When to replace your shocks?

How many miles have you guys put on your shocks before you realized you needed to replace them? I’m at 50k right now (Bilstien 5100). I heard 50k is about the mark but I’ve also heard you can stretch them out. What did you do?!

 

I usually wait till the start leaking

 

Wait until you the suspension feels soft or you keep on bouncing down the road after hitting a bump. The old test (may still apply) is to push down on a corner of your vehicle quickely and if it returns to normal height immediately without bouncing up and down to settle, then the shocks are fine. It's easy to push a car down. Not sure how easy this is with a truck...

 

I saw some videos demonstrating that and my truck doesn’t bounce so seems fine in that area. But some guys have a squeaking sound when they push down on one corner which is exactly what I have. Perhaps they’re not completely bad yet but getting ready to?

 

Well I got 113,000 miles out of my factory-original Tokiko shocks before they started feeling sloppy with turns and front end dipping too much over humps. I got a new set of Tokikos installed at Toyota in 2013, 113,000 miles. Now at about 139,000 miles, they still feel as tight as when they were new. No kidding, the Tokikos are very good shocks.

 

Run them until they no longer damp shock like they should. 50k is a pretty good life.

I rebuild my Kings every 10-15k.

 

10 to 15? Wow. You probably don't drive much. For me, that's like every 2 to 3 months

 

It's not a daily driver, nor a race truck. How many miles are you putting on your shocks in that 2-3 months??

 

I was averaging ~2-300 miles daily until i bought a new car

Let's just say i bought my prius with 2 miles from the stealership and shy of 4 years, it's over 100k

If you don't drive much, 10-15k should average about 2-3 years

 

you were rebuilding your shocks with that kind of on-road mileage? Seems like that's far more often than necessary. That's like 27k +/-. On road miles are very very easy on the shocks. My truck is primarily an offroad toy.

If my truck was a DD on-road, i'd probably re-build the shocks every year just as PM. But as it is, i drive it maybe once a month on a camping trip and flog the suspension pretty hard. The rebuilds come out to every 18mos or so.

 

It’s kind of like light bulbs. Brighter halogen bulbs burn hotter, therefore don’t last as long. The same is generally true for high performance shocks. they usually get abused more than a cheap shock, but their internals are more complex and are designed with replaceable or rebuildable parts. A race truck gets its $20k shocks rebuilt pretty much every race.

 

Im not running kings. I was just comparing your rebuilt mileage to my required work driving, lol.

That was my other tacoma i sold a few years ago. I bought monroe from the local auto parts and just warranty them yearly when i still had the truck, haha

 

Yup, until they start leaking (and get covered in nasty oil/mud mix) they should be good to go.

 

Totally.

 

There's owners out there who run expensive kings and fox because everyone else talk highly of them and never rebuilt them as well. Haha

 

If your suspension is not leaking/making noise and the ride quality is still good, there's no need to replace them as other have mention.

 

I doubt squeaks are coming from the shocks. More likely springs or bushings.

 

I’ll have to check those out. The springs I have now are most likely the original ones to be honest. Back in 2001 lol