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[Cjymiller]

Originally Posted by Jenson May

I am a shock tech for Fortune Auto and was directed to this thread by one of our customers via Facebook.

Welcome back to the boards. Thank you for taking the time as a representative to send a thorough response to the thread. It is invaluable to boosting consumer confidence in your brand.

[Thorpedo]

Excellent Response @Jenson May. If only other companies had brains enough to respond to a situation such as this as you do. Well done!

[Jive Turkey]

glad you're okay man, glad to see fortune auto on top of their stuff and handling your issue professionally.

those coilovers however look like they are a decade old and were left outside to rot, how is that 1 year old and looks like that? good thing they will replace your bearings with better ones, atleast fortune takes the time to develop a product like this. i don't even want to think about all the sub 1k coilovers rolling around in the north east, they must all look like this...

[Jenson May]

Originally Posted by Cjymiller

Welcome back to the boards. Thank you for taking the time as a representative to send a thorough response to the thread. It is invaluable to boosting consumer confidence in your brand.

Thanks!

Originally Posted by Thorpedo

Excellent Response @Jenson May. If only other companies had brains enough to respond to a situation such as this as you do. Well done!

Thanks!

Originally Posted by DarkCard

And this is exactly why I purchased my suspension from you guys in the first place.

My fronts are being sent out tomorow, you will have them during the week as I am on the east coast also. I am also very eager to find the cause of what happened, I have had multiple cars with coilovers and this is a first. Car had no damage other than some minor scraping to the wheelwell. Vehicle was NOT in a collision (Just to clarify )

The service rep I spoke to (I believe Chris?) was very helpful and informative when I spoke to him, so I'd like to say thank you to him too.

Yes you spoke to our tech Chris. We will be awaiting your 2 front coilovers.

Originally Posted by Jive Turkey

glad you're okay man, glad to see fortune auto on top of their stuff and handling your issue professionally.

those coilovers however look like they are a decade old and were left outside to rot, how is that 1 year old and looks like that? good thing they will replace your bearings with better ones, atleast fortune takes the time to develop a product like this. i don't even want to think about all the sub 1k coilovers rolling around in the north east, they must all look like this...

It really does, if you look closely most of the rust is coming from those bearings that look horrid. If you look more closely at the coilover the rust is not nearly is bad and probably has a lot of run off rust that has dribbled over from the NSK bearings.

[Dpforlife]

Glad your ok man, wow I'm also on the East Coast and was thinking of ordering FA, but if they look like that only after a year wow. Not sure the plus out-weighs the minus. If the road salt/weather did that in only a year I could only imagine how they would look after 2 years.


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[MTCRX]

Originally Posted by Dpforlife

Glad your ok man, wow I'm also on the East Coast and was thinking of ordering FA, but if they look like that only after a year wow. Not sure the plus out-weighs the minus. If the road salt/weather did that in only a year I could only imagine how they would look after 2 years.


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If you read the post, they stopped using those bearings because of the corrosion issue. They have changed manufacturers.

[dsgerbc]

What offset are you running in your wheels? Offset very different from OEM will introduce bending loads on the shock that are never supposed to be there. In short - unless you're running stock offset, coilover maker isn't 100% to blame.

[Dezoris]

Good damage control here, although its a good lesson if you are in a corrosive environment and run "certain" coilover kits you had better consider rebuilding them.
All the more attractive reason to run OEM in winters or on daily drivers.

[fooddude]

Originally Posted by Jenson May

2. The torrington needle bearings that you were supplied with are made by NSK Japan. We have stopped using them for roughly a year now because they do not hold up well in very corrosive climates. We will replace your old torrington bearings FREE of charge with our new sealed radial bearings that do not corrode.



The shaft supplier that we use is located in Japan and makes very high quality shafts for other Japanese coilover manufactures and OEM damper companies. Our shaft supplier manufacturers these shafts to our rigid specifications.

Very nice to hear such support, communication, willingness and need to help fix and make everything better and professionalism. A+++ or Fortune Auto


I have a few questions:

1. What do currently offer as standard for the 500's nowadays in regards to those bearings (when Not ordering the upgraded blue radial bearings)? Poly bearings or spacers?

2. Just curious (and I think it would help inform the curious public and increase sales too): Who are the suppliers for your piston shafts? And, which exact coilover brands/companies use the same supplier? (ie: hks, tein, etc., etc?)

Actually, it would be very nice to know and get a list of all your suppliers for each specific part/component, and also know which other bigger Japanese companies use the exact same parts/suppliers. Ie: who makes the pistons, shims, upper camber mounts, lower strut and shock mounts, shock bodies, etc., etc....and know which of the other bigger japanese coilover companies use the same suppliers. Just to know that our FA coilovers are on par and have the same DNA with said/known bigger japanese coilovers.

[Jenson May]

Thanks,

1. If the radial bearing option is not ordered you just get thrust washers.

2. I am sorry but that is proprietary information and I can not provide it to you. We have worked long and hard to find the optimum suppliers and can not just give that information out.

