struts recommendations?

Question

Im shopping for a pair of struts for my car sense the spring on the driver side either came off the seating plat of the strut or broke, im going to replace both side springs and struts. (59 ford escort LX ) Ive tried the gabriel ultra but they seem to give me a hard ride now i fell every bump on the road so im looking into the Monroe MacPherson Strut.
do anybody have any recommendations for a good struts that will give me a good ride at a good price. or any other parts I need to add or change to get a good ride result.( my old OEM struts gave me a softer ride and i don't know the name of them)

for the one who know what Im saying and that knows abouts cars Thank You!!!:-)i
for the non understanding ones who really dont know much about cars more less then know what im saying its a 95 ford escort LX I know ford don't make a 59 escort anybody that has decent or better knowledge knows thats its called a typo!

for the one who know what Im saying and that knows abouts cars Thank You!!!:-)i
for the non understanding ones who really dont know much about cars more less then know what im saying its a 95 ford escort LX I know ford don't make a 59 escort anybody that has decent or better knowledge knows thats its called a typo!

Answer 1

Gabriel and Monroe more or less dominate the aftermarket replacement strut business. They have outstanding marketing departments, no question. In your particular situation both also offer complete, pre-assembled strut/spring/mount assemblies which are much easier to install than plain replacement struts or separate struts and springs. But the struts from these companies are not built to original equipment specs. Neither are the coil springs. They may use one strut to fit a number of different applications without taking into account the needs of those different vehicles. I used to get many complaints from customers about the ride with both Gabriel and Monroe. I even have Monroe shocks on the back of my wife's minivan and they ride a bit firmer than I would normally like. For that reason my shop has switched to KYB brand struts. KYB is the largest OE (original equipment) manufacturer for struts and for most applications they guarantee their replacement struts restore the ride to OE quality - because they are using OE parts. These are typically a few dollars more expensive than Gabriel or Monroe but not enough to be a big deal.

Broken coil springs are a frequent problem on the Escort and this can effect both the front and the rear axles although broken rear springs are more common. Last year I did work on a Tracer (Mercury version of the Escort) that had all four coil springs broken! Becuase of that, I would suggest that as long as you are having one axle dealt with due to the already failed coil spring that you replace the springs and struts on the other axle as well as a preventive measure. There are a couple of reasons for this.

For one, you take care of a potential future broken spring problem before it happens. Since I have seen more than a few broken springs blow out tires by puncturing them, this could prevent a possible future accident.

Also, there is a little bit of cost savings since you only have to align the vehicle once. Its small but who wants to spend money twice?

More critically though, new struts and springs one one axle and old, worn ones on the other are going to cause the vehicle to handle poorly. Old struts (more than 50k miles) don't work nearly as well as new ones in controlling wheel motions and old springs can sag, making it impossible to get a really good wheel alignment. This is especially true if you only replace the rear springs and struts, which could make the car tail happy - give it a tendency to spin under cornering or hard braking. In an emergency situation these differences in performance could be critical. With new parts all-around the car rides, handles and stops like it was designed to.

Just my humble opinion, valued at precisely $0.02

Answer 2

Original equipment always seems to be better than aftermarket replacements. Check with the dealer. They are not always higher than everyone else.

Answer 3

ford didnt make a escort lx in 1959