Strut/Shock Recommendations ?

Katmandu · **Posted:** Tue Nov 12, 2013 12:59 am

I have a 2012 Liberty Latitude w/7000 miles and 18" wheels.

The front struts are totally shot after 7,000 easy highway miles. The truck has always handled very poorly from brand new. The front end has had a vibration not too long after we bought it. Advised from everyone was the tires were out of round so we swapped them out. Well we are now on our 3rd set of tires (including the OEM POS donuts).

Knowing that dealing with the dealer and trying to get them to replace the struts was a losing battle, we didn't waste our time.

So now it's time to change out these POS struts and shocks.

I've seen Bilsteins going for around $320 Shipped.

What do you'all recommend ? Just want a better ride and safe handling over stock.

tommudd · **Posted:** Tue Nov 12, 2013 2:44 am

Katmandu · **Posted:** Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:06 am

tommudd wrote:

:POPCORN:

No joke Tom. Where is everybody ?

Noone has upgraded their struts/shocks without doing a Lift ???

Are Bilsteins the only real option over the OEM POS's ??

tommudd · **Posted:** Tue Nov 12, 2013 10:12 am

Fronts are easy since they are all the same lifted or non lifted
Rear is as well really since the regular 132 OMEs are stock length, and Ironman makes a stock length shock for the rear
So there you have three choices, OME, Ironman and Bilstein
But yes it seems most go ahead and get rid of the crappy stock springs and lift

Katmandu · **Posted:** Tue Nov 12, 2013 12:22 pm

tommudd wrote:

Fronts are easy since they are all the same lifted or non lifted
Rear is as well really since the regular 132 OMEs are stock length, and Ironman makes a stock length shock for the rear
So there you have three choices, OME, Ironman and Bilstein
But yes it seems most go ahead and get rid of the crappy stock springs and lift

If I had the spare $$ it would be a no-brainer.

What's the least expensive choice ?

Where's the least expensive place to buy struts/shocks ?

On another forum, another Lib owner reported a bad CV joint @10,000 miles. He claimed the intermediate shaft and CV were "stuck" together.....whatever that means. ???

I am going to go try and work with the Dealership (Erwin's down here in Troy). NOT real hopeful though.

tommudd · **Posted:** Tue Nov 12, 2013 12:53 pm

For Bilstein the cheapest would be shockwarehouse more than likely
jeepinbyal has all 3 available ( OME, Ironman and Bilstein)
so you could shop around some
Erwins seems like pretty good place, of course have only been there for the Jeep spring fund raisers they have
CV/ Intermediate shaft shown below go bad every now and again
reason they are a wear item for one, they ( the intermediate shaft) have a splined shaft that slides into the CV. The spines either wear and cause issues or most of the time they rust together and won't move , both which could result in vaibrationsin the front end.
CV on the left of course/ Intermediate shaft on the right
The splined part on the intermediate shaft would of course be inside the CV when in the KJ/KK

Katmandu · **Posted:** Tue Nov 12, 2013 1:12 pm

Thanks for the info Tom.

I'll keep ya'll updated on this.

Katmandu · **Posted:** Thu Nov 21, 2013 12:17 pm

Katmandu wrote:

Thanks for the info Tom.

I'll keep ya'll updated on this.

Both front struts on my KK deemed defective (@ 8200 miles) and replaced under Warranty ! :BANANA:

Truck handles and rides better than when we drove it off the lot brand new!

Strut/Shock Recommendations ?

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