G'day lads,

Sorry to start another shock absorber thread, I did a search and couldn't find the information I wanted.

I have read a few comments about these shocks that suggest that they turn the car into a wallowing boat.

My standard shocks with King Super low springs are well and truly on the way out, I should have done the shocks at the same time but I didn't and now it is time to do something about it.

Can anyone offer opinions on these shocks? Should I look into something else instead? I can pick up a set of the Monroes for $385 brand new and that's probably all I'll want to spend, are they best option for that price?

I don't hammer around corners under great power all the time, I don't do any track or drag days (though I would like to from time to time in the future) and I don't need the car to sit perfectly level through corners.

What I am looking for is a reduction in the 'bounce' I'm getting from my standard shocks over speed bumps and rougher roads. I would like to keep the body roll at a minimum and still have a nice and firm but still comfortable ride.

I'm also getting an unbelievable squeak from my rear end over short, sharp bumps. It's like I've got a flock of budgies in the back of my car. In my completely inexperienced opinion I believe it is the bushes around the lower shock mount area. What would I be looking at to get rid of this god-awful noise as far as a set of new bushes goes?

The noise developed about a week after banging in the King springs and it has been slowly driving me to a mass murder ever since. I figure I should solve this problem before it gets any worse

Many thanks in advance for the opinions and advice, lads.

Cheers.

In my experience, the monroes are just no good for superlow height or lower. I had them in my car prior to what i have now, and other cars, and was never happy with them. My EB is lower than superlow though, but i went with pedders gsr this time. I can only say good things.

Those pedders might be out of price range?
BenJ speaks highly of the Ultima's

I'm not going to cut corners if it's just a matter of cost, if I have to shell out more to get what I want.... I will.

Pimp, what exactly did you dislike about them? Too hard? Too soft? Bounce? Roll?

I'm basically thinking that they cannot possibly be worse than the standard shock absorbers which are 13 years old and running on springs that are much shorter and stiffer than what they were designed to work with. I don't need rock-solid, dead-level cornering but I would like to retain the reduction in body-roll and increase in firmness and road-hold I noticed when I lowered the car in the first place.

The GTs just seem like a really cost-effective option and that will allow more money to go elsewhere in the car. I just want to make sure that they aren't rubbish before I go and blow $400 on getting them into my car.

Firstly, i'll just clear up that i like my cars bull s**t low, it now sits about ultra low in the front, and a bit lower than ultra low in the back, so only few shocks are ok with that.

Now, in my experience, and opinion, they seem to have 2 problems,

- They hate to be low, and s**t real quick. I don't drive my car on s**t roads, nor do i drive like a f**k head, they just don't last low.

- Also when in a low car, they are not valved hard enough, so i was constantly smashing the stops, even on smooth roads.

Obviously how my EB sits now, it sits on the stops if it has monroes in it, it now has pedders gsr short bodies in it, and they are the bomb.


However, as RD said, BENJ had superlows and ultima's in the sedan, and was happy with them. I wouldn't go lower though.

Andrew.

My car had Monroe GT Gas in them when I bought it. I went and bought a new pair, as I had been told they were for lowered cars.

The new ones were not any shorter, and were basically riding on the bumpstop with the superlow springs.

So I went looking at other budget options. I ended up getting Ultima Short Heavy Duty rear shocks. Now these are a good 35mm shorter overall than the Monroes, and have a nice fat shock body. After installing these, the rear end felt like it was planted better, and roadholding had improved noticeably. More importantly for me, the shock, which is the bump stop in the rear of an E Series, didn't bottom out any more. In fact it would compress so far that the diff housing could hit the top of the chassis. This was with four adults, plus luggage on a rough country road at over 100kph.

Monroes are not what they are hyped up to be. Good for a STD height car, yes, but not for lowered cars.

BenJ

Now i take it you used the GT Gas "lowered" which is actually the same as the standard, this is not an actual shortened body shock, The new GT Gas "sports" are a shortened body shock at an afordable price. Im thinking about these in the future as a try. Now they do say they are designed for superlow springs so if they do fail before the warranty its at no real loss. So IMO give em a go.

That sounds encouraging, Joolz. For that price I think I'm willing to give them a go. They're advertised as a short-bodied shock, so they should provide an improvement over stock.

Thanks for the advice, guys.

Oh, I'll do a little write-up on them if I do get them fitted in an attempt to dispell any misunderstandings about these shocks.

How do you want your car to behave? nice firm comfy ride yet to have good cornering chracteristics?

I have boge short shocks front and rear and there a good standard replacement unit like all other out there unless you choose Pedders sports ryder, koni & bilstien.

Boge are good but i have found that there more soft on the rear than the front which i dont like.

A big suspension joint i went and saw recommended me just to replace the rear with koni so we can firm it up like the front and he said keep the front boge as there a really good shock.

He could of told me to replace everything but he didnt which showed me he was a very honest guy.

Everyone here will recommend boge to be a good shock and from what research ive found either Boge would be the best replacement out of all the other similair priced shocks out there.

Also Ultima is sopposed to be comparable to Boge.

If i were to do it again i would definatly go koni shocks and king springs if i was going to keep the car for at least 1-2years

In the past boge shocks were clearly superior in all respects to pedders shocks. I don't really know if things have changed or not. I do however see pedders as a marketing company, and there have been numerous instances on this forum and at least one myself where they overcharge.

NO, i used the shocks that claim to be able to suit superlow. They ARE NOT capable of doing so. I've done alot of suspension work in my time, you think i'd be stupid enough to do that?

The truth as, as already said, monroe shocks aren't all they are cracked up to be. They are the supercheap of the suspension world, and only exist to have a fair budget range in the market. Sure they come with a warranty, but if you want to change shocks every 6 months "under warranty" to maintain s**t handling, be my guest.

Mate i've had my munroes for over 50000km now with superlows and i give them 2 thumbs up, my mate had them with superlows that looked more like ultra lows and the ride was a bit more harsh for a passenger but felt awsome to drive, they'd done nearly 50000km as well. I'd get them again in a flash.

Is it possible that both pedders and ultima's are made by gabriel in america, in which case they would likely be the same except for paint job and sticker? Shocks normally have manufacturer info stamped into them.

Thanks for all of opinions and advice, lads, I really appreciate it.

After what I've read here and been told by people in person I've decided to take a risk and go with the cheaper option of the Monroes. They'll be in on Monday.

My car does low Ks and doesn't get much rough treatment as far as road surfaces and driving goes, so I suspect that the Monroes will do the job at least a bit better than the standard shocks. Given that my main motivation in upgrading the shocks is to get rid of the demonic and evil squeak that I'm getting from the rear shocks and getting rid of the bounce from the standard shocks, I don't think I need to go all out right now and get a more expensive set-up.

I will be sure to come back to this thread in a few weeks with my opinion on how they feel with King superlows.

let us know how you go dude!