i have a 97 with ~155k miles on it and the shocks/struts from what i can tell are pretty shot. they creek when i take corners, they "thunk" when i hit bumps, and the rear of the car takes very minimal effort to bounce it like it's on hydraulics.

my question is, how do i know when it's time to replace the springs? when i did a lowering job on my old 300zx i did the shocks/springs at the same time, but i've never had to replace springs on any of my cars because of normal wear and tear.

i don't want to put too much money into my car... it's relatively stock, it's 12 years old and it's starting to show its age underneath. i'm debating about how much longer to keep the car, but i know i will at least have to fix the suspension before i either keep it or sell it.

i'll do the springs if i need to but i'd rather not. any thoughts?

 

Springs should last the life of the car. Struts only last about 60k miles on any vehicle. You probably have several bushings that need to be replaced as well.

 

My car's got 196k on what I believe to be the original struts and I don't have any obvious suspension problems.

 

Push down hard on one corner of the car. If the car bounces more than once, it needs new springs. I've only seen this on like 15 year old cars. They're pretty sturdy.

 

Fixed.

Springs are not what your testing when you do that.

 

yes you do have problems you just aren't realizing it.
Put on new struts and your braking distance will decrease by at least 10%.

 

Replace them with lowering springs.

 

yea bud, you'll def see major handling braking improvement with new struts. internetautomart knows what hes talkin bout

 

you probably need new struts, but probably not springs they probably make noise because of your spring isolators, strut bearings or strut mount. Havent heard of stock springs going out on our cars.

 

Springs are not components that wear out unless they've been seriously abused. Struts, shocks, and anything rubber are the parts that will need to be replaced as the car ages. If the car continues to bounce after you load/unload the suspension, you're in need of shocks/struts. RP0029 is misinformed.

 

"when to replace springs?"

As soon as you buy a stock 4th gen.

 

the "thunk" is not from struts or springs, it's from ball joints and/or bushings
new struts improve braking in general but more so on bad roads (potholes etc.)

 

Okay that makes sense. Mine doesn't bounce when you push on it.

And yes if I replace my struts I'll get the Progress/Illumina setup that I've been dreaming about for years. Might as well do it right if I'm gonna have it all apart anyway.

 

When you get tired of all that gapidus!!!

 

Agreed.

 

DOH!!!! Back to the drawing board dude.