So Your Subaru is getting up there in age, maybe as a result you have started getting motion sickness whenever you make a lane change at freeway speeds, or there is a noise going over bumps. All of these symptoms can make your Subaru feel much older than it really is.

This is a very correctable situation that will greatly enhance the driving performance of your Subaru. Doing the job right and complete will make all the difference in the world and will make the project much more worthwhile.

Maybe you like your Subaru, but are not so happy with how it handles any more or the noise it makes is embarrassing when there are passengers, or just plain driving you nuts when there aren’t. Maybe your Subaru needs some other repairs or service but because the car feels old you are not so sure it’s worth it.

The truth is that the car Manufactures don’t really want the car to feel good forever or you would never have any reason to buy a new one, or sell you replacement parts for the one you already have. Struts used to be a common thing to think about replacing after your car hit the 60,000 mile mark, but the cost of replacing all 4 struts can add up and somehow there has been a disconnect between the cost of replacing the struts versus the value of improving the safety of your Subaru.

The problem, as the O.E. hydraulic struts in your Subaru age they start to slowly leak out hydraulic fluid or even in struts that haven’t leaked fluid will have lost their “charge” over time. At the top of the strut is a tower or mount that includes a bearing and over time the mount and bearing will age and develop play. The aged components will slowly over time weaken and also weaken the ability of the struts and mounts to dampen how the road feels to you in the car, and how well the Car handles the road. Replacing the struts in your Subaru with a good quality gas charged set of struts, replacing the mounts and performing an alignment afterwards will drastically improve how your Subaru handles Seattle’s rough roads.

Weak or worn struts can have an effect on how the car handles, how harsh the bumps in the road can feel and how well weight is transferred under braking, especially panic stops. A lot of times the last two or three inches of stopping distance is the difference between having an accident and not having one.

Having a Subaru or any other car for that matter come into a shop especially at higher miles and needing brakes, and some other repairs and service makes it difficult for most shops to want to recommend new struts to you. Most in the industry will shy away from even recommending struts given the potential costs to the customer. Add to that there are the tire stores of the world using young kids as labor and lower quality parts when replacing struts and as a result it has created very hard to match prices, even though the repairs can be as different as apples and oranges. Replacing suspension components is really not a job for an 18 year old at a tire store regardless of their claims of training, and there are really only one or two strut types that should be put in your Subaru.

Strut replacement should start out with an inspection of the rest of the suspension system to make sure it is sound. It is possible that some of the other suspension components have suffered as a result of one leg of the system (the struts) becoming weak. This will ensure your satisfaction with the money spent on enhancing the Subaru’s performance on the road.

Doing Struts right, complete and by a Subaru expert is really the best way to go when making repairs on your Subaru.

Subaru Strut Blown rear strut Out With The Old New Strut and Mount Subaru Struts Strut Mount Leaking Strut Strut upgrade

8 Responses:

8 responses to “Seattle Subaru Expert Strut Replacement”

  1. Ladd J Hoppes says:

    Hi, looking to replace the front & rear Shocks/Struts for a 2006 Subaru Baja,
    my research shows that KYB makes these for OEM, not sure that is true.
    Their web site says they don’t make these parts for this year vehicle model.
    You advice on brand name and if a strut assembly should be the way to go.
    Thanks Ladd

    • Justin Stobb says:

      Hello Ladd

      Yes KYB is who you want to use. I did just look and you are correct KYB only shows the rears right now, Thanks Covid!

      My advice is to wait until they are available or see if you can buy from Subaru.

      -Justin

  2. Dan Ford says:

    My wife took her Subaru Outback in for oil change at Dealership. they saoid our rear brakes were bad

  3. Cora says:

    My outback legacy is a 96. When I turn wheels to the right there os an awful clicking, I just had both front berrings replaced, but its getting worse have been told it could be axle or struts. Help!

    • Justin Stobb says:

      Hi Cora,

      Sounds lie a Cv axle issue, this is of course without driving it and hearing the noise for myself but that would be the common thing for a clicking while driving and turning.

      -Justin

  4. Justin says:

    Hi Justin,

    Just wanted to ask how much time it should take to replace all 4 struts on a 2005 Outback? I recently did this and have a great independent Subaru garage I take my car to (like yours) however, I feel like they may have charged me the “book time” to do the work and not the actual time.

    Thanks.

    • Justin Stobb says:

      Hi Justin,

      There isn’t a real easy answer to that Question as there are variables. Most shops have to charge a “flat rate” to estimate something as there is no other way to give you an estimate as actual time is unknown until it occurs, if a shop charged everything in actual time you would have no idea how much the bill was until the shop was done with car and the labor $ per hour (if that’s how they charge) would be almost if not more than double what it is now. We charge around $100 to $120 a corner depending on if we are supplying the struts or if we are putting yours in you may have bought somewhere online, and whether or not we are also performing the alignment. I believe book time is actually significantly higher than what we charge and even though the expense to you is high, Struts are a very low margin service for most shops. Tire shops using Chinese struts and low labor costs drove the price down for that service. A good shop however could always charge a little less if the job went very smooth, we do that here, but I wouldn’t expect that many other places.

      -Justin

  5. Bill Coppens says:

    Justin,
    I have an acceleration problem with my suspension. It appears that upon acceleration the passenger rear has a vibration. Is this caused by the Struts being bad??

    Thank you,
    Bill Coppens

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Written by Justin Stobb

Justin Stobb is the Owner of All Wheel Drive Auto, the premier Independent Subaru Shop in the North West with locations in Kirkland and Bothell Washington. Justin has been providing Subaru Owners (regardless of where they live), with tips and advice about their Subaru since 2006.