New to the chevy world, 15 burban ltz, bad struts.

[cdeadly]

I've been a ford guy my whole life, but we just had our third kid and needed a bigger rig, and my wife liked the suburban. So I went and looked at a dozen or so before I found one that fit the bill.

It's a 15 ltz with 83000 on it, seemed like a good deal, but now after having it a short while I've noticed it's very rough riding, took it to the shop and they quoted me 1400 dollars for one strut replacement.

This lead me down a rabbit hole of doing it myself, which led me here. I have read through quite a few threads concerning this topic, and I think I have an idea of what I want to do but thought I would ask specifically.

I am thinking I want to do the arnott front struts with the magneride delete, but I am also not convinced that I should ditch the magneride, ad I've seen some people say they have been upgraded since they first came out and are of better quality.

Thank you in advance. Here is a pic of our truck.

 

[B-train]

Car-part.com

I've had good luck with low mile salvage parts. Or ebay for the same thing. Just put in you model and year and compare RPO codes to the glove box ones. Usually can find low mile complete units foe a fraction of the cost. Just my 0.02

 

[OR VietVet]

Welcome to the forum from Oregon.

Others will chime in.

 

[swathdiver]

Welcome to the forum @cdeadly

I'm of mind to maintain the suspension that came with your truck as long as parts are available, which they are in your case. Bump your post in the morning when the fellas are having their coffee and you'll get more responses than from us insomniacs.

 

[Joseph Garcia]

Welcome to the Forum from NH.

Lots of knowledgeable folks here who freely share their knowledge, experiences, and perspectives. Knowledge is power.

I hope that you will become a participating member in the Forum's discussions.

Very nice find!

I'd recommend keeping the Magnaride, as it is a superior suspension system, IMO. The parts aren't cheap, but you get what you pay for, at best.

My recommendation is to purchase the core Magnaride strut and have a local repair shop disassemble the old strut and build the new strut for you. This way, you don't have to mess around with renting and/or using a spring compressor, which can be dangerous. The rest of the job is quite easy for you to do.

 

[Tahoe14]

Try Rockauto for parts and keep the magneride.

 

[Onlyone]

I would keep the magneride. No reason to half ass it.

 

[cdeadly]

OK, now maybe I have new plans, maybe I will stay with the magneride.

Now the dealership said I needed a new strut, would it be advisable to get the strut with the spring assembly and replace the whole thing? Or is it worth it to save the spring and just replace the strut?

 

[swathdiver]

OK, now maybe I have new plans, maybe I will stay with the magneride.

Now the dealership said I needed a new strut, would it be advisable to get the strut with the spring assembly and replace the whole thing? Or is it worth it to save the spring and just replace the strut?

Rebuild the spring. There is a difference in quality with those quick struts and the OE stuff but several guys on here have used the quick struts and are plenty happy with them.

Whatever you do, do it in pairs.

 

[Tonyv__]

If I had to do it again. I’d buy the shocks and see if I could find a mechanic that would compress the spring and rebuild the shock at a fair price. Then install myself. If it made sense cost wise. L

I bought a “heavy duty” spring compressor to do my front struts and I’ll tell you I was clenching the whole time. The compressor was twisting and looked like it was ready to give out any moment.

Maybe it would if worked better if the compressor was mounted to something solid like a metal post. And longer handles for more leverage would have been nicer. Or maybe the tool works great for smaller springs. But for the Yukon (same suspension as yours). It was not up to the task comfortably

 

[OR VietVet]

Yea, in my shops, we had wall mounted set up that was very safe, if you paid attention.

 

[Tonyv__]

Yea, in my shops, we had wall mounted set up that was very safe, if you paid attention.

with that being said. Would you guys take a job if someone brought in their strut assembly with a new strut? Or was it only worth the work if you guys were doing the job on the vehicle start to finish.

 

[OR VietVet]

We did take walk in jobs and depending on what was needed, we would do while customer waited or would call them when done. We looked at it like an opportunity to get our name out there with neighborhood shade tree mechanics. Sometimes, it brought bigger paying opportunities into the shop. We did not offer any warranty though for this work. The parts were not ours. Some shops, now days, are so busy that they don't do it.

 

[Tonyv__]

We did take walk in jobs and depending on what was needed, we would do while customer waited or would call them when done. We looked at it like an opportunity to get our name out there with neighborhood shade tree mechanics. Sometimes, it brought bigger paying opportunities into the shop. We did not offer any warranty though for this work. The parts were not ours. Some shops, now days, are so busy that they don't do it.

