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Can shock/struts burst?

FuzzyDunlop

FuzzyDunlop

Diamond Member
Car felt super squirrelly coming thru a quick and tight left hand turn. It felt like the rear tires were bouncing. So I quickly got it home and inspected things underneath. there is a generous helping of what appears to be oil dripping down the strut mount, down to the ground. by generous, i mean a drip about every second.
what are your thoughts?
 
Shocks & struts are nothing more than hyd cylinders with rods, pistons and a barrel with seals at the top which tend to wear out and leak or can as you say "burst" or simply blow out...

exdeath said:
Not really. The piston seals would just leak out the top.
Click to expand...

Don't quite understand what you mean exdeath...? If the piston seal goes bad its internal but the top end seal is what keeps the fluid inside the body or barrel of the shock/strut...
 
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Bartman39 said:
Don't quite understand what you mean exdeath...? If the piston seal goes bad its internal but the top end seal is what keeps the fluid inside the body or barrel of the shock/strut...
Click to expand...

Top seal. I think of the whole silver rod assembly as the "piston" even though it's incorrect terminology. 😀

I think of the internal seals as "valve" parts, and those wouldn't leak fluid externally, you would just have little to no dampening.
 
OP: are these struts or shocks in the rear? Can you see the top of the body? Maybe a spot weld or something busted on the end cap.

Assuming the shocks and spring rates were matched? Mounted/bushed properly so there isn't binding or excessive side loading on the rod/piston?

Unacceptable if they are new. Warranty RMA time.
 
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exdeath said:
Top seal. I think of the whole silver rod assembly as the "piston" even though it's incorrect terminology. 😀

I think of the internal seals as "valve" parts, and those wouldn't leak fluid externally, you would just have little to no dampening.
Click to expand...

This may explain the wheel bounce.
Is it hard on the car for me to keep driving it?

I think Koni has a lifetime re-build policy... but the shipping could be just as much for me to buy a new one.
 
FuzzyDunlop said:
This may explain the wheel bounce.
Is it hard on the car for me to keep driving it?
Click to expand...

Not really, it will just be dangerous and bouncy and cup your tires in short order. Won't hurt the car.

Shocks don't really matter, but if it's a strut experiencing a defect/mechanical failure, you could be on the side of the road with the car sitting on top of one of your wheels :awe: Strut also = upper control arm.
 
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FuzzyDunlop said:
This may explain the wheel bounce.
Is it hard on the car for me to keep driving it?

I think Koni has a lifetime re-build policy... but the shipping could be just as much for me to buy a new one.
Click to expand...

If they leak fluid then they pull air in to replace it so you get little or no shock action... Also if no fluid then guess what no lube so whats next... Yep they can seize or come apart and thats not good news... So best to not drive it much and do like exdeath said RMA time...
 
exdeath said:
Related, but more mount failure than strut:

http://www.aussiefrogs.com/forum/showthread.php?t=370

http://www.bigcoupe.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=15923&sid=412fb492a10071ad9de9bbcb36212a95
Click to expand...

hmmmm, my car is parked safely in the garage and will not be moving till this is fixed. Bummer. And I just got the interior put in too! wow. Kinda pisses me off. looks like I have a busy saturday evening coming up.

EDIT: Heres some photos

IMGP3696.jpg

IMGP3699.jpg
 
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put one of the old struts in place of the koni. Only took me about 1/2 horu to do the whole process.
heres photos of the culprit.
IMAG0861.jpg

IMAG0863.jpg

Pretty obvious what happened here,
IMAG0862.jpg


Faxed in the request for replacement for the Koni Warranty. See what happens.
 
Good job. I hope you sent a pic of the failure with it installed as well.

This is where you learn about a company...seeing how well they stand by there product/warranty. I'd love to see them expedite a new one out to you.
 
To answer your original question, they absolutely can burst or wear. In fact, anytime you roll by a car that has a constantly bouncy wheel while at constant speed, that's the damper low on pressure or completely shot.

