Is XREAS more prone to problems?

[Activepoodle]

4R newbie still shopping for used one, I wonder if XREAS is more prone to problems than "conventional" setup?

I am considering vehicles in the 90K miles range, hopefully not too stressed... and I do not see myself modding the suspension.

 

[Gatafly]

Not at all, but when they do go bad it is expensive to repair. Most will then ditch the system and use the Bilstein 5100's which I did and love. The good thing is that if you find one with XREAS from a dealer and a shock is leaking you can negotiate the price down a bit because they know how expensive it is to repair. You then buy it and put the Billies on and save yourself some money.

 

[CookieRoe]

Prone to repair COMPARED to convention shocks? Sort of. LOTS of member have their XREAS after 150K miles with no problems. Some a lot less. I had to replace mine after about 100K. I enjoy the handling and ride, but some don't. I had bilsteins on my Grand Cherokee a few years ago and thought the ride was a bit jarring (stiff). Just in case: When a shock goes bad, you have to replace that shock AND the shock that is cross opposite (e.g.: IF your driver's front goes, you have to replace that one and the rear passenger). One more thing, you can only replace the shocks only ONCE. After that, the whole system (lines, hydraulic box, etc) needs to be completely replaced. Very expensive. About $3K for the whole shebang. For replacing 2 shocks only, about $1K.

Good luck

 

[zopperman]

Prone to repair COMPARED to convention shocks? Sort of. LOTS of member have their XREAS after 150K miles with no problems. Some a lot less. I had to replace mine after about 100K. I enjoy the handling and ride, but some don't. I had bilsteins on my Grand Cherokee a few years ago and thought the ride was a bit jarring (stiff). Just in case: When a shock goes bad, you have to replace that shock AND the shock that is cross opposite (e.g.: IF your driver's front goes, you have to replace that one and the rear passenger). One more thing, you can only replace the shocks only ONCE. After that, the whole system (lines, hydraulic box, etc) needs to be completely replaced. Very expensive. About $3K for the whole shebang. For replacing 2 shocks only, about $1K.

Good luck

This is sort of true, you can actually replace a single shock, but the components of the system can only be disconnected twice before everything needs to be replaced. I actually replaced mine but it didn't work out too well and I wound up getting billies. I also MUCH prefer the ride with stiffer springs, billies, and no sway bar

 

[JB.]

4R newbie still shopping for used one, I wonder if XREAS is more prone to problems than "conventional" setup?

I am considering vehicles in the 90K miles range, hopefully not too stressed... and I do not see myself modding the suspension.

It often lasts a very long time.

My experience suggests to me that early failure may be more a luck of the draw thing than a hard use thing. I'm at 120k with xreas still working fine and the truck has been frequently used very hard off road its entire life.

 

[BlackWorksInc]

Early failure (I would say under 100k) is rare, even the XREAS I had on my vehicle at about 90k was still strong; I just replaced it for a suspension lift kit.

XREAS actually lasts longer and has better on-road characteristics than OEM shocks (most OEM shocks should be replaced around roughly 50k from what I have gathered from various sources)

But it is an expensive system to repair/replace and there are cheaper alternatives for many when the system eventually does wear out.

 

[Whiplash Willy]

My Wife's 2006 GX470's rear Pass xreas shock has a small leak around the top area of the strut. It has about 80k miles on it, and we bought it used, so I am not sure how long it has been going on for. So far I have yet to notice any suspension issues from it, but I am sure it will need to be addressed in the near future.