How are Gabriel shocks?

[longhaul747]

Today while driving on the freeway with my friend behind me he called and said my front right wheel bounces when I hit freeway expansion joints. This must be what is causing my steering wheel to chatter and the front end to get squirmy the past month.

I know I was in need of new shocks but was putting it off and off and off. Today I stopped by a local shop to get a quote. For the front and rear shocks its $396 and this comes with a lifetime warranty on labor and shocks. If the shock ever fails I just bring it in and they will replace it. I asked who makes there shocks for them and they said its Gabriel and they are pretty good and equivalent to OEM or slightly better. Any opinions on these shocks?

I asked how much it would be if I by my own and bring them in. I can do that but no lifetime warranty and they must charge full the full labor rate. This makes it considerably more costly.

 

[Stick Figure]

what type of driving do you do? all on road? if its purely pavement, they will probably be just fine.

 

[raydouble]

what type of driving do you do? all on road? if its purely pavement, they will probably be just fine.

x2
Basic on road shock/strut, nothing fancy.

 

[longhaul747]

what type of driving do you do? all on road? if its purely pavement, they will probably be just fine.

99.9% of my driving is on road with the occasional logging roads and moderately rutted dirt roads. The shop says they use a truck version that is pretty robust on four wheel drives.

I have an appointment scheduled for 11:30am PST this morning. However if I hear a horror story with them I can just cancel and go in a different direction. I am thinking they should be fine and likely far better then the 113K originals though.

I did google around last night looking for info. Did find a few threads out there trashing them along with everything else. However I read a lot of good things and many say they are comparable to others.

I will report how they ride when I get them installed. Worst case is I am out $400 and it might be another 20K miles before I learn how bad they suck. One way or another I need new ones. I see evidence of leakage from the back shocks but they look bone dry now. No wonder its all jittery. I am also having the shop inspect the inner and outer tie rods and they will re balance the tires for free since its there tire. I get a nice shimmy at 70 mph and on worn pavement it tends to want to go where it wants without the steering wheel moving. Seems fairly common on the 3rd generation.

 

[longhaul747]

I just got it back from the shop and it felt so much better I wanted to keep on going. First thing I noticed when pulling out of the shop was way less body roll. Of coarse being rush hour it was not long that some form of drama would take place and I would have to slam on the brakes. Next thing I noticed was way less nose dive witch in turn seems to make the brakes work more efficiently. The road by my place gets a lot of traffic and the pavement is rather coarse. With the old shocks I would get a lot of interior rattles inside. It felt a lot smoother and rattle free with the new shocks. Over speed bumps it feels more stiff but not uncomfortably so. They say it will feel a bit stiff for the 1st thousand miles or so.

They also did an alignment. They say its required as things get out of adjustment when the front struts are replaced. Not sure how true this really is but I had them do it anyway since it pulled a bit to the right. It now tracks nice and straight and I notice no binding in the steering now. Not sure if the alignment or the new shocks had anything to do with this but its gone.

Last but not least it seems to ride maybe an inch higher then before. I don't know it just looks slightly taller. The mechanic said if the shocks/struts are completely worn out all the weight just sits on the springs. The new shocks/struts remove this sag. It looks pretty good at the moment.

I also had them inspect the inner and outer tie rods. They say they are fine. They did mention my brake rotors were warped but the pads still had plenty of life. They said I should get them done as the pulsing will get worse but I said if I get them done it will just happen again. So I will live with it until it becomes a real problem. Right now they very from no problem at all to being rather annoying depending on how much use they get.

Anyways if you have been sitting around wondering if you should really get new shocks go ahead and do it. Just about anything will be better then warn out shocks.

 

[PR Fiebru]

I need rear shocks cause I bend one trying to remove it to install daystar lift. I cant tell if i broke it, but i can only imagine any bend to body of sock will affect it.

Anyways .. Autozone sells these gabriel shocks for about 40 each. I guess it will be worth to just change the ones i have to these.