I just replaced my stock dampers and lowering springs with coilovers since my car was due for some needed suspension love anyways. Oddly enough, I was considering getting Koni yellows until I heard about the installation process and then decided against it and to just spend more money on what I would consider a more proper setup.

Riding on dampers that aren't properly cushioning impacts will generate extra pressure on your wheels when you ride over a bump of any significance. Any time excessive force is applied to your wheels this will cause cracks to form in slight imperfections if they are alloy rims. Also, this translates into extra wear on everything else in your suspension (control arms, tie-rods, bushings, steering column) and drivetrain (if you drive a rear wheel drive vehicle with your rear dampers busted), as well as throw your alignment off track faster than normal equalling faster tire wear.

I'll be curious to see how Koni takes care of this. I've generally heard good things about the quality of their product. Hope they resolve this quickly for you!
 
When my friend bought a set of Koni's for his Neon and I pulled out the instructions that said cut off the top of your old strut, drain it and mount the Koni inside the empty strut I lost some respect for that company. What kind of half ass install is that? Seems like that would perform worse than the stock strut where the whole component is one cast unit not two pieces that were never manufactured to fit together. I told him to send those things back and order some real struts. KYB ftw.
 
I found that my left/front shock is leaking badly on my V when I was having work done. Have an appointment already scheduled for Monday and I'm curious how much this will cost GM. Wonder if the electromagnetic shocks try to over adjust when leaking.
 
YAY!
Koni has finally approved a warranty replacement for my strut, marking it as a "Manufacturing Defect".
They are sending a new strut, excellent.

If your product was sent in for evaluation:If your product was sent in to be evaluated first and was accepted replacement s will be sent out, when in stock, in under 2 weeks. If your product must be rebuilt it may take 4 weeks. You will receive email notification from UPS of your product shipment.
Click to expand...

They marked it as scrap, so I can only assume they will be sending me a new one within two weeks.
 
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FuzzyDunlop said:
YAY!
Koni has finally approved a warranty replacement for my strut, marking it as a "Manufacturing Defect".
They are sending a new strut, excellent.



They marked it as scrap, so I can only assume they will be sending me a new one within two weeks.
Click to expand...

Good news!


Koni rep +1
 
I reinstalled this strut when I got it. Its been good since.

Trouble is... the other side has now done the EXACT SAME THING :awe:

Saturday evening Im driving home, pull around a corner and it feels like the rear right wheel is bouncing around. Sure enough... a bunch of oil leaking down the strut housing.

The only thing, that I can think of, that may have caused this is that I was sent off highway on a detour and ran over some washboard on a gravel road. Maybe that was just too much work for the koni to handle??? Either case, Im pissed.
 
FuzzyDunlop said:
I reinstalled this strut when I got it. Its been good since.

Trouble is... the other side has now done the EXACT SAME THING :awe:

Saturday evening Im driving home, pull around a corner and it feels like the rear right wheel is bouncing around. Sure enough... a bunch of oil leaking down the strut housing.

The only thing, that I can think of, that may have caused this is that I was sent off highway on a detour and ran over some washboard on a gravel road. Maybe that was just too much work for the koni to handle??? Either case, Im pissed.
Click to expand...

Is your car lowered? Some shocks don't work well with lowering springs.

I've always had good luck with Koni though.
 
ya, I have Eibach Pro Kit. They are supposed to go well with each other. Many guys are running the same set up. Seems strange - unless I am an idiot and did something wrong which may be causing this. Dont know what nor how, though.

Im going to throw the stock struts in and see how it feels.
 
FuzzyDunlop said:
ya, I have Eibach Pro Kit. They are supposed to go well with each other. Many guys are running the same set up. Seems strange - unless I am an idiot and did something wrong which may be causing this. Dont know what nor how, though.

Im going to throw the stock struts in and see how it feels.
Click to expand...

Probably a bad batch that passed trough QC. Sucks man
 
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