BR Racing Coilover shock keeps blowing

[wbradley]

Originally Posted by Moooiiissst

To be fair, I didn't tell them I wasn't the original owner until after they told me they didn't cover a replacement, so as far as they knew, I was the original owner when I asked, but yet, they still said no even though I was under the 1-year manufacturer warranty period. I wasn't expecting a warranty on the used parts, so I didn't want to push it. However, I did purchase the shock that just blew brand new directly from BC Racing, so I'm surely the original owner for that and I'm hoping there is a warranty for that at least.

I was basing my "technique" to tighten down the top nut off of this videos:

Correct me if I'm wrong, but since mine are the BR series, I figured it wouldn't be too much of a difference other than just a different-looking camber plate and when disassembling. Upon detailed inspection last time, it all looked identical to the video. Not only that, but my coilovers were running perfectly fine for a good month without any gradual degradation of any sort up until 2 days ago and the spring isn't loose or anything. From what I saw, the Allen key hole was just used to hold the shaft from spinning while the top nut was tightened, but again, correct me if I'm wrong...



Wouldn't vice grips chew into the shaft? I was thinking of vice grips, but I was scared of leaving teeth marks. But in your case with your Ohlins, you don't have a top nut? You tighten it with the Allen key?

I held the allen key stationary so as not to rotate the shaft and rotated the vice grips to tighten the top nut down to the top hat. This was for the rears only as the fronts had camber plates pre-installed when I received them but I am sure same method would have worked. . I know it's Mickey Mouse but it works and didn't force me to stop in the middle of a job I was doing after business hours in my garage.

With the Ohlins (not sure others) there are 2 Allen sockets in the top of the shock; 1- smaller one for the valve adjustment and a larger one to insert a larger Allen get when tightening down the top nut to keep the shock from rotating.

[finch1750]

Originally Posted by ryoma

do not use an allen key for the adjustable struts. the allen key port is usually there to adjust the strut valving. the stock ones are fine with an allen key and pass through socket (since they aren't adjustable), but you will need a strap wrench for the others. of course, anything that can hold the strut shaft from spinning while you tighten can be used. a strap wrench that you can buy from Sears for $10 is the easiest though.

I've never done this on adjustable coils but isnt that why the adjuster is a smaller hole (like 3mm) inside a much larger hole (probably 5-6mm) that would hold the shaft in place?

[Racecomp Engineering]

Do not use vice grips directly on the shock shaft. Do not use the adjuster to hold the shaft steady with a pass through. A strap wrench is a cheap and useful tool.

I would not expect anyone to damage a seal by spinning the shaft with hand tools unless they're really shitty seals.

That shaft is seriously F-ed and not just a normal blown shock.

- Andrew

[Moooiiissst]

Originally Posted by Tokay444

I case it hasn't been said yet, you get what you pay for.

Originally Posted by Clipdat

In case it hasn't been said yet, don't threadshit and make worthless posts that don't contribute to the discussion at hand.

Lol

Originally Posted by wbradley

I held the allen key stationary so as not to rotate the shaft and rotated the vice grips to tighten the top nut down to the top hat. This was for the rears only as the fronts had camber plates pre-installed when I received them but I am sure same method would have worked. . I know it's Mickey Mouse but it works and didn't force me to stop in the middle of a job I was doing after business hours in my garage.

With the Ohlins (not sure others) there are 2 Allen sockets in the top of the shock; 1- smaller one for the valve adjustment and a larger one to insert a larger Allen get when tightening down the top nut to keep the shock from rotating.

That's essentially what I did with the fronts, but I don't know if I am misunderstanding, but it seems as though other people are telling me that it's supposed to be different for mine because I have camber plates. Am I understanding that correctly? Do I actually need to strap down the shaft? I feel like BC Racing would have mentioned that somewhere. I will give that a shot anyways, but this method is unheard of to me as I've always been shown to keep an Allen key on the Allen key hole to stop the shaft from spinning while you tighten the top nut with a 17mm wrench (assuming you can get the proper torque with just a wrench).

Originally Posted by finch1750

I've never done this on adjustable coils but isnt that why the adjuster is a smaller hole (like 3mm) inside a much larger hole (probably 5-6mm) that would hold the shaft in place?

That's exactly what I am thinking. The adjuster knob fits in a tiny hole INSIDE the 5mm Allen key hole... essentially a hole inside a hole (hole-ception!), the dampening adjustment knob shaft just fits much deeper into the 5mm Allen key hole. What I have been saying that I have been doing is that I have been inserting an Allen key simply to hold the shaft in place so it doesn't spin, but I am 99.9999999999999% certain I didn't mess with the dampening.

[wbradley]

Originally Posted by finch1750

I've never done this on adjustable coils but isnt that why the adjuster is a smaller hole (like 3mm) inside a much larger hole (probably 5-6mm) that would hold the shaft in place?

I presume so.

[wbradley]

Originally Posted by Moooiiissst

Lol
That's essentially what I did with the fronts, but I don't know if I am misunderstanding, but it seems as though other people are telling me that it's supposed to be different for mine because I have camber plates.

No different. I didn't need to do my fronts as I purchased my coilovers pre-owned and the seller left the camber plates on when he sent me the units.

Nobody said take a vice grips to the shaft, that's stupid!

I had never installed suspension components but just from a bit of reading here over the years I figured I needed to hold the shaft with the Allen key while using something (yep., vice grips) to tighten down the top nut when assembling the top hat to the coilover.

[Moooiiissst]

Originally Posted by wbradley

No different. I didn't need to do my fronts as I purchased my coilovers pre-owned and the seller left the camber plates on when he sent me the units.

Nobody said take a vice grips to the shaft, that's stupid!

I had never installed suspension components but just from a bit of reading here over the years I figured I needed to hold the shaft with the Allen key while using something (yep., vice grips) to tighten down the top nut when assembling the top hat to the coilover.

Originally Posted by wbradley

With my coilovers (Ohlins) I used a vice grip and an Allen key.

Sorry, I was under the impression that you used vice grips on the shaft lol. My bad!

I'll see if I can borrow a buddy's GoPro and show a detailed video of how I break down the whole suspension assembly. I'm pretty pro at it now considering how many times I've done it haha.

But regardless of how it is supposed to be torqued down, let's assume I did it correctly. Are there any other reasons a brand new shock would go out so soon considering the other 3 corners are more worn and go through the same driving conditions as the blown front left corner?

I have knocked off these possibilities off the list:
- Misalignment (got it aligned a few days after installation)
- Overtorqued (alignment shop was the last one to touch my nuts (IYKWIM )
- Undertorqued (again, alignment shop)
- Loose top nut (pretty tight when I checked after it started making the clunking noise)

I am leaning towards it being a defective shock, I'm just not sure how common it is for a BC Racing shock (or any shock for that matter) to be defective, let alone show signs this soon. In the case that the shock is not defective, I would like to narrow down what could cause this to prevent this from happening again in the future.

Thoughts?

[Moooiiissst]

I just got off the phone with BC Racing and they pretty much described my exact situation in regards to what the warranty covers before I even told them what was wrong. It covers manufacturer defects if the item fails prematurely. I will just need to provide proof of leaking fluids and do a visual compression test somehow, so I'll send them over a few pictures and if needed be, I will surely make a breakdown video. But I am having high hopes for this to be covered under warranty