When to replace shock absorbers on an MY15 D4

Rob, mine is at 101k and 4 years old. My offroad travel is similar to yours but less of the total usage (I'd estimate 25% offroad and towing).
I feel qualitatively the ride is softer through corners compared to new but nothing that needs action yet, although I don't want to leave it too late.
I crossed the Simpson and thought the French Line was pretty rough thanks to the churned up dune faces but when compared to the Defender we travelled with ...... the amount of bouncing on the Defender (low km MY16) was something to behold.

Cheers,
Scott

220,000 hard Ks on our D4 and still on the originals, I thought for sure we'd be replacing them after our Kimberley trip(23,000Ks) but the car still rides fine, even drove another D4 with low Ks to see the difference, very minimal difference, nothing to warrant replacing them yet, even our mechanic said they are all good.

Thanks all for those comments. If it was anything else I would have been on my second set of suspension by now. Cost wise its around $4300 to put a set of the ARB BP51 suspension on an LC200 so looking at the pricing on this thread its a bargain

Interestingly and as we are not touring until May next year I swapped out the GOE rims and KO2's yesterday for the OE 19" and Goodyears. Certainly a lot quieter and ride is noticeably smoother as well. So the HD tyres with stiffer sidewalls are great when off bitumen but not as nice for bitumen cruising.

Rob

I’m at 155k and that is a combination of daily driver and tow tug. Kimberly twice and now tassie and a few long distance highway trips towing.

Drove a 2005 with 270k on it thru a windy but fast stretch of road and was very noticeable the difference in the 2 cars. Also let him drive mine thru the same stretch and both agreed his was far softer and needed to be driven slower thru .

I think mine will be replaced with original if available at about 200k.

my 2c worth

Cheers Ean

Mine were done at around 110,000km. Both front ones were stuffed with the down-travel limiting tab on the shock broken so on full articulation it was slowly breaking brackets for height sensors and other bits as the arm over-extended. I run large (for a D4 [tonguewink]) tyres offroad, so maybe this is leading to a more premature failure with the additional weight and forces.

Check your tyres, I replaced my air struts as within 2 weeks of fitting my 32" A/T's i was getting heel and toe wear, it was getting bad by the time i replaced them after 4 weeks. Would have destroyed my $2000 tyres (5 X D697) within 2 months. Luckily, I was monitoring the tyres regularly at that stage and noticed it early.

Once you have severe enough heel and toe wear, they just keep wearing like that forever, and get noisier and noisier, by catching it early the tyres have a chance to smooth themselves back out again like mine did.

That was around 200,000 km's. Strangely enough the original road tyres had no heel and toe wear at all, i'd assume AT'S aggressive blocks are more easily affected.

OK our D4 has done everything from long dirt ks long highway ks, to and from work and play time, it has a bullbar, kaymar bar with two carriers, roof rack, sliders, storage drawers full of spares tools and food stuff, dual batteries and so on and so on all towing a 1500kg trailer, a 4.6t combination, the car has been like this from 6000ks:burnrubber:

183,000 kms still on original units, no issues, ride quality is still the same, ie excellent

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Eric SDV6SE

183,000 kms still on original units, no issues, ride quality is still the same, ie excellent

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Likewise D3 close to 200,000 now and all good. Original compressor. Weighing up full replacement.

I went with “OEM” not “genuine” and didn’t notice a difference in rode. Some say I would have if I bought genuine.
At least I can say my air bags and shock are fresh and won’t fail during a trip (hopefully).
(250,000km)