shock absorbers good price?

colm_mcm

Need to get 2 front shocks for my avensis (TD 90) 97 onwards model.

MIcksgarage is coming in over 120 each.

Got a quote of 78 each inc vat from motor factors. (Gabriel)

Am I doing well at this price?

Got a slight clunk at the back sometimes; would this be bushes? I know It's hard to tell from there but I know on carinas arb's go quite often.

Owen

Clunk would usually indicate bushes. If you wanted to be a complete cheapskate, you could loosen them up, push a 2 cent coin in to wedge them up a bit and tighten everything up

colm_mcm

Got them this morning. Got a great deal on the shocks and a service kit. That'll keep me out of trouble over the holidays :-)

Haven't had a look at the suspension yet, I won't need to pop the driveshaft out will I?
The generic instructions suggest you do but ive never had to do it on other cars.

Anyone be able to shed some light? Have a ball joint separator somewhere but where!

crosshair1

I'd be fairly wary of attempting to do this job without a turret spring compressor, from memory these are one difficult spring to compress sufficiently with normal clamps.
You have been warned!!
Regarding the rear knocking its a relative straigtforward job of replacing arb bushes or links, also these suffer from rear upper shock mounts that are quite expensive but can be given a slight tweak in the press as a remedy.

colm_mcm

colm_mcm wrote: »

Got a quote of 78 each inc vat from motor factors. (Gabriel)

Am I doing well at this price?

Gabriel shocks are fairly crap to be honest, but they do the job no doubt. €80 for a front shock on a diesel Avensis is a good price though

Avns1s

colm_mcm wrote: »

Got them this morning. Got a great deal on the shocks and a service kit. That'll keep me out of trouble over the holidays :-)

Haven't had a look at the suspension yet, I won't need to pop the driveshaft out will I?
The generic instructions suggest you do but ive never had to do it on other cars.

Anyone be able to shed some light? Have a ball joint separator somewhere but where!

All you need is a pair of spring compressors and a normal tool kit including allen keys to stop the centre of the shock going round when you're removing and retightening at the top.

When you are undoing the spring retaining components, take careful note of the position and make sure they go back the same way. You will also need to be careful lining up the spring before tightening up and finally removing the spring compressors.

The bottom part of the shock is held by two robust bolts that in a car that age will benefit from some WD40 in my experience. They take a bit of shifting, watch your knuckles!!

Make sure you use something in additon to the jack as you will be leaning in under the wheel arch and fairly pulling at those bolts.

You have no need for a ball joint separator nor should you be pulling the driveshaft apart.

I don't suppose you priced the genuine toyota bushes. They are more expensive but will give a better ride and last way longer than most of the motor factor shocks.



On the separate issue of the thud at the back, as other users have posted its highly likely to be the ARB bushes but could also be the droplinks. The ARB bushes are a PITA to do on these Avensis's (sp) as you have to drop the subframe and even then are a pain to get at. Make sure you use copious WD40 on the 2 small bolts holding the brackets in place. They get the abuse of the salt on the roads currently. Make sure you don't wring one off (like happened to me recently!! ). That made a hard enough job into a right f****r!


If you need any more help, let us know.

colm_mcm

Thanks lads, have changed shocks and bushes before on other cars, just not on this particular car. Will keep ye posted!

Nct is up in February just wanna get 2 years test on It then sell it off and get something with more toys :-)

Stoolbend

Shock top would be more common to go than the actual shock on the avensis. They're the same price genuine as spurious.

Be careful with the anti roll bushes. The bolts can break and make it a pig of a job. Don't undo them unless you have to. The droplinks rarely fail on the avensis.

Had one for 5 years and fitted one shock top and just one anti roll bar bushin.