Monroe Max-Air MA822 Air Adjustable Air Shock Absorber Pack of 2 for Buick LeSabre

Monroe quality

Doesn't matter what color something is as long as it's the right product which this was. Fit my 2006 Lucerne perfectly...And so far are working great. Got to love finding parts made in the USA.

I installed these on a 2005 Buick LaSabre.I watched four YouTube videos in preparation. That was helpful. I learned something from all of them.I did the job slowly and methodically. When I was done, I did a very short test drive. One shock or the other or both, rattled. I re-tightened the bolts and nut. Then, I raised the car on each side to take the weight off, and tightened some more. I test drove again. For about the first minute, I still heard the rattle. Then it quit and stayed quit. I drove it again the next day. Still quiet. Maybe they need to be driven a little to build up? They are OK now. The pump only runs for a short time when needed. Before the change, the pump would run 30 seconds or so. Now, it's like 5-7 seconds.

Pretty good air shocks, with an air inlet for the compressor. Fairly easy to install. My only negative is that the bottom mount did not come with new brackets or bolts. It did come with a pair of top nuts, and cups, which I did not even need or use. I would tather have new brachets and bolts. The brackets, that install around the shock's bottom flanges will often rust out and break, because they are exposed to road salt. For me, 1 out of the 4 broke. I was able to get replacement brackets at autozone, you may as well pick up a set of 4, and a set of the 4 bottom long bolts before you start, just in case. You can return it if you end up not needing them. Sorry, I forgot the size, at the time I took one of the brackets and bolts with me to help match it up. These are generic parts, one of the sizes they carry will fit. To get these apart, spray and soak for a few hours w. some penetrating lubricant ( Wd40 or something similar). This is generally a good approach attacking parts that are rusted together.Would be nice to have the top and bottom nut tightening torque values, but you can eyeball it, it is not rocket surgery. Put some threadlocking compound on it to be safe.

These come black not white like the picture shows, which is good, because white looks terrible as the paint chips and begins to rust over time. I had a car that bounced uncontrollably after each bump, and now it rides like new. Shocks came with the hardware for the top mount but none for the bottom (just like the picture shows). So, it is a good idea to remove the shocks before the new ones arrive as you may need to locally purchase the lower nut plates, as they are only sheet metal and could be rusted through. Also, use plenty of rust penetrant on the lower nuts before removal, and if the bolts start to get tighter as you're removing them, reapply penetrant, screw them back in the work the penetrant into the threads, then come back out with it. Job took me less than one hour. Jack the rear of the car, put on jack stands, remove rear tires, remove the air line connection, remove the top nut, remove the lower bolts (2), compress the shock to minimize it size for removal, and pull the shock out. Transfer the nut plates from the old to the new shocks, apply antisieze the the lower bolts, put the shock up into the upper mount, apply lock-tite to the upper mount threads, torque the nut per mfg specs, extend the shock to the lower control arm, (make sure your air connection is pointing aft or rearward) install the lower bolts and torque per mfg specs (easy...those nut plates can strip out), and reinstall your air lines. This actually raised the back of my car 1 in or so and it amazing rides like a much newer car.

works like a dream

First, after installing, I noticed rust on the body where the air bladder was resting while in packaged. When it inflated, it exposed the rust. I didn't think that would cause any issues so I rolled with it. The first week was fine, no issues. After that, I noticed the pump was running longer than I was used to. After about 2 months or so, one shock became bouncy at highway speeds. I tested this by swapping shocks around and the bounce followed the shock. I contacted the seller and they told me they would send a replacement but I had to send them the bad one back. So that car would be down while I waited. I have other vehicles to drive, so no biggie. But to be honest, I didn't feel like I should have to go thru all that. Well its now, not a full years worth of use, and these bladders are leaking. I'm not making this review to try and get replacements or even bad mouth the company. This is just my experience. Sure, maybe I could've replaced that one shock. But both of these are now leaking. So that would've only been a bandaid to the entire issue. Maybe I got a bad batch. Maybe the ones I got were old and that would explain the rust. But regardless, I don't believe that a customer should have to take a shock off and leave their potentially "only" vehicle disabled while they have to wait on a replacement part from a faulty product. So this is my experience, take it for what you want. I will be avoiding air shocks all together and will be doing the shock/strut conversion instead.

These restored the ride quality on my Cadillac DTS for an awesome price, and I'm thrilled by that - my only disappointment was that the listing shows a white pair and I thought that would make a beautiful contrast to the rest of the undercarriage ;-)