How many miles did your front struts last before you had to change them? I now have 65k miles on a 05 Mazda 3, and am beginning to feel some harshness in the suspension, especially when it is going over rough ground.

 

I have 27k miles on my 3 and all is ok with the struts so far, just a funky sound while turning and getting close to lock that sounds like someone sighing. How old are your tires? Old tires loose their flexibility and become stiffer, this hurts ride quality and handling. Same with having too high pressure inside them.

 

My tires are quite new. The Kumho Ecsta tires were installed less than a year ago and probably have about 10k miles on them. I also make it a point to check tire inflation frequently.

 

As a general rule shocks/struts should be replaced every 50-75k miles. It's true they can go far longer than that without failing, however they lose a lot of their ability to dampen the ride when they get old.

I just replaced the front struts on my car.... hit something on the highway and blew out both a tire and a strut. I held off of the shocks in the rear for the moment just based on available $$. Car has 120k on it. I'll probably get around the shocks next spring.

If you're at 65k then you're around the wear level that you could conceivably replace them. You can find the struts/boots/stops/mounts on rockauto for about $200. My local shop installed them for $180. Firestone quoted me about $900 for just the fronts and labor so I feel like I got off easy.

 

In all honesty, who actually replaces their shocks and struts? I have not, and don't know one single person that does.

In terms of my own personal experience, I have over 117,000 miles on my car and the car rides the same now as it did new. HOWEVER, I have had one of the struts (driver side) replaced, but only because I was in an accident and messed it up in the accident. Other than that, I have one original strut and two original shocks and the ride is no worse.

 

OK here's a two part question for cost of strut replacement (for a 05 Mazda 3):

1. Let's say I need 2 front strut replacement and had the shop do it, am I looking at around $1000 for parts and labor?

2. If I buy the parts and take it to a non-dealer mechanic, what brand strut do i get and where to shop?

 

I would have said the exact same thing.... I noticed no deterioration in the ride of my car before I blew out a strut. However with the replacement struts I can drive quickly over bumpy things (say a dip turning from one road to another or going into a parking lot) and my car will not rub where before the replacement it did. The old ones were clearly worn even though for the most part they operated fine.

1) It depends. The first place I got a quote from (firestone) quoted me $815 parts/labor for the front struts. I had a local shop install them for around $200 and bought the parts myself... right around $200 for struts, boots, and mounts.

2) I'm really happy with the KYB struts I purchased. Very close to the original ride, and perhaps a little stiffer when going through dips. IIRC KYB doesn't make a mount for the 3 so I just bought the monroe mount. Everything was purchased through rockauto.

 

Thanks for the above responses. I did some research on struts and found that, indeed, dealer's shops can charge as much as $900 for replacing two front struts, but it depends on whether it is OEM or another brand. I also found that I can get replacement struts for the Mazda 3 for $78 each, but i did not inquire if that included mounts and isolators (if needed).

I am not mechanically minded so please excuse me if i ask this question: what is the difference between struts and shocks? Are the terms sometimes used interchangeably? Also, do coil springs go with the struts. Does the Mazda 3 have coil springs in front?

 

As I understand it the difference between a strut and shock is the lower mount on a shock is simply a bolt/bushing and can move. The lower mount on a strut is designed to not move so that it can also control lateral movement vs. only up/down on the shock. Putting a spring over a shock doesn't turn it into a strut.

The 3 does use coil springs in the front, none in the back. Your springs are probably fine and can be reused.

As for parts I'd suggest replacing the mount while you're in there, at least in the front. There's a bearing in the mount for when the strut rotates and bearings do wear out over time. You might as well drop the small amount of $$ while everything's apart and replace it as well. For the bellows and stop you could be fine reusing them. The bellows is just an accordioned piece of plastic to keep debris off of the shaft and the stop keeps the shaft from bottoming out. They were cheap so I just purchased them as well, especially since one of my struts was blown so there was oil/grease everywhere.

 

Thanks for the info. So the 3 has coil springs and a (piston-like) strut in front. I am amazed that OEM struts cost about $78 while the Bilstein struts cost $230. That's huge price difference.