I have a 2001 Accent with 120000km on the odometer. It has a lot of steering wheel shake when travel at speeds over 100km. The tires are new and balanced. The shocks are not leaking but a shop suggested that it is recommended to replace them at 80000km intervals.
Shocks don't typically have life expectancy. If you drive primarily on smooth roads, then they may last the life of the car. If you drive on bumpy roads, then they could become worn or damaged as soon as 50,000 km. There is no reason to replace shocks/struts that are not leaking or are not worn. The typical test is to bounce the corner of the car and if it continues bouncing freely for no more than three cycles, then the shocks/struts are okay. Keep in mind that as you approach 3 bounces, however, the shocks are becoming worn to the point that you may notice a significant difference in ride. When performing this test on a new car, the car typically bounces once and then has a very tiny second bounce before coming to rest.
The symptoms you describe are classic wheel balance problems. It's possible one of the tires is defective or that the tires weren't balanced properly. Or that one of the wheels is bent. You'll want to exhaustively inspect the wheels and tires before looking elsewhere.
I tried the bounce test but I do not think I am doing it the correct way. The tire have been balanced by 3 technician on different machines but only made a slight improvement.
The front tires look flat even though they are inflated properly. I know that a radial bulge is normal but these look flat. There is clanging and banging noises when I hit a bump. The car will dip more than usual on a sharp corner at higher speeds.
Maybe I will just put 2 after market shocks in the front. Can't hurt, right?
Aftermarkets may not have the same damping coefficient and may cause some variation in ride and handling quality. I wouldn't think it would be excessive, though. If they're quality struts and properly installed, I cannot imagine it'll hurt anything other than your wallet.
You could try rotating the tires and seeing if it makes a difference. If so, you're looking at a wheel/tire issue. The largest problem I have with replacing the struts is the reason they were recommended (mileage). So far, you've posted nothing to indicate that someone has checked something on your car and found something wrong. If you want your car fixed properly and expediently, that's what you want. Someone needs to perform some sort of diagnosis and find something actually wrong (e.g. worn tie rod ends, feathered tires, bent wheel, whatever) and start there. It's a much more scientific way of making your problem disappear than *repair x* is recommended at *mileage y*. While those recommendations may or may not be valid, there's no reason to expect they'll address your issue unless there's an actual problem found that interrelates the recommendation and the problem.
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