I have a 2004.5 dually that has over 300k and is starting to eat up my front tires rather fast. My Question is what steering and suspension parts should I replace on this high mileage truck. Done a lot of research over this holiday weekend , thought I would ask here.
tire wear
- Thread starter studog
- Start date
I would do it all. This is off the assumption you don't know when it was done and you have the money to do it. Upper control arms, lower ball joints, inner and outer tierods, pitman arm, idler arm, idler pivot, sway bar end links, sway bar bushings, upper control arm frame Jounces, shocks. Not all of it has to do with tire wear but it's easier to just rip it all apart once rather than go back in every 2 months till it's all new.
X2 if you do some of it you will just be wearing out those new parts faster.
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I'd rather fix what's worn than throw money at the whole front end and replace parts that don't really need it
Jack up the front end and then wiggle each tire in/out and up/down to see where the worn items are located. With no load on the frontend you should be able to find the loose/worn out parts quite easily. They also left off wheel bearing assemblies on the list of parts. I just recently replaced my tie rod ends at 430k miles and the tires are wearing evenly across the tread now. Google front tire wear pattern - to see what it says to help give you a clue as to the worn out parts. I don't like to replace parts that are not worn out just because I did a part that was next to it.
Thanks for all the advice from forum members. I think I will just do it all , at 300k everything must be worn. My biggest problem is I'm a general contractor and drive this truck every day. My second string work vehicle is a 1993 ford aerostar van , so urgency to get this truck back on the road will be strong. This is off topic but this has been the best truck I have ever owned, truck gets 16.7 average mileage is 4x, 4 door , long bed one ton dually. My partner has a 2008 powerstroke 3/4 ton only gets 12, bring a smile to my face.
+1 for replacing all you can afford. It may seem like a waste, but if the part isn't wore out YET I will bet money the boots are cracked/rotted out with 300k miles. And if you live in a real 4 season state those failing boots and dry rotted bushings will only fail even faster.