Car shock absorbers, failing after two years?

[a111r]

I have to take you to task here - Monroe shocks are, or at leadt were the best aftermarket you could buy. They may have failed and been bought out by now, I don't know, but they really were the ones to go for, and yes they were cheap-ish, but I used them for years, not only never had a failure, their performance was really impressive.

Yes indeed. Very cheap, so fake was the inference.

 

[minimutly]

I once spent two days modifying a set of monroe struts from an astra and cavalier to fit into a Rover gti I was rallying. The Monroes were inserts, designed to be clamped inside a strut. I machined the top end off, pulled them apart and used water to get to know what did what inside. Removing the fast acting valve at the bottom was the biggest improvement, some shimming to increase stiffness on the other valves helped.
Once finished with the water I tried various viscosity oils until I got what I wanted. Then I welded a thread on the top of the rover struts to take a Vauxhall nut, put the inserts inside and sealed the lot up.
We did the first rally, and within minutes I knew I had done something wrong, one side was slightly softer - but not a major issue softer. Afterwards I stripped both - somehow I'd mixed one of the asta valves with one from the cavalier strut.....

 

[minimutly]

Monroe, sachs, boge are all good kit.

 

[Barking Mat]

Monroe, sachs, boge are all good kit.

Thanks everybody, I'll talk to the motor racing company and see what they recommend, the MOT tester knows the motor racing company man, so hopefully, between you and them, should find a happy compromise.

Bloody garages.....

Thanks all, I'll get back with what they recommend.

 

[Barking Mat]

Thanks for all the input...

 

[Wallace]

Monroe, sachs, boge are all good kit.

Industry suppliers, OE fitment not to be confused with OE quality as regularly advertised.

 

[a111r]

I have just recalled another issue I had, when I swapped the 'probably very bogus Monroe', back to an old, OEM MB shocker.

I re-used the lower bolt, as it was nearly new. So must be better? Not so!
As often, with one of these tasks on suspension, a torque wrench won't fit, so it's down to the old NAMAS calibrated arm.
This would be done up to around 70+ Nm-ish.
I sheared it off, as a weakling, in the twiglet-zone. Re-used the old German bolt...

 

[slim_boy_fat]

Here's my next door neighbour, doing a spot of racing....

I enjoyed that, thanks for sharing.

As to your question, the 'jaggey' part you can see in the first pic is, iirc, made on a heavy duty rubber compound. Whether that gave way and then took out the spring (more more likely option) or vice versa, who knows - net result and potential was the same.

 

[frank horton]

Mat
when I lived there, top and bottom swivel joints where quite common to go bad....I lived in the sticks...rough narrow roads and always had to drive on the brass when meeting traffic......
it was always the passenger side (LHD) that went first obviously......
I always fitted the best u could buy other than factory.....
Germany is a good place to look on ebay...most deliver to France.
they often do a kit of swivels and shocks, plus the bigger kits u can get new springs and bearing tops as well....
all for a very good price...in Germany they cant sell sh1t like they do in the UK...everything is accountable.....
I would say top and bottom swivels u would get four years on an average mileage.....
As for Shocks I only fitted Kyaba, Japanese....not cheap but they really did last...
they do oil and gas filled...
Had a set on my Isuzu trooper for about 8 years before I sold the car, no leaks or knocks....and it worked hard....
there are plenty of decent makes about but over there they dont like u buying ur own parts...for obv reasons....
if my customers wanted cheap carp parts fitted they had to buy their own.....simples.....

 

[Cobbler]

They could well be self levelling shocks on the rear, I know a lot of the older Volvo estates fitted them. If the are prepare for some wallet abuse!

 

[armalites]

V70s are very heavy on front suspension components but I've only changed shocks on the latest one and I've had 4 V70 mostly with big miles.

I fitted new Bilstein all round on my 2010 and I done probably done 60-70k on them and I have to say it already feels like the rears are losing the edge.

Whilst the latest is probably the best to drive of all the ones I've had I can't see them being as durable as the older ones. Sadly it's the shared parts from Ford that are the common failures on these and there is certainly more signs of rust than ever happened on the older ones.

 

[Barking Mat]

No had time to look into it yet, thanks for all the recomendations !

 

[mr haynes]

Shocks i would look at bilstein, sachs or kyb(kayaba) Being in Eu TRW(big german parts outfit) ones i've fitted been ok too.

TRW parts in general tend to be good

 

[KemppiFrog]

I tend to get bits from Mr Auto, no probs so far. Did use pieces24 but it turned out they are German and lots of complaints on the web about poor service on mistakes and returns.

Cam belt on the Kangoo today...hope it doesn't rain, as no room in the garage or assorted sheds.

 

[Other Daniel]

I tend to get bits from Mr Auto, no probs so far. Did use pieces24 but it turned out they are German and lots of complaints on the web about poor service on mistakes and returns.

Cam belt on the Kangoo today...hope it doesn't rain, as no room in the garage or assorted sheds.

Oscaro is my personal favourite.
For no better reason than it being the first site I stumbled across and, so far,
they have been faultless.

 

[Craig-SM]

I’ve had to change all the shocks and springs on the Shogun at 146k miles. One front had gone and a rear, both leaking oil. All were original except a Sachs. They were all replaced with Old Man Emu, which are notably wider tubes. Big difference in performance.

The BMW rear shocks and springs were replaced after the rear offside had sagged. Both shocks had stopped working, easily compressed and not returning. It had only 66k miles.
They were replaced with Bilstein B4, equivalents to standard not uprated, and much improved after changing.

 

[PhillipM]

Problem is for most garages and parts places they know they're literally just slapping something on for the MOT, anything beyond that they don't care, so the shocks will be built down the the minimum price and hope to last a year before they start weeping inside and maybe two before the oil ****** out of the top - even 'quality' brands are doing this now - Bilstein B4's, which are their OE replacement, have gone from being the best thing you could put on to absolutely terrible quality - the damping is still good but the seals, paint, chroming, etc, is terrible - I bought a pair for my 406 last time around and they were in worse shape new than the 20 year old factory ones I took off!

B6/B8's are still good, fortunately, being uprated units.
KYB are generally okay nothing more, Sach too, can't really go wrong with them but they're not up to the same specs as the factory dampers would have been. Top mounts and bearings, etc, I will not buy anything but Lemforder and SKF these days.

 

[PhillipM]

Here's my next door neighbour, doing a spot of racing.....

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=emb_title&time_continue=256&v=00a-vq-faic

That's about the only racing any of us are doing this year. I've spent 12 months watching money flow out of my accounts and little else.

 

[Barking Mat]

I've always used piecesauto24, German it would seem, cheap, choice of price and quality, but admittedly I left it to the garage, I've no idea what they are, must find the bill.

 

[armalites]

I once spent two days modifying a set of monroe struts from an astra and cavalier to fit into a Rover gti I was rallying. The Monroes were inserts, designed to be clamped inside a strut. I machined the top end off, pulled them apart and used water to get to know what did what inside. Removing the fast acting valve at the bottom was the biggest improvement, some shimming to increase stiffness on the other valves helped.
Once finished with the water I tried various viscosity oils until I got what I wanted. Then I welded a thread on the top of the rover struts to take a Vauxhall nut, put the inserts inside and sealed the lot up.
We did the first rally, and within minutes I knew I had done something wrong, one side was slightly softer - but not a major issue softer. Afterwards I stripped both - somehow I'd mixed one of the asta valves with one from the cavalier strut.....

I remember doing them on my Cavalier back in the day, the originals were complete units, when replaced for the first time you had to unscrew the top, drain the oil and take the insides out and then fit a sealed insert inside.