Shock Absorbers

[Just Curious]

Can anyone shed some light on this situation please?

Yesterday I had my Nissan in for a regular book service and they told me that a rear shock absorber needed replacing under warranty, which they did and at no charge to me. The car has only travelled 34,000k and very easy driving too. My question is, should shock absorbers be replaced in pairs (same as tyres) or is acceptable to replace just the one?

Prior to the replacement to car was showing no signs of a faulty shock and it drives the same with the new one installed.

Many thanks for your input.

[pgrahmm]

Relatively young vehicle....Under warranty they can only replace the failed part....If they were to replace the 2nd without a failure the dealership would not be paid for the shock or the labor....

Most replaced parts are held for review for disposal/return to vendor(for manufacture reimbursement)/return to manufacturer before the warranty repair is paid/rejected.....

Most are sent in & inspected.....That's how they track failure trends as well as shop tendencies with regard to specific types of repairs.....If they exceed in certain types/areas of repairs the part(s) replaced must be inspected & signed off by the manufacturer's reps as they are basically on a probationary period for those types of repairs with payment withheld until reviewed - it can be expensive to have a lot of pending claims waiting to be signed off.....Which is another method to penalize that shop.....

They very best can authorize their own....But they're still monitored....

Edited July 12, 2016 by pgrahmm

[Kwasaki]

One was probably leaking and eventually you would of noticed and as said low kilos so no worries.

Sounds like a caring dealer.

[Avrock]

No need to replace both just the damaged one..34k is not that much of a mileage so it should be fine..if you're doing off road terrains then it would be a different story

[Lancashirelad]

Judging by some of the public transport I've used in Thailand over the years I didn't think anybody replaced any shock absorbers or bushes ever, even when they can clearly be heard knocking!

It is advisable to replace them in pairs, but as others have said, its a relatively young, low mileage vehicle so the other side won't be much worn yet, it will be fine. I'd me more concerned if only one were replaced at the front.

[DavisH]

If the other side is from the same batch it could go the same way shortly. Why not replace both and keep the 'good' one as a spare?

My shocks didn't get noisy until over 200K kms on my honda. 30K is way to short and it may have had a defect - or the car was driven hard over very bad roads.