Bilsteins life expectancy?

I have bilstein 5100's all around. The have been quite good on my mostly dd with 3" lift. They are only 2 years old,about 50,000 miles on them. Over the past two weeks the fronts have gone from feeling good to feeling and looking like a kiddie jumping castle.

Is it me or should I have expected more life from them with mainly highway miles? Anyone have any experience with these shocks that is similar?

Parts are parts, if they're worn out they need to be replaced. Kinda doesn't matter what everyone else is experiencing. I don't think there's much room to complain if you put 50k miles on them. Sure, maybe they should have lasted longer. Are you going to buy a less quality part because the quality part didn't last as long as you thought it would?

Also, the unknown here is do you have bump stops mounted in the proper location or are you bottoming against the shocks? Are the shocks too short so you extend them and top them out when hitting big bumps?

I got 2 years out of my front 5100's incorrectly bumped and using them as limiting straps, 3 years out of the back only because I bent them, upgraded to 5150's last year, If I toast another , I'll be buying them again.

If I put that many miles on my xj, I'd buy something rebuildable like 7100's.

My buddy put 20k miles on his Bilsteins before they started leaking and riding worse. I've never had experience with them but I have Old Man Emu shocks and love them. We put OME shocks on his rig and they've been fine for 2 years so far. His Jeep is stock and sees mostly street driving so I was surprised the Bilsteins didn't last longer. :dunno:

Shocks usually have some kind of warranty.

50K is a little light but not terrible. Depends on usage. In my fiance's Corrolla, the OE struts lasted 120K before needing to be changed out. In a race truck, I imagine every race is a new rebuild.
50K... not too bad.