How to know if shocks are "Weak"?

[Jehu]

I had new tires put on tonight and the guy said from looking at the old ones my Struts might be weak. Bilstein Sports with a very rough aproximate 85,000 miles on them... is this even a possibility already? basically just a year and a half old... How can one test ? I read on the Sachs web site there is a device or machine but if I can't find a place that has one can you tell any other way ? Like before I ruin this new set of tires?

[632 Regal]

good question... I know how to tell is 1 side is worse than the other but to test both no clue. For the 1 side test there is a pretty good dip on a local freeway that I drive on every week. When my Bilshit blew the car would definitely not react evenly through out the dip. New shocks and stable as can be.

[Jehu]

What brand did you go with for new?

[Tiger]

You have someone take pictures while you are driving... Turn flash off and take picture while you are on highway... if picture always blurry, shocks are bad.

Easier way is this... if you have Boge, Sach, OE, even Bilstein Touring etc... 60,000 miles. If you got Bilstein Monotube or Koni, never need changing unless leaking.

[Tiger]

Bilstein Yellow!

[Jehu]

My Billies are Yellow and are the so called "Sport" variety... where do these come in in your hierarchy?

[shogun]

I am a member of the automobile club here and they offer to members free of charge shock testing. They drive around throughout the country in big trucks with these testing machines on the trailer. Don't you have that?
http://www.zf.com/brands/content/en/...ting_BOGE.html

[shadowpuck]

i've always wondered this myself...

i've pretty much operated on the "how does the car feel," and then combined that with how old the shocks/struts are, etc....

it'd be nice to know if there's a real way to test these.

no, shogun - i've never heard of anyone offering anything like that in this part of the world....perhaps a new business venture for you?

[Jehu]

I am a member of the automobile club here and they offer to members free of charge shock testing. They drive around throughout the country in big trucks with these testing machines on the trailer. Don't you have that?
http://www.zf.com/brands/content/en/...ting_BOGE.html

Search returns no results in my region... How backward are we,lol... Is a year and a half /80k miles of long distance, high speed driving a reasonable lifespan . I assume such a thing can not be determined absolutely . Does it seem early to require replacment if not otherwise subjected to severe abuse from regular use on rough road surfaces?I have driven on my fair share of very heavily pitted dirt roads and hit some pits at highway speed . Perhaps such hard impacts can rapidly dimish the useful life of the part....

[bad_manners_god]

Do the bounce test. Push down on each corner of the car the same amount (e.x: 2 downward pushes) and measure how long it takes for them to come back to their original position. If they all have the same amount of time, it can only mean 1 of 2 things.

A.) All the shocks are good
B.) All the shocks are bad

The longer they take, the closer they are to need to be changed.