2012 Kia Sportage

Greetings everyone!

So I am the proud owner of a 2012 Kia Sportage. I have been okay in doing my oil changes for a while now, but recently I took my car to get a few recalls fixed and they noticed that a spring was broken on my passenger side strut. They said it would be over $1,000 to fix, and of course I wanted to see what all my options were.

I could have just purchased a new spring coil which I found an OEM one for around $90. Then, I could have rented a spring comprehension tool, taken off the spring, and replaced it. That would have been the cheapest route. But if I was taking off the entire strut, I might as well also replace the stabilizer bar and ball joint.

After many hours of research, I decided to just to with Autozone’s Duralast quickstrut. Yes, I know a lot of research suggests that a lot of quickstruts are not good for many reasons. I even was thinking about purchasing a KRB strut and adding all Kia OEM parts, which would have been around $300 per strut. Seeing that my car has 120,000 miles on it already, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to put in that much money (although cars now last a lot longer). I went with the Autozone ones because they have a lifetime warranty. I figure if one breaks, I can just take that one off and replace it for free.

I did invest in an electric impact wrench, which has been awesome. So I spent about $300ish total in all parts. Time will tell how it goes, but I will update after a few thousand miles.

Parts I bought:

Delphi TC2686 Suspension Ball Joint, 1 Pack

MOOG K750524 Stabilizer Bar Link

AVID POWER 20V MAX Cordless Impact Wrench with 1/2″Chuck

TACKLIFE Drive Impact Socket Set, 18pcs 1/2-inch Drive Deep Impact Socket Set

Duralast Loaded Strut Assembly LS34-85431R

Duralast Loaded Strut Assembly LS34-85431L

Thanks!

Alex