160,000 miles on original shocks & they're still good.
 

Hello all,

I've seen a lot of questions about shocks in the past here & I got a bit surprised today so I figured I'll post.

My uncle also owns a maxima & we went to get the yearly inspection here today.
He's got 160,000 miles & has never replaced his shocks. He was telling me that he knows they're bad & needs to buy new ones.
After a full diagnosis of the shocks, it came out that there's still 75% life left in the shocks.

Now I've lived in New Jersey for years & when I compare the roads that we have here & to those in NJ, our roads here are 4-5 times worse than in the states.
It's like NYC x 2.

So for those thinking about replacing shocks because of high mileage or whatever, get them checked out first. Sometimes your mind sees/hears things that don't exist & even though you may think they're bad, new ones won't make much difference.

The original maxima shocks are very well built in my opinion.

- Jay

How did you determine that there is exactly 75% "life" left "in" them?

They have some kind of a machine that prints out a receipt type of diagnosis while another machine shakes up the car pretty good.

My uncle's said 75% for the front ones & 73% for the rear ones. I didn't ask about the details but I can if you really want to know how it works.

most of us have lowered our cars in some way thats y some need to replace....it also depends on ur driving.....sure if ur uncle drives slow and nice even if he hits a bump it may not be that bad.....i am not saying ur wrong by any means....but STRUT life....depends on alot more factors that milage....u could have a 50k with bad shocks because the car was heavily auto-x'd on stock setup for example

agreed but europeans don't drive slow.
I was scared to drive here when I first got here. The roads are narrow and everyone is doing 100mph+ when driving something nicer.
My uncle is one of those drivers that drives 160km/h through central Warsaw. (it's like NYC as far as roads).

I have replacement shocks in my garage for my max (only 65K miles) but now i'll check the old ones before replacing.
The car feels hard on bumps but it may be in my head. We'll se.

:sprint: driving in poland is too ****ing crazy and the drivers are crazy

I have a buddy with a 5 series that has over 350,000 miles on the original suspension and clutch. He does a lot of highway driving and he's good to the clutch. The car still rides excellent even after all that ware and tare on the suspension.

There is no reason for a strut to fail unless it's damaged in some way. Thats why replacemnt units usually come with a lifetime warranty.

If the max stays in 4x4 stance (non lowered) and doesn't cart around fat girls, I don't find it hard that the struts are still good, I am impressed though. And after all, Tokico does make a good product.

this is off topic...but the dash kit in your sig is one of the nicer "marble" ones that i have seen before..i think its looks really good with your interior. :thumbsup:

Thank you!

Fat girls killed my stock suspension. EEEEWWWWW

haha no fat chicks. you all are wrong. sorry for whoring the thread... :hide:

234,xxx on original struts. No porpoising or other crazy stuff. Even under load. Includes track mileage. They WILL be getting replaced anyway.

the biggest strut killer is damage to the piston. if the dust boot is in one peice the struts should last quite a while. but over time they can wear out it all depends on the situation. my dads are ok with 140k on the clock, but my freinds rears were leaking with around 40k.

I changed both struts and shockes at 123k miles, the rear shock is noticebly bad but I changed the front anyways.

I guess the original struts could have last much longer from what u guys are saying..i even changed strut mount and shock mount kits...i must wasted $$$ for no reason then

and now the front left suspension squeaks...it is driving me crazy

I got about 140,000 out of my original struts, but they were pretty beat. The car felt like a brand new car when they were changed. Now I have 73,000 on the new ones (KYB GR2). The car handles like crap and I'd like to replace them (along with the tired-out original springs), but I just don't have that kind of money to put into a 213,000 mile car. Damn college.

The rear struts are almost completely blown on my dad's '02 at 80,000 miles. I'm trying to convince him to get something good like Konis with some nice stiff springs.