I bought some KYB front strut mounts.

The bump stops are about an inch longer, and solid foam. Seeing that, and the rubber on the new one needs to deform to preserve height, I'm thinking of reusing the old ones.

Anyone change fronts?

 

I replaced awd struts with kyb aswell, I had a shop do it. They used the stops supplied in the kit, also something I wish I replaced is the top hats/strut bearings. Those I reused the old ones, but sadly one side is bad. If yours is 1" too long see if you can cut it down and use the new ones. The oems are pretty pricey.

 

Yeah, the fronts are not a fun job, especially popping the tie rod end! lucky I was able to bend the dust shield a bit and get the long puller from the Adavance loaner front end tool.

I have the KYB kit, but I wonder about the quality. The OEM one is $150 at discount, I think I paid 30, and I read lots of bad reviews about KYB mounts for other cars (FWIW). At this point the OEM and kyb may have the same life (100K on the OEM). I think the bump stop is engineered to be longer and absorb more shock. I think the mounts have to be replace in pairs.

The mount has a rubber accordion attached to the spring seat, and a metal mount above it with three studs.

 

Can you cut or trim it down? Because many bump stops its fine to use a hack saw and make them smaller so you dont bottom out.

But the actual kyb struts are great, they are the oem. Made my ride smoother! But ya I just had a shop do my front struts the same time I did cv axle, because I knew the axles are a nightmare on awd. But the rears I did myself and those are super easy