I've done searches all over the net and can't find an answer to my question. My daily driver is a '97 Expedition I purchased new. It has 160,000 miles on it and I've never replaced the original air shocks. I'm just wondering if air shocks wear out and/or go soft like standard shocks do? They still hold pressure just fine. Maybe I'm just feeling guilty since I've never had a vehicle this long without replacing the shocks.

Thanks.

 

That's a good question.
I've got the same air shocks (Gabrial "Hi-Jackers") on my '69 AMX that I installed back in 1971. They still hold air and the car seems to ride the same as it did way back when. (Of course they've only got about 30k miles on them).

 

Wow, only 30k miles in over 30 years!

It may be my imagination, but the truck seems to have more lean in the turns that it used to so it got me to thinking the shocks may be worn.

 

Actually, it has just over 50k, but it only had 20k on it when I installed the air shocks.

 

Wow, Gabrial air shocks! I used to sell thousands of those when I worked for Super Shops back in S CA back in the 70's. Air shocks was how we cleared the N50 15's Since they stilll hold air the air pressure could be compensating some. I would let some air out and dirve over a few bumps and see if the vehicle bounces a few times before smoothing out.

 

Wow, N50's? Those had to stick outside the wheel wells.
I only put air shocks on my car to keep it from "squatting'" down and rubbing my F60 15's, not to get any actual lift. Tire clearance on my AMX was critical, since it came with E70 14's.

 

Back in the seventies, you had all the mini pickups running N50's as well as many muscle cars that wanted the stink bug look. We sold the air shocks like crazy for only $39.95 per set.

 

I put air shocks on my '78 Z28 to give a little lift to the back. They were filled manually.

These came stock on the Expedition to level out the load. They automatically fill when I have a heavy load then release air when the load is lighter.