Do suspension spring wear out?

[volver]

My truck has 175,000 miles on it. The suspension has never had work done. My shocks probably exploded 100,000 miles ago. I am planning on redoing the suspension with new shocks, bushings, ball joints, tierod ends, ect.. at the same time i would like to do a tension bar lift and add some shakels. Going to lift 1.5 inches.

My question: Do suspension spring wear out? after 170,000 miles are my leave springs and coil spring still good?

 

[James909]

Yes the springs do get tired with age. It seems like the leaf springs more so than the coil springs but both do wear out. A good example is if you take a look at most Explorers they will tend to lean a bit to the left due to the fact that the driver's side springs wear out faster than the passenger side due to the driver's weight. I wouldn't say that this necessarily makes the springs bad. They are still useable but will ride worse than newer springs. If you want to replace them look for springs with low mileage on them at the junkyard. It may even be a good idea to pick up two right side springs from different Explorer's due to the reason I mentioned above.

 

[Rick]

They do wear out. If your Explorer is sagging in the rear, that's a real good indicator. If not, I wouldn't worry about it. You don't have coil springs on a '98. Just the torsion bars in front and the leafs in the rear. I'm not sure how the old torsion bars will deal with the
"torsion twist". I'm sure someone else can answer that one.

 

[James909]

Good catch Rick. I didn't notice the year and the fact that he doesn't have coil springs.

 

[volver]

Thanks for clearing that up for me.

I dont know how I miss the fact that I dont have coil springs. I check tire pressure every other day and always do my own tune up/oil change/rotated tires/brakes. I replaced the wheel bearings a year ago. I think by now it would have sunk in that i dont have them. Maybe it was because i got all wraped up in the price of a stuff i have to buy. I dont know maybe my memory is just really bad.

But yeah your right i only have torsion bars. I will go to a junk yard and find an explorer and steal its leaves and look on line for some performance tension bars. Do you know of any good websites.

 

[corkey]

the torsion bar thing is free so don't factor in a price for that , just get on your back and get under the Ex and find the adjustiment bolts,,
once you have the rear spring issue taken care of, just crank the bolts in and up goes the front,, but don't go over 2 inches of lift , or the cv joints bind,
if you would like more info , there is a search tag on the header up top of the page,, just type in torsion twist ,

 

[ExploringNC]

I went for the F150 Leaf springs and love it. You can search here for the procedure on how to do it.

I went to the local pull-a-part and just happen to find an F150 that someone had all ready gotten the axle so all I had to do was remove four bolts and pay $20 for each leaf pack, then couple hours on a sat. to do the swap and it's made a huge differance.

Not the best pic but it gave me plenty of clearance for 31's and including shackles it cost me under $60.

 

[wyochimneysweep]

yeah the f150 springs make a huge diffence. i tow trailers all the time and It was such a improvment with the f150 springs