I have searched for these and only found out that they completely suck, but only one person said it.

The person was stazi who said it.

I was going to purchase brand new gabriel struts and used ground control springs from a fellow ceg'er for 200 bucks...

does this sound good and would it work or what do you guys think?

No. Might as well use your stock struts, since you're looking to have blown struts. Should listen to stazi.

I agree this has been posted so many times and is in the faq. The stock struts and aftermarket equals will blow out in no time, therefore wasting your money and time.

Gabriel's are stock replacement struts. They have Ultra G-force which I guess are their "premium" struts? But with G.C.'s you want a good high quality strut that can handle lots of abuse i.e. Koni's or maybe Billsteins? I'm sure people can get away with Gabriels on a very minimal drops maybe 1" but again only time will tell how long before they'll blow out. So DO NOT use Gabriel's with Ground Controls.

My stock struts with ground controls and a 2" drop the shocks lasted for more than 60,000 miles and I had only one strut leak after 50,000 miles.

AND the ground controls were put on the stock struts when the struts already had 100,000 miles on them!

Your ride comfort will be the same no matter what shock you use with ground controls. I now have konis with ground controls, of course the handling is better and the reaction of the strut is good, but the straight driving bump to bump comfort is the same.

I will probably get some heat from people for saying that because we have all spent so much money on the konis and expect the best from that but your ride comfort is 95% based on the spring rate and stiffness....

I only say that because I know first hand what the three senarios feel like.....

You may have gotten lucky, or your struts were actually wore out and you never knew it. In fact, with 100k miles on stock springs, they were probably already very worn out. You're lucky to have never encountered any seriously bad affects from it.

I put used (~60k miles) svt struts on with roush springs and within a couple months the rears were shot. I don't mean there was oil coming out of them, but the handling/ride was diminished. It also caused the rear to want to step out one day all on its own.


All experiences vary. It's quite possible for one to be satisfied with stock struts and lowering springs.

True, I guess it would be per instance and I don't autoX or drive the car very hard either so I could have missed the handling aspect of it - can shocks still push themselves back out if they are no good.....? I have resistance pushing in and pulling out on my old struts that is why I am assuming they might still bo ok internally.... dunno..

I guess it comes down to:
How are you driving the car?
How low do you want it to be?
How long are you going to keep the vehicle you would be putting them on?

etc., etc.....

Originally posted by blu_fuz:

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can shocks still push themselves back out if they are no good.....?

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Yes, though it sorta depends on how worn out they are. My blown SVT struts would come back out though my 15 year old struts on the escort would not.