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I've always been told to push down on the bumper of the car with your foot, and if the car returns to it's original position without bouncing back down and up again, the shocks are good.
Someone else was telling me you take off the shock and compress it by hand...a good shock should be difficult to compress and a worn shock will be easy to compress.
Pushing your arch down and see if it bobs works. A mechanic (or someone who knows what to look fow) can see if a shock is leaking just by looking at it (still on the car).
...Often times you can feel it while driving though.
I was told recently my front drivers side shock is leaking, but I don't feel any rocking or bouncing at all. I only have 60000 fwy miles on the truck.
60k miles on a set of shocks isn't abnormal, I changed mine at around 70k up front, rears are still good. It depends entirely on your driving, and a nasty pothole can destroy your shock, so you might've just been unlucky.
The bumper push down technique is probably your best bet. If their blown or pretty worn you'll know it...
Many conventional shocks use oil as part of the damping mechanism. Sometimes when these types of shocks are blown or heavily worn they will visibly leak the oil.
Mine do not leak at all and the push down on the bumper method brings the car back up where it stops.
Today I was taking a trip down a rough but paved road and the car actually bottomed out on a bump. It seems to have a little bit of up and down movement on the big bumps.
Someone else was telling me you take off the shock and compress it by hand...a good shock should be difficult to compress and a worn shock will be easy to compress.
I think that shocks themselves are pretty cheap, and once you've invested the labor to take it off, just put on a new one, whether you think the old one is good or not. Furthermore, not everyone will judge "easy" and "dificult" to compress the same.
I think that shocks themselves are pretty cheap, and once you've invested the labor to take it off, just put on a new one, whether you think the old one is good or not. Furthermore, not everyone will judge "easy" and "dificult" to compress the same.
A new complete set of shocks for my car (Bilsteins) will run me $240. That's just the shocks. I'll be doing my own labor. Bilsteins are one of the best shocks around so I've been told a billion times.
I also noticed today going over a speed bump or two you can hear some squeaking going on. But I've also heard that could be the bushings too.
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