Gabriel G57092 Ultra ReadyMount Loaded Strut Assembly

Installed on May 10, 2025, on a Ford Focus 2009, engine 2.0. I'm grateful to Gabriel for restoring the correct ride height. Prior to this, I drove for 14 months with TRQ struts (ride height was increased by 2 inches, the left spring rubbed against the car body, and there was a loud top-out noise from the shock absorber rod over certain bumps).To be fair, the TRQ shocks didn’t leak during that time.As for the Gabriel struts, so far I’ve noticed only one downside during installation — the brake hose bracket was too narrow, and I had to widen it with pliers. I’ll update the review if any issues arise later.

I waited too many years to replace my shocks. It's a 2000 model year, with the factory original shocks and struts. So I finally did it!They definitely bring back the stock ride height and feel. In the photo of the car, I had only done the passenger strut. It's sitting about 2" higher than the driver's side. It's back to the stock ride height! I haven't been out racing with it, but now the ride feels like it did when it was new.It isn't really hard to do it, if you get these preloaded shocks. It saves you all the trouble (and danger) of transferring the springs. It has the added benefit of riding on new springs!You might want to get some sway bar links and brake pads, since you'll have them off. If you need ball joints, do them now, since you'll have one split.Basically, the whole process was...1) Jack up the car.2) Remove the wheel, brake caliper and pads.The shop manual says to pull the sway bar links, but I don't think it's necessary. I got new ones to do at the same time, but since I only undid one end at a time, the sway bar didn't move at all.3) Split the upper ball joint. If you don't do it now, the upper bracket will go flying when it pops. HF has a $19.99 tool for it. It's the one that has a fork, arm, and bolt. It's a lot easier than a hammer and pickle fork.I opted to do the upper ball, as it's easier to access in the driveway. On a lift, the lower might be easier.4) Remove the two nuts and bolts on the bottom end. For the bottom, you'll put your ratchet or impact driver on the bottom, and an open end wrench on the top nut.5) Undo the 2 nuts and 2 bolts from the top of the strut tower.6) Use a hammer to knock the assembly out. The old rubber isolator stuck to the car.If you don't pop the ball joint, you'll get the old one out, but you'll never get the new one in.Putting it back together, do the same in reverse.Use your floor jack under the lower control arm and push things back into place. The car's weight will help squeeze everything back together. Do the strut tower nuts first, hand tight(ish), and then you can get the bolts in. Leave them loose until you get the lower nuts & bolts in place. Then tighten all of them. You might need to play with the jack height, pry the lower end around a bit to get them aligned, but it isn't really hard. It's easier than trying to hold the whole thing up for a helper to attach.You can almost fully seat the upper ball joint with the jack, and then just tighten the nut. Don't forget the upper ball joint's pin.The shop manual time to do this was something like 1.5 hours. I did each in about an hour, but that included time walking back and forth to my toolbox, and complaining about the heat. With a little practice, and grabbing all the right tools to start, I'd expect I could do these in about 30 minutes each.

Anyone buying these is buying Gabriel for a reason. Quality shocks, very happy. Car is now solid. Bought for Toyota Sequoia as part of a front end repair.

There are two parts to my review: (1) for Gabriel and this product and (2) for Amazon selling products that require services to determine if they work or are defective(1) In theory the ReadyMount Strut makes sense, but these are not made for my minivan. I confirmed that these struts were designed for my 2000 Grand Caravan ES with Amazon. I bought these from Amazon, because they were ~$100 cheaper for the pair, than quotes I had gotten from three shops and checking with AutoZone. I paid my mechanic shop to install these struts. After they were installed, they raised the front end of my van at least 6 inches. It didn't look right. When the shop went to align my front, they couldn't. The camber slot was not big enough to make the adjustment to the recommended setting. The best they could get the camber reading on the left and right side was -1.9 and 3.2. The car was undriveable like this and would quickly destroy my new tires. The shop I would have to spend another 2-3 hours of labor for the shop to widen the camber slot on the ReadyMounts. That didn't seem right to me and I called Gabriel support line. I spoke with Arville and he immediately said return them to Amazon. Also, he said get KYB or Monroe for my van. So, I return these to Amazon.(2) Amazon was very gracious in returning the ReadyMount product back, but there is a problem buying automotive parts from Amazon where you have to pay for services to have them installed and, when defective, removed. I (and You), as the buyer, am taking a HUGE risk in being responsible for the money you pay to have them installed or removed -- not Amazon. I learned this the hard way, when I went to return them to Amazon. As much as I love Amazon, I will never buy another product from them that requires paying for services to determine if the product works properly or not. Also, Amazon customer support is not setup to handle supporting questions or problems with automotive products. They use their book customer support model, which fails miserably for this type of product. Ultimately after many hours on the phone with Amazon and speaking to two managers (May and Hazel above the customer service rep), I was able to get a satisfactory refund for the money I paid for the services incurred by this product.I DO NOT RECOMMEND GABRIEL READYSTRUTS for DODGE CARAVANS. I DO NOT RECOMMEND BUYING AUTOMITIVE PARTS REQUIRING ADDITIONAL COSTS FOR SERVICES RELATED TO THE PRODUCT FROM AMAZON.I ended up buying Monroe Sensa-Trac struts from my mechanic for my minivan and I am happy with them. The van height on the front side looks right and my van drives like new.