rear shock replacement?

just went to goodyear for an oil change, and they said I should replace my rear shocks. the reason he gave me was because I have 100k and that they would eventually mess up the wear of my tires. does he have a point? or is he just trying to sell me some shocks?

 

He's bullshitting you. Shocks have nothing to do with the rear alignment

 

Make sure to have your blinker fluid flushed with Mobil 1 synthetic when you go back for your shock replacement.

 

ha. and don't forget your sky hook and board stretcher.

 

Shocks that are completely worn out can allow your tire to bounce a bit on the road, sort of like tires being unbalanced. Same goes for running without shocks, which completely worn out ones are pretty much like anyway. That can cause premature wear. But are your shocks that worn out? Not likely. Do shocks wear out? Of course they do. Only the people who can evaluate your shocks in person can say if you need new shocks or not. I would not say mileage would be a determining factor, unless it's just an "advised" timeframe to change them.

I'm sure he'd love to sell you some shocks, but I cannot tell you if you need them or not.

 

X2

 

He's likely bullshitting you but I'll second TxFireman.

There is some truth to shocks and tire wear. Shocks dampen the up and down movement of the tire, in some cases with bad shocks or no shocks the tire will 'skip' down the road and you get "cupping", which is the uneven scallop type wear of the tires. Has nothing to do with alignment.

However he's bullshitting you unless he can prove your shocks are bad.

Bounce each corner of your vehicle real hard, if it bounces a couple times and stops, you're good. Any more and you should think about replacing them -- go some googling.

I think everyones seen that car with bad shocks that hits a bump and continues to bounce and bounce and bounce for a half mile - LOL.

 

100k? I'd replace them.

 

If they do need to be replaced, don't pay someone to do it. The rear ones are so easy to replace....you really don't even need a jack.

 

At 100K I would check them as mentioned above and replace them as needed.

 

If you replace them go with 5100's all the way around

 

my truck came with black toyota shocks, replaced with the Rancho MT7400. what a difference it made. i would guess at a 100k you probably need shocks and good monotube shock is best. Bilstein and Rancho make a great shock, just make sure it is a monotube not a dual piston shock. pushing down on the bumper did show the shocks to be bad, probably because i added an AAL. when i pulled the old off they were wore out and one was blown. hated it when Toyota put staggered rear shocks, doesn't make sense to me. i think it causes vibration problems.

 

This ^^^^

I have done it many times without a jack. The Bilstiens are pretty easy to compress so its no big deal.

 

could you explain this for me?

 

Really easy. Less time to change rear shocks than the cabin air filter.

 

One of your shocks mounts is before the axle and one side is behind the axle. Like forward slash and back slash from the side it looks like

......\...../.....
.......O


The "o" is your tire. dots are the leaf springs

 

Haha, I had a similar thing happen recently. I took my truck to get the front lifted and the guy told me my front shocks were shot (it didn't matter because they were getting replaced anyway). But I wanted to keep them so I could sell them, and he was adamant that they were 'old' and shot and I wouldn't be able to sell them and that I might as well let him keep them. I don't think he looked at my odometer before he tried to BS me. The truck had less than 500 miles on it.

 

Oops!

 

Sorry, no I understand how the shocks are mounted. Why do you hate it and why do you think it causes vibrations? Why doesn't it make sense to you?

 

how much are 5100's?