1999Z/28

Due mostly to recommendations found on this site I'm shopping around for Koni SA's installed. Both shops so far mentioned probably having to replace the "front bearing plates" due to rust. Is this because I'm in the rainy Pacific Northwest or normal on these cars? One guy said for a '99 there's a 95% chance they're rusted bad enough for replacement and you can't tell without taking things apart and both quoted $175CDN per side to replace 'em although labor would be covered already by the shock install. Does this sound right? No way I can tell myself what kind of shape they're in?

Major_Lee_Slow

iTrader: (1)

I've never heard them called bearing plates. Usually they are just called upper shock mounts. In any event, they do develop some pretty good rust on the inside and it can be a big PITA to remove the nut from the shock shaft cause it's so rusted.

If you do replace the upper mounts, only use the OEM parts. The aftermarket parts tend to fail. The threaded inserts strip out or rip out.

Sam Strano

iTrader: (41)

They are called upper shock (not strut) mounts. They do not have any bearings in them, because they aren't strut mounts, but shock mounts... as such the shock doesn't turn when you turn the wheel....

It's not a bad idea to have some handy. 100k miles of rain probably means they are screwed up.

As for the shocks. I don't think you will find a very good deal on the shocks installed because Koni's are not something that anyone can get for a good price.

I'm sure, very sure I can beat any local shop pretty hard on price, then you need only investigate the installation cost.

MeentSS02

iTrader: (11)

You'll know when you take them off what kind of shape they are in - mine have about 67,000 miles on them over the 7 years I've had the car (5 of those were daily driven in Colorado, Florida, and Ohio), and while they were a little rusty, they weren't bad. They were certainly reusable, and what I did was take a wire brush to them, did some basic prep work, and painted them with POR-15.

I would highly doubt that yours are too far gone to be saved, but you just never know, and unfortunately, you won't be able to tell until you have them off the car.

At least I couldn't tell...

01formula6

iTrader: (7)

My shock mounts were pretty much fused to the shaft of the shock and had to be destroyed. I bought Moog replacements from Advanced Auto and they worked just fine. It also appeared they had OEM like steel threads, and not an aluminum threaded insert. They were about $75 each and the rubber insert was around $10.

MeentSS02

iTrader: (11)

FWIW, here's what mine looked like before taking stuff apart (driver's side):



And here's what it looks like after I got done painting stuff and putting it back together (passenger's side)



I'll see if I have some time tonight to snap some pics of the pieces from the driver's side that I haven't painted yet (I'm doing this one side at a time in case I forget how things go back together ).

1999Z/28

Thanks - guess this confirms a very possible problem - Sam, PM'd re. the Koni's.