Big Car Club - MPV and SUV Forums

I have just been browsing through various posts looking for tips about shock absorber life expectancy, and I notice that Orbis led a discussion back in Jan 2022 in which he states that his 2003 Galaxy still had original front shocks at 204K miles.

I have just had to replace rear springs, having found a broken one, at just short of 128K miles, and I am wondering whether I should be thinking about replacing rear shock absorbers as well. But I do not want to, if I do not need to.

Does anybody have a view on how long shock absorbers can be expected to last, and apart from leakage, what are the signs of failure?

Our Alhambra has 1BE sport suspension and the OE rear shock absorber is 7M3513031 (without any alphabetic suffix), and trying to match that part number to an aftermarket replacement is challenging to say the least. The closest I can get is Bilstein 19-061078, Sachs 200421 or Monroe 23957. Again, does anyone have a view about the significance of the alphabetic suffix on the VW OE shock absorber number?

One of my rear springs broke at 145,000 miles and I had to change the rubber boot upon which it sits too. I got both sides changed at the time and the man who I think is good said there was no need to change the shock absorbers, if that helps.

My own from shocks lasted to 135,000 miles although driving around here is like driving across a roughly ploughed field every day, such is the state of the roads. It would be good if the did an Alhambra with caterpillar tracks for certain counties in England.

S-D-A - many thanks for your observations. Your mileages suggest that I can relax, at least for the moment, although I might invest in a pair of rear shocks and have them ready on the shelf, for when the time comes.

After overloading the Alhambra last August for a return trip from Edinburgh, I think we finished off the rear springs during a trip to Reading from the south coast a few months ago. The road surfaces got worse and worse as we drove north