Back to Autoride School

Short story. A few years ago with 150k on the odo I decided to replace the front factory Delphi Autoride shocks with Monroe Reflex monotubes. I also installed resistors at the time to fool the Autoride. The ride never seemed right and was stiff and bouncy at times. So being fed up I decided to replace the Monroes and go back to the Autoride shocks. As luck would have it a friend of mine was getting rid of his Autoride shocks from his 07 Escalade with only 70k on it. I put them on a few days ago and the difference was amazing. Now it is quite comfortable in my Tahoe. The shocks keep the tires more firmly planted to the road.

I have always recommended others should keep their Autoride and not bypass it. Seeing how it is a premium feature after all and not a gimmick. So just in case you might be contemplating removing Autoride...I wouldn't. That is unless you cant afford it or something. Now what I would like to do is get some ACDelco smooth ride shocks and see how those stack up against the Autoride shocks. Just my .02.

Thanks for posting this. Most claim removing autoride, taking the truck back to the 1990s era suspension is "better" performance.

My autoride is an older design being an 03, and I'm wanting to delete it asap. 07+ are still pretty new technology.
Or are they actually the same part number? Since they fit your 05.

I installed Bilstein in the front, excellent ride. The rear are also made by Bilstein, they're air shocks from Arnott built by Bilstein back when you could get them. Now Arnott doesnt sell them. None of them have electronic damping but the ride is great. Monroe has never made good shocks IMO so you were comparing crap to OEM. I had Monroe air shocks on my Harley bagger and they felt like I was riding on rocks.

Rocket Man said:

I installed Bilstein in the front, excellent ride. The rear are also made by Bilstein, they're air shocks from Arnott built by Bilstein back when you could get them. Now Arnott doesnt sell them. None of them have electronic damping but the ride is great. Monroe has never made good shocks IMO so you were comparing crap to OEM. I had Monroe air shocks on my Harley bagger and they felt like I was riding on rocks.

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Thats good to know about the Monroe's. I put arnott AS-2700 w/out RTD in the back along with Arnott compressor. The compressor is great, very quiet . But I wish I didn't part with RTD. The ride just doesn't feel the same. Especially cornering. She rolls right over like a overloaded crab boat. I ordered Energy Suspension poly front and rear for the swaybars and new OEM bump stops, see if that helps the roll. When I do the front shocks, gonna pay the $$$ for OEM w/RTD .

Or maybe she's just getting old, and coincedently after the shocks I'm noticing.

06Escalade said:

Thats good to know about the Monroe's. I put arnott AS-2700 w/out RTD in the back along with Arnott compressor. The compressor is great, very quiet . But I wish I didn't part with RTD. The ride just doesn't feel the same. Especially cornering. She rolls right over like a overloaded crab boat. I ordered Energy Suspension poly front and rear for the swaybars and new OEM bump stops, see if that helps the roll. When I do the front shocks, gonna pay the $$$ for OEM w/RTD .

Or maybe she's just getting old, and coincedently after the shocks I'm noticing.

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When I installed DJM's super-big front and rear swaybars, mine cornered flat even at high cornering speeds, plus it stops real fast without nose diving. They do a much better job than RTD.

I have the Bilstein 4600s, they ride fine. Its a truck not a Caddy.

Autoride is what I miss most about my last Tahoe.
It did make it ride like a Caddy.
That ride would hold it's own against any luxury car, but was able go many other places...

01ssreda4 said:

I have the Bilstein 4600s, they ride fine. Its a truck not a Caddy.

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My wallet and past experience with performance vehicles agrees with this, but my back says I want my "truck" to ride like a Caddy.

Interesting thread. I considered going to regular shocks last summer when my rear auto ride was shot. But I decided that since I tow during the summer months, I wanted to keep the auto leveling feature. So I stuck with air ride. My passenger side replacement blew out and had to replace it in June, again after just a year since the initial replacement stuff. I thought I had bought arnott shocks for the replacements tin June, turns out they’re knock offs, but for now they are holding up so I guess it’s ok. I replaced my fronts with arnotts, because I ordered those directly from them. Over all my truck is riding pretty nice. I don’t have too much body roll, or nose diving on quick stops, but I may look into the sway bars mentioned above, cuz my truck is over 100k on the clock now so I’m sure it’ll be time to start replacing some of that stuff soon.