Have a 2000 LHS. The driver side front strut blew out yesterday. (A few years ago, I replaced the front strut assemblies on a 2003 Grand Caravan with Monroe Quick-Strut assembly. I'm not messing with the spring, so it's cheaper for me to replace the entire assembly than to have a shop replace just the struts.) The Monroe Quick-Strut replacements did not resolve clunking noises, which I guess is the upper mount. Based on comments I've read on a few retail sites, the Monroe Quick-Struts have a bad history with this.

Does anyone have an opinion on the complete strut assemblies? Would Gabriel Ready Mounts be a better choice?

Also, when replacing these, is there conventional wisdom on replacing anything else, like stabilizer bar link? (The entire suspension is original factory.) I know I need to do a front alignment after replacing.

 

Anyone know the socket sizes on the steering knuckle? Looks like 20mm and 23mm, but not sure. I guess if buying the two individual costs close to buying a set, it won't matter.

When removing the nuts from the stabilizer link bolt and the tie-rod end bolt, do I need to "lock" the bolts to keep them from turning? I remember this being an issue with my Saturn, but the Chilton manual says nothing about this. Just "remove the nut". I'd rather not find out the hard way and have to replace the stabilizer link and the tie rod end.