how do i know there bad

well i know my struts are shot...loud knock yada yada, but how do i know if the shocks need to be done too, i would really rather not replace them.

You don't have shocks.

The struts are the shocks.

Easy enough.

One more question on struts. When the car has a lot of travel up and down, say when you hit a bridge joint on the highway, does that mean my struts are on the way out?

Yes.

Struts generally only last about 30k miles on good roads if the roads are rough they have shorter life spans. The thing with struts is it's a gradual degrade so you slowly get use to the worn out struts and don't even notice that they are shot.

eer how about, how do i know if my springs are bad...i realize i typed the wrong thing, but i dont believe no one knew what i was talkin about...

If your car is sitting at a wierd or funky angle then your springs are worn. Usually most noticed are the rear springs when the rear end tends to sag. Springs generally last a very long time. Unless you put extra weight on them like big sub woofers and amps in the rear. Or hauling all kinds of extra weight all the time.