I'm getting ready to put rear struts on my 98 bonneville ssei. I'm ditching the ccr and going with Monroe Matic plus or Sensatrac. ORiellys sells a "Strut Mate" that has the upper strut plate? and bearing. Is this something I need to replace or examine while the struts are out? Im not looking for extra work or money in this project, but if they should be replaced now is the time to do it.

Also, is it necessary to match the front struts with the rears when its time to do those? I've considered putting monroe matic plus on rear and sensatrac on the front later on.

Do you have the FE1 or FE2 suspension? I'm assuming 2 because of your CCR, but you might want to check..

Doesn't matter really. I do recommend replacing the mounts. They're cheap, at 22 bucks (last i remember) from monroe. Chances are the rubber is all dried out, or they might be starting to wear even if they look ok.

When you do rear struts on these cars, (as well as the front) ,an alignment will be needed. At 50-100 bucks depending where you go, do you really want to have to pull it apart again to replace the mounts?

Sounds like a good time to do the mounts too then.

Actually, the MonroeMatics are about half the price of the Sensatracs here at my ORiellys. $55 MonroeMatic and $98 for the Sensatracs. I'd rather have a firmer ride so it sounds like MonroeMatics are my best choice.

i recomend the monroes too as for the bearings i would replace those too the bearings alone are only bout 15 dollars and the rear rubber mounts are cheap too so i say just replace them.