Makes sense. I’ve noticed that too. A lot of places won’t install customer supplied tires now. So that kinda brings tire rack and all them other tire websites to a lesser value for customers .


But I get it. As a contractor, dealing with customer supplied stuff is a headache. They’ll buy the cheapest product possible not realizing installation is gonna be twice as difficult thus driving contractors away or charging more than labor.

 

[OR VietVet]

When we did it, we gave no breaks on labor time and no warranty at all. If a customer towed in a torn down repair attempt, we charged at LEAST the full R&R labor time because a good tech remembers what came off as they disassemble. That was made completely clear before anyone touched the rig. If they called first, I told them all the disclaimers over the phone.

 

[CMoore711]

If I had to do it again. I’d buy the shocks and see if I could find a mechanic that would compress the spring and rebuild the shock at a fair price. Then install myself. If it made sense cost wise.

This is exactly what you need to do if you’re not planning to do the work and install yourself.

Buy OEM parts off rockauto (best price on OEM magnaride shocks/struts I’ve found). And find a local shop that will remove and reinstall shocks/struts if you supply your own parts.

There is actually a tire discounters shop close to me that does this.

This will be the most cost affective way.

 

[CHOWDERHEAD]

I know guys are saying keep the Magneride. For me… Too many complaints and problems with this system. If I get a LTZ with the Z55, first thing I’m doing is the following:

Replace front struts with ZW7
Replace rear coils and shocks with ZW7

For the folks that get confused with the suspension RPO codes and not knowing where to start IF you decide to swap out and want to go with OEM… I’ve already done this once MYSLEF, so I know what has to be done.

So just to recap on the suspension codes and swaps….

Z55 RPO code: Magneride (LTZ trim and Cadillac and optional on LT (I think?)
ZW7 RPO code: This is the standard “Premium Smooth Ride” suspension that is standard on: SSV, LS, LT trim. No air shocks in rear and no magnetic struts in front. From what I noticed, from 2007 and up the rear nivomat shocks were dropped on the ZW7 and replaced with standard shocks. But maybe someone can chime in on that to verify?
Z56 RPO code: PPV ONLY. Police rear shocks, coils, police front struts. From my experience looking up part numbers when I did my Z56 to ZW7 swap, the front coils were the same part number that is used on all the other applications. This was on a 2011 though. So unsure if the same would apply to 15 and up.

And then there is the good ole QUICKSTRUT. I tried this FIRST before I did OEM and the front coil is not up to spec with OEM and the ride height is higher. That’s fine if you want to bring your overall ride height up anyway. Just figure out what you need in the rear to get it level or slight rake to the front.

My advice is KEEP the OEM front coils unless they are trashed and the front is sagging. Pull out the entire assembly and send to local shop to compress coils and put in struts of choice.

As far as the rear goes, if you are dumping your Z55, YOU WILL NEED TO REPLACE COILS AS WELL. Don’t just throw a set of shocks in there with the Z55 coils. They are too weak to take the entire rear weight of the vehicle. Remember, the air shocks from the Z55 assisted in ride height and so Z55 coils were designed to work in conjunction with the air shocks.

Feel free to correct me with any info that may be in accurate.

 

[Chris Mosher]

I would replace with the assembled strut if your doing it yourself. I replaced mine myself and it was fairly smooth with the right tools and plenty of pre watched YouTube vids. Replace the sway bar bushings while you’re at it.

 

[Bigkevschopshop]

I have heard good things on the Arnot replacement MRC stuff, and if you want to make the ride smoother but dont mind loosing the sporty feel in corners and braking then do the bypass.

My front struts on my 15 burb just were done at the dealer due to the extended warranty and that paid for itself already. When functioning correctly and new they are pretty good, little tighter than the standard stuff but do a great job in the corners and under hard braking etc. Also help when towing...

And yea the zw7 starting in 2007 dropped that nivomat junk.

 

[cdeadly]

Update, complained to the dealership I bought it from and they offered to pay half of the shop cost for new struts, I didn't like that, so they offered to buy me new strut assemblies for both sides, they bought some with the magna ride from TRQ.

I put them on myself after watching a YouTube video, it was very easy, the truck recognized the shocks, and it rides like a dream now and sits up a little higher too. Thank you all.