KYB struts bad?

fastfiat81

fastfiat81

Mr. Speed
All-

"New" 10 year old gr-2 struts on the car. Never driven on the road. I am replacing the mounts and was testing these on the bench and was wondering if they are actually bad with time and not use.

I can compress the strut and there is practically no rebound. A sign to replace? I seem to remember when new it was hard to keep them compressed.

Thanks-
Tony
 
The earlier version of KYB's (Gas-A-Just) were a high pressure gas monotube design. Those were very difficult to compress and immediately pushed back up due to the high internal pressure. KYB changed to a more traditional hydraulic double wall low pressure design (GR-2) that is different. It is easier to compress and doesn't pop back up as much (and not all the way). When they are new it is still rather hard to compress them, but with time they get easier. And the easier they are to compress, the less they tend to spring back. Usually wear is what causes the change over time. However I've found that KYB's can get that way just from sitting on the shelf. So in your case they might be a little less compliant, but not necessarily. The better test is not how much they extend back on their own, but how difficult it is to compress them AND to pull them back out by hand. There should be significant resistance in BOTH directions, and for the most part the more resistance the better.
 
fastfiat81 said:
Thanks Jeff. I do have very high resistance in both directions so I should be good to go.

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I just put on a NOS set of KYBs that have been on my parts shelf at least as long as yours. They work fine as far as I can tell and provide a better ride than the worn out set I took off. I think you will be fine.
 
Meh - mine are like that as well - happend a couple of years after I put them in. They dampen on rebound, that's what I care about. I've been driving it like that for years, and still handles incredibly well. My car sits on International Auto springs, the fronts are cut and modified.

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