Who makes MASTER PRO shocks and struts? Any good?

Heading out of town this weekend using our daughters 07 S60 to tow our pop up camper.  Only had the vehicle a couple of months.  I know the shocks need replacing soon and was planning on waiting until I was off over either Thanksgiving or Xmas.  But I think things have suddenly changed.  We got new tires yesterday and they said we needed shocks as one of the fronts was leaking.  Well, I was planning it soon anyway.  But I've just got the call, the car is vibrating badly on and off so it's not tire balance.  So, I may need to do an emergency strut swap.  Our local O'Reilly's has Master pro complete units built up with a spring, top mount the works.  That would make it a whole lot easier.  I normally only use Koni, Bilstein or OEM for shocks and struts as they are both a safety and a performance item.  But given the tight time and that they happen to be in stock locally, are they any good?

Used to be Monroe, and no, they are garbage. NAPA should carry KYB, which should at least be okay-ish.

Thx dude. I hoped you chime in. 

BTW, reading what you are saying again.  the are probably Monroe.  Not finding KYB's in stock and if I'm going to do this before we go it needs to be wrapped up tomorrow night to pack on Weds.  The best shipping on RockAuto would be WEds night.

They stopped by work and dropped the car off on me and took mine instead.  I'm going to find some bad roads at lunchtime and see.  

Amazon sells cheap struts that are a Company called 

Detroit Axle

2000 Eight Mile Rd, Ferndale, MI 48220

I bought them once for a flip car so I have no review other than they fit and they were quick to get here.  For you, there may be a cash and carry option.  Mine were shipped directly from Eight Mile Rd so the inventory is there.  

Amazon price is $166 for the pair ( $83 each) front and  $48 per pair ($24 each) rear

$208 for all 4 pieces

Figure that includes $10-$20 shipping too.  Cash and carry might be cheaper.  

Please don't take the word of the tire tech guy. It's probably fine for a while yet.

tuna55 said:

Please don't take the word of the tire tech guy. It's probably fine for a while yet.

New tires and now vibration sounds like lug nut or wheel weight fell off.  

In reply to John Welsh :

Right. Not at all like a blown damper.

OK guys trust me, I wouldn't trust them to diagnose a flat tire unless I saw it myself.  I'll tell you why I think it's a blown strut.  First, the car is 12 years old with 100K miles on the original shocks/struts.  Second, it did it to me once before the tires were replaced.  I was on the freeway on some really crappy but unbroken concrete.  You know, where they grind lines into the surface.  It did it until a few hundred yards past the poor surface when I also slowed down.  Third, there is evidence of fluid escaping the strut.  No matter what, new shocks and struts all round are in order before the end of the year. 

What I think happens is that a very high frequency input, such as the ridges on the concreate provide an input that the blown (or in the process of blowing) struts can't keep up with.  That set's up an undamped vibration that won't go away until you do something major like stop, change speed dramatically or something that get it's well away from that range when it then settles down and behaves again.

I went out at lunch time and can't force it to do it again, although now typing this I'm slapping myself for not heading to the bit of freeway where it did it to me the other week.  It's amazing how the obvious can catch up with you after the fact.

I can't find anything decent that I can get in time for a reasonable price, so I think I'm going back to plan A and getting some Bilsteins next month. They are driving up before me on Thursday, so I'm giving them a hard 65mph speed limit.  I will drive it back on Monday.

P.S. it's 100% not a wheel weight or loose lug nut, I know what they feel like and it was there (once) before the tires.  That does remind me though.  I need to slack off and correctly torque the lug nuts tonight as I'm sure they did them up to approx. 10,000,000,000 lb/ft with a berkeleying air gun rather than torquing them properly.  

John Welsh said:

Amazon sells cheap struts that are a Company called 

Detroit Axle

2000 Eight Mile Rd, Ferndale, MI 48220

I bought them once for a flip car so I have no review other than they fit and they were quick to get here.  For you, there may be a cash and carry option.  Mine were shipped directly from Eight Mile Rd so the inventory is there.  

Amazon price is $166 for the pair ( $83 each) front and  $48 per pair ($24 each) rear

$208 for all 4 pieces

Figure that includes $10-$20 shipping too.  Cash and carry might be cheaper.  

I've had bad experience with Detroit axle berkeleying up my CV rebuild twice.  I trust best quality chinesium before them for anything.  

If you're keeping the car don't cheap out on the struts. Just order some Bilsteins and bear it until then. Blown factory is better than 99% of the new garbage stuff.

Javelin said:

If you're keeping the car don't cheap out on the struts. Just order some Bilsteins and bear it until then. Blown factory is better than 99% of the new garbage stuff.

YEah, that's what I've decided to do.  I never cheap out on anything performance or safety related, it's just I thought at first it was an emergency must do now situation until they brought me the car.  Having driven it at lunchtime I can't believe how good it feels on the new Michelins compared to the 10 year old ones on there when we got it.  

I'm still interested in peoples thoughts on the symptoms after I added more.  Fear not, Billies are going on by the end of the year, proabbaly earlier.  

What kind of shape are the bushings in?

My FWD Volvo experience has taught me to only use OEM/Lemforder strut mounts.

Stock shocks should be Sachs.

I'll bet FCPEuro has complete replacement sets in stock, with a lifetime warranty.

In reply to Javelin :

Good point.  They 'look' and 'feel' OK when I put it up in the air and gave it a good wiggle, but they are 12 years and 100K old.  You think it could be that?  I did replace the whole shooting match (control arms, end links, ball joints etc.) on my Vovlo C30 at 120K, but that never had these symptoms and while a lighter car than the S60, it had been beaten on much harder by by driving style than the S60 (I know the one and only previous owner).  

In reply to Adrian_Thompson :

Resonance frequency like you're describing tends to rear it's head when there is give in a system. You yanking on a control arm is nothing like the 3500lb car doing it. 

OK, I drove it home and to work this morning, I can't get it do hit the resonant freq again despite my best efforts.  I threw it up on the hoist early this am at work.  Yup, the front left is leaking.  I can't see, feel, wiggle or woggle anything else.  No surprise.  The spring isolator has pretty much disintegrated too, so when at full rebound I can wiggle the spring a bit.  I had another look at the bushings, and visibly they are well past their prime.  I'll probably do new LCA's, end links upper strut mounts the whole shooting match like I did on the C 30.

Pics, everyone loves pics.

Borked LCA Bushing

The gray part hanging off the spring seat is the remains of the spring isolator.

Yup that's leaking

In reply to Adrian_Thompson :

Bingo bango!

In reply to Javelin :

In reply to Javelin :

I'm looking for shocks and struts as well. Is Monroe a decent brand? If not what would you recommend? Thanks in advance 

I got all my S60 suspension stuff from IPD www.ipdusa.com.  I can't remember which struts used but that car handled great.  Much to my wife's dismay I would occasionally use it for demo rides at our racing school.

In reply to David419 :

Monroe is literally garbage. Bilstein is the "lowest end" I would go on struts these days.

In reply to David419 :

Shock absorbers on a canoe?  Cool!