So I took my X in to have the grinding noise checked out. I was pretty positive it was the front brakes. They are the stock brakes and I have 65k on them with aggressive driving behind them so I considered myself due.

So I took them in to BigO to have them checked out. They called me at work and said the front brakes where down to less then 10% left and the rears where at about 50%. They recommended only doing the front with ceramic with a life time guarantee. It was $150 so I had no issues.

Now here is where things get interesting. The guy tells me the mechanic says I need all new shocks. The oem shocks are shot. Now if these where the oem shocks I would probably agreed, but thanks to advice from this board shortly after I got the 03 I put on Bilstein 5100's. So I started in on the guy telling him they where not the oem shocks and he should have be able to clearly see that. The guy on the phone starts to back pedal and says "Well this is just what the mechanic said"
When I got there I requested to see my front brakes. One side of each pair looked completely gone and one side was even cracking. So as far as the brakes go I felt everything was square.

I then asked to see the manager. I told him what happened with the shocks and let him know I considered what happened was them trying to just push a completely new set of shocks. He blah blah blah about how they don't do that kind of thing and then went and got the mechanic.

What he actually found was that from his inspection the bushings where badly cracked and needed replacing he assumed the shocks where the stock oem (yeah right) I looked at the bushing and he was correct. They do look like hell.

Now that I have rambled on I'll get to my questions. First do breaks mainly wear on one side of each set? I thought they would wear evenly on each side. Second with aggressive driving how long do brakes last? Third if my bushings are shot on the X can I just replace the bushings or do I need to replace the shocks? How do I tell if the shock is bad and what is the life span of 5100's?

Oh and I know I can do this work on my own but it's 107 degrees here. There is no way I'm jacking that truck up and working for a few hours.

god damn 65k on the oem brake pads. i dont think it is abnormal for one side to wear slightly more than the other. now, if it were %50 on one side and wasted on the other then you would have a problem.

i dont have any advice for the shocks.
after the incident at that shop i would have taken my business somewhere else.

No it was definitely worn alot more on one side then the other. I'm not sure what the base thickness would be but it was a huge difference. The difference seemed uniform on both sides.

And as for going someplace else I felt like they where dealing with me straught on the brakes. The shocks is the questionable part.

What nobody else has comments?

BigO tried that crap on me as well. My dad actually had their crappy ass shocks on his Jeep and we switched them out for the Bilsteins.

Just replace the bushings and you will be fine. Youll notice with the 5100's that when you hit a bump the truck will go down and almost immediately dampen out. If the truck starts bouncing around a bit after a bump...well thats when you get new shocks. The bilsteins will last the life of the truck, hell theyre german engineered!!!

As for the brakes my X has 72K on it with the original rear brakes and only replaced the fronts once at about 60K. I do have a manual tranny so that does help.

Brake pads are like gas mileage. They are very dependant on the way that you drive. If one was cracked that was really really pad and I need to say stupid as the high pitch noise coming from the front end is the wear tab on the inside of pad that will rub against the caliper to let you know to change them out. Dont take chances with the brakes.

Tim

I was searching the web and the site but I couldn't find anything on replacement bushings. I looked at the bushings and they do look cracked as hell. Where do I find replacement bushings?

SLR sells replacement bushings. Link Look under front applications...

Big thanks for the link. The site says "Bilstein 5100 Series Front Shocks - Replaces OE Bilstein rubber bushings with 88 shore dirameter polyurethane " So is there not a replacement for the rear or are they the same? Is it common to have to replace the eom bilstein bushings?

My stock bushings were shot...and, shock bushings in general take a beating.

The rubber ones that most shocks come with are quiet, and last long enough under normal use for OEM apps.....the urethane (Prothane) bushings are harder, so they don't absorb as much vibration, etc...but they too wear out over time.

I got a new set for about $8 (Prothane) for the rears to fit over the larger diameter UBSkidderz shock bolts...an easy swap.

The bushings for the front and rear are the same correct?

bump...anyone?