What is my problem, struts or springs?

[mj8]

93 4 cylinder with 160k, when I hit a bump on the drivers side or passenger side the front wheel that just took the hit...just bounces away and takes what seems like 3 seconds or so to stop bouncing, fairly vigorous bouncing. The backs seem to be fine. My question is this....are my springs bad or just my struts? I thought about buying new struts and using my old springs but are the springs part of my problem? The car drives fairly smooth until I hit a spot in the road that isn't smooth.

[Andrew Liu]

blown strut. good bet that your springs have sagged too, on a 15 year old car.

Personally, I would take this opportunity to get some new struts (kyb or tokico) and lowering springs.

['_']

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe you need new struts. The struts control the bounce. If they're worn out/old, the car will tend to bounce a lot over bumps.

[bigbird]

blown strut...worn springs. struts are the key problem but the springs arent helping.

[Venom_5]

blown struts definitely

[ASG14]

As other said, struts. But depending how long it;s been like this, you may have damaged other parts of the suspension too.

[tacomonkey69]

i vote tokico

[cruisn76]

vote for KYB if you want to restore back to factory ride

[Heat]

Just for the sake of throwing out a ballpark price, my mother paid $900 to have all of the struts replaced and two CV joint boots replaced on her (now my) '95 Camry LE.

[mj8]

I would really like to prevent from replacing my springs....I don't care if this car handles like a dream or not I just want it to be safe and stop the vigorous shaking/bouncing when I hit a bump. Should I replace the strut mounts as well, is this a wear item?

[ASG14]

If the mounts have 160k miles on them, replace them too. They do break with age.

[eyeball96]

Originally Posted by tacomonkey69

i vote tokico

Originally Posted by cruisn76

vote for KYB if you want to restore back to factory ride

I've used both..go with tokico struts.

[mj8]

Originally Posted by ASG14

If the mounts have 160k miles on them, replace them too. They do break with age.

does the manufacturer matter or can I just get whatever? is there a bearing in there or is just a metal plate with a rubber insert?

[Venom_5]

OEM Toyota Mounts, or KYB Mounts (like from TireRack) are best ... people have had problem with cheaper, and other aftermarket brands

[ASG14]

^ Yup, exactly.

I always go OEM Toyota as I get employee pricing at my local dealer, which I doubt you do. So I'd go KYB. They SHOULD come with the bearings (Toyota is seperate).

Your best bet is to convert to the 95-96 suspension setup if your doing the work yourself. It's a 1 piece strut as opposed to the 92-93 Seviceable struts, where you need to take the strut out of the housing.