After reading some positive experiences from fellow Scion owners using Monroe shocks made for other Toyota models, I decided to get some myself for a smoother ride. I was going to get the ones made for the Echo, but I was surprised to see on the Monroe site that they now made ones especially for our xB's. The description of the Sensa-Trac line makes them sound like they are designed for a smoother ride, so I figured I couldn't go wrong getting the ones specifically designed for my 04 xB. Boy, was I wrong....



About 3 weeks ago, I purchased the brand new parts and installed them. The struts and shocks were physically similar to the stock ones. The only major difference would be that the shocks have a built-in dust cover. Using the guides from ScionLife, replacement of the parts was relatively straight-forward.

As soon as I pulled out of my driveway after installing these parts, the excitment of possibly achieving a smoother ride was crushed (along with a few vertebrae). The ride with these struts and shocks were horrible! Imagine feeling each and every bump and crack in the road at 3x the harshness over stock and you'll have a "rough: idea of how it was. I drove it around a bit, hoping that it may possible soften up some.

After 3 days of suffering a headache-inducing, back-breaking ride, I decided to call Monroe to see if there was possibly a mistake with the listing of the product for our cars. The representatives made the typical troubleshooting steps, blaming it on tire pressure (it was correct), part number mistake (i got the exact ones they listed on their website), and me being too picky before admitting what I expected all along.

An engineer at Monroe informed me that these struts and shocks are in fact designed to be stiffer than the OEM's for added control. Unfortunately, this added control comes with the price of added harshness. So while these struts and shocks probably do have their place as OEM replacements when your stocks go out, they definitely should not be purchased with the hopes of an improved ride.

 

I call BS. These things are way softer than the OEMs. Way too many people confirm this.
The Monroes transformed my xBs ride completely. Monroes FTW!!!
What is the rest of your mods consist of? wheels/tires, springs and/or other stuff. The only way the ride could be the slight bit harsh would be with 18's or larger. Even with my 18" TRDs the ride is better than the stock BS.
Sounds like you may have even got defective ones or something. You are def in the minority.

 

This is the only complaint I have ever read about the Monroes on an xB.

 

Yea first complaint I am hearing like that. Sorry that you got a crappy set of struts/shocks. I hope that you got a bad set and can get them fixed/replaced or something.
bB2NER has been telling me for a while how much he loves his Monroe setup. I ordered some so I guess we'll see how mine work out.

 

I'm definitely not refuting that Monroe makes some good shocks for the xB - the numerous success stories I read about on this site were the very reason I bought an entire set. I did notice, however, that many of the owners used the softer struts/shocks that were designed for Toyota Echo (part numbers 71575 for struts and 5870 or 5987 for the shocks).

I'm not sure what the difference with the Echo struts/shocks are, but the 72245 and 5601 combo (the set designed for the xB) didn't go over well with my set up. I have 15-inch wheels, with 195/60/R15 tires. These have more rubber than the stock 185/60/R15 tires. I'm also riding on stock springs (which could be part of it too).

The friends I carpool with also noticed the rougher ride (especially while they were mid-sentence and would get their jaw snapped shut by a bump). This was most noticable in the rear. When I removed the Monroes and went back to the stock struts and shocks, the back-to-back difference was dramatic. I'm not saying the stock ride is buttery smooth by any means, but the stock ride was just less jarring than the Monroe's for my car. It is entirely possible that I had a defective set of Monroe struts/shocks.

I really wish I could've been one of the success stories, and I could tout the wonders of Monroe, but unfortunately it just didn't work out that way. Hopefully my situation is just a case of me receiving defective products, and not of defective design.

 

I have a friend that works at toyota and we have been friends for a while he always hooks me up for his cost and is always up front and honest . he told me that the monroes are great especially if you have stock springs but if you have lowered your xa or xb the TRD struts are the way to go .I have lowered my xa but Im waiting to run my stock struts into the ground before i buy my TRD's .when I do Ill post a comment.

 

The Konis with their adjustability are great also if you can afford them.
Monroes work fine as long as you don't go much lower than 2 inches.