time and a go-to brand! And they may in fact work well for customers on certain vehicles. Who knows?

Even though they’re warrantied for life, you still gotta pay someone to install them unless you can install them yourself. And pay for another alignment that we otherwise wouldn’t have needed if we would have just purchased a better product. But we won’t know til we try!

It's true, but I installed them myself and got all four for under $300, so I'll take the gamble. Maybe I got lucky and got some that will last.

If they fail in 20k, then I'll fork out the $1600 for Bilstein strut assemblies and throw those on there.

 

[GRUMPYDUDE2]

It's true, but I installed them myself and got all four for under $300, so I'll take the gamble. Maybe I got lucky and got some that will last.

If they fail in 20k, then I'll fork out the $1600 for Bilstein strut assemblies and throw those on there.

Bilstein once and done everytime!

 

[GRUMPYDUDE2]

KYB or SACHS

Next to Bilstein, these are the ones I still trust.

 

[GRUMPYDUDE2]

I bought a set a few years back on ebay and they were leaking within a few days on the front. I still think they must have been tampered with because it looked like a thick grease coming out around the piston seals. Ive never seen anything that thick come out of a shock.

Lesson learned.
EBAY is a Counterfeit nightmare.

 

[Arc]

Lesson learned.
EBAY is a Counterfeit nightmare.

I didn't know any better back then. Of course I also fell for a few scamazon ones too. Now I read the one star reviews to know what the product really is.