When to change shocks???

[Morphyne]

So I understand the basics about changing shocks. Bottoming out, swimmy steering, diving when stopping. I am not having any of that. but what I do have is a lot of roughness from side to side (lateral movement). Setup is bilstein 5100s, levels, with MOOG FJ cruiser springs all the way around. springs and shocks have 60k on them.

 

[techno]

A nice and simple test is push each corner of the vehicle down as hard as you can and watch how the suspension behaves controlling the rebound. Good shocks should control the bounce by allowing it to rebound once and then compress just a little to return to normal. More than one rebound means they are probably done for.

 

[Inv4drZm]

Bad shocks wouldn't necessarily cause "roughness" like you describe but if they are getting old, your suspension will continue to oscillate after hitting a bump because your springs aren't being dampened efficiently.

 

[jrm]

elaborate on 5100 strut settings?

So I understand the basics about changing shocks. Bottoming out, swimmy steering, diving when stopping. I am not having any of that. but what I do have is a lot of roughness from side to side (lateral movement). Setup is bilstein 5100s, levels, with MOOG FJ cruiser springs all the way around. springs and shocks have 60k on them.

If your preloading the MOOG coil on the 5100s upper settings its going to result in a rough ride b/c youve reduced the travel of the coil

 

[Inv4drZm]

If your preloading the MOOG coil on the 5100s upper settings its going to result in a rough ride b/c youve reduced the travel of the coil

*Reduced the down travel
The total travel remains the same.