Originally Posted by fooddude

Very nice to hear such support, communication, willingness and need to help fix and make everything better and professionalism. A+++ or Fortune Auto


I have a few questions:

1. What do currently offer as standard for the 500's nowadays in regards to those bearings (when Not ordering the upgraded blue radial bearings)? Poly bearings or spacers?

2. Just curious (and I think it would help inform the curious public and increase sales too): Who are the suppliers for your piston shafts? And, which exact coilover brands/companies use the same supplier? (ie: hks, tein, etc., etc?)

Actually, it would be very nice to know and get a list of all your suppliers for each specific part/component, and also know which other bigger Japanese companies use the exact same parts/suppliers. Ie: who makes the pistons, shims, upper camber mounts, lower strut and shock mounts, shock bodies, etc., etc....and know which of the other bigger japanese coilover companies use the same suppliers. Just to know that our FA coilovers are on par and have the same DNA with said/known bigger japanese coilovers.

[Squishy86]

Originally Posted by Jenson May

2. I am sorry but that is proprietary information and I can not provide it to you. We have worked long and hard to find the optimum suppliers and will not just give it out.

I'll give you a cookie...

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[Shankenstein]

Originally Posted by Jenson May

Good question, we salt spray test all of our products. Furthermore when we receive parts from our suppliers we test the batches before assembly. In regards to the shafts we conduct surface hardness tests to confirm if they are in the proper hardness range. The shaft supplier also includes a test report on the batch of shafts.

Good to hear! If you have any details on the spec you guys test to, I'll support the discussion with the boring details of product validation.

I'm with @Turdinator that it's likely an out of tolerance concentricity or surface finish on the ID of the hole in the shaft. We always build in some generous tolerances when gun drilling and hard materials are involved. Even the best machine shops have trouble with that.

Edit: The close up photo definitely shows that it's sheared with some light cup-and-cone action. As you guys indicate, the likely source was a crack that propagated from the stress concentrations surrounding the bottom thread. That's not unexpected, considering the loading. Failure was significantly affected by fatigue rather than a single brute force. My earlier assessment may have been a contributing factor, but it doesn't appear to be the root-cause.

Follow-up question: You mentioned heat treating, do you guys have any special treatment for the threads? Glass bead blast is a good option.

If you can't tell, we really appreciate when companies actively support their products. Jenson May for President 2016!

[Jason@DSG]

Hey everyone!

I'm going to chime in here. I've worked in the engineering/manufacturing industry almost my entire working career and I have a few thoughts, especially since DSG is a master dealer of Fortune Auto.

First off, I'm happy to see the OP is okay, really sorry to hear about your situation.

This is the FIRST time in all our years selling Fortune Auto that we've seen something like this (and we've sold 100's and 100's of sets of their coilovers). My best guess is that it may have previously been weakened by hitting other potholes or large bumps combined with maybe that one in a million manufacturer's defective piston. Like any manufacturer (and I can name a bunch that also sell on here), there's always one bad exhaust weld or a rim that had a defect, it happens -- it's part of manufacturing.

The good news is how FA handled it above. They are going to replace his set and since this is the older Gen4, the new Gen5 Radial Bearing (if you choose to go with it -- if not, it's the standard thrust washer), is a sealed stainless steel bearing and corrosion is a non-issue.

After looking at the pictures, the corrosion didn't have anything to do with this as it's sheared off at the piston shaft. By the look of the point where it broke off, it looks like existing damage that finally broke off hitting a much larger pot hole. As someone mentioned, suspension takes the brunt of everything on the road and if it's anywhere like here in Montreal, you have to be really careful. In our thaw/freezing season, the amount of potholes are INSANE!! It feels like I'm driving slalom down the highway sometimes lol

I still have the utmost confidence in Fortune Auto's product and it's backed by an industry leading warranty of 5 years. If this sort of issue was common in any way, as a manufacturer they could never provide a warranty like that.

Originally Posted by fooddude

Actually, it would be very nice to know and get a list of all your suppliers for each specific part/component, and also know which other bigger Japanese companies use the exact same parts/suppliers. Ie: who makes the pistons, shims, upper camber mounts, lower strut and shock mounts, shock bodies, etc., etc....and know which of the other bigger japanese coilover companies use the same suppliers. Just to know that our FA coilovers are on par and have the same DNA with said/known bigger japanese coilovers.

This won't happen :P Everything you're asking for is proprietary to what makes an FA coilover an FA coilover! If this info was readily available, anyone could easily copy what they are doing. They have an excellent warranty on their product for this reason, it's not up to you to worry about what or where the parts are coming from. Even at that, a lot of the parts are actually made by FA. They're all extensively tested and come from manufacturers with very high standards then assembled in the USA by FA.

[fooddude]

Originally Posted by Squishy86

I'll give you a cookie...

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Cookies are yumz ...but I think churros, funnel cakes or Cinnabon cinnamon rolls would work better :9