I replaced pretty much everything I could last time I did the
struts and bushings, figuring that the smaller parts weren't so
expensive compared to the savings on labor (I did it myself).
My car had about 120k miles and was 11 years old at the time.
In retrospect, I could've probably reused the strut mounts,
and all the mounting hardware (except the self-locking nuts) but
one of the bearings in the mount was bad (glad I changed that).
The rubber bump stops on the struts are made from rubber that
deteriorates with time and are to be replaced too. The front
control arm bushings on my car weren't original and they
were in pretty bad shape already (these things don't last very long,
alas). It's also a good idea to replace sway bar links at the same
time if the rubber boots are cracked (they wear out fast too).
Vlad
--
'98 965