I bought and installed a set of Bilsteins on my '02 runner about 2 years ago, give or take a few months, and have put about 40-45k max on them. Before you mention it, yes, this has taught me to document all maintenance I perform on her from here on out. I blame my father. Anywho, I had some really bad wear on the outside of my front tires, so I took it in for an alignment (even though I had one shortly after I installed the new shocks, but I think that's when I had Les Scwabb do it... oops) according to the guys at Russ' Alignment in SLC UT(who have been in business longer than I've been alive), some of the adjustment bolts, I can't remember which, were not torqued down properly, so they fixed that when they finished the alignment. Also, they said my front shocks are bad. Any thoughts? I occasionally drive on rugged terrain, and I constantly drive up steep canyon roads (Parley's, Big and Little Cottonwood, Teton Pass). I've also hit the occasional parking brick with a little too much umf here and there.

Any thoughts? Should these things be ok? Is there a better way of checking than bouncing the front end up and down?

Mark

 

BDTB... this is a good question. I too just installed bilsteins all around. since then, i have had nothing but problems from my rig. i did not get any bushings for the rear shocks and when I asked about it I was told I did not need them. now all i hear going down the road is a hole lot of knocking from the metal to metal contact. secondly, i have MAJOR wear on the outside of my front tires. I know I need an allignment now but I didnt at the time... anyways I was told that these Billies will last past 60k

 

My Rear Bils only lasted about 30k miles and are completely shot.
And that's on a road-going only 2wd.
A little towing here or there but nothing major.

Oh, and dont expect the warranty to replace them.
Their warranty only applies if the shocks fail internally (aka fall apart).

 

Which bilsteins are you using? Stock? 5100's?

 

My rear HDs blew somewhere around the 60k mark. The fronts weren't blown, but there wasn't a whole lot of damping left.

 

B5 something.. I can't recall right off hand. Not stock, though.

 

I installed a set of Bilstein HDs 2003 when the truck had maybe 50k miles. It now has 214,000 and the shocks still function as they should. No issues whatsoever.


Andreas

 

Great question!
I have often wondered the same thing. Right after I did my SAS I drove my truck 100 miles home on the freeway. I was amazed how well the truck drove. Really nice and comfortable after doing such a radical modification. I have not noticed any difference since (10k) later.
I hope they last another 60k