My Kia sedona daily driver, I refreshed the rear suspension last year with KYB excel G shocks and new springs, sway links and bushings.
Much to my dismay after a recent short move where I loaded the van up to the rated payload capacity, and drove about 10 blocks down the road, both shocks blew. I made sure before I started off that the rear still had travel left, and it had about 2". I did not hit any massive bumps.
I'm trying to understand the reason why? I don't see why at any point through its travel, the piston would contact something inside the shock body that would cause the seals to fail. Even when on the bumpstops, it shouldn't be able to actually damage the shock unless they were improperly designed? The bumpstop on the van located on the subframe and contacts the control arm inside the spring mount, I'm not sure if there is one on the shock shaft as it's enclosed with the metal protective sleeve.
And also, it's a simple eyelet shock. Should I replace them with the same or look for a HD truck shock that has similar length and stroke?
One year? Possible warranty?
John Welsh said:
One year? Possible warranty?
$40 each from rock auto, so not really worth my time to remove and box them up, wait for who knows how long for replacements to show, and replace.
Bottom dollar aftermarket shocks not designed to the same standards as OE? Surprising. You might even say...shocking.
but these are claimed OE replacement *slaps box*
seriously though, I thought they were the not great but still acceptable end of shock you could still install on a vehicle that's not a sensen.
what about these?
https://www.rockauto.com/en/moreinfo.php?pk=3521649&cc=1444125&pt=7556&jsn=824&jsn=824
Because KYB. Had two sets in a row go bad on the back of my car. Finally got some Bilsteins.
You should put stops on the shocks and not count on the bump stops being designed to prevent shock damage. Bump stops are there to prevent you from having metal to metal contact where the stop is or to prevent a tire from hitting something and blowing out. As far as I know they are not there with the intent of protecting shocks. This is a problem I have seen many times in 944s that are lowered resulting in the pistons of Koni yellows crashing in to the bottom of the housing. Koni sells stops for there struts and shocks for just this reason.
GTwannaB said:
Because KYB. Had two sets in a row go bad on the back of my car. Finally got some Bilsteins.
is there a big listing of all bilstein shock lengths/strokes? They don't make anything specifically for my van.
The Sachs shocks should be fine as OEM substitutes, but then I thought the same of KYBs...
The shocks were on the vehicle for a year without ever being compressed near the limit, and a years worth of crud was stuck to the shafts. now we start using them only is the dirty zone for a few minutes. Innadequit seals fail.
KYB, when not OEM, is not good. OEM KYB may not be that great either. Bilstein is scarcely an upgrade, even though they might not leak. I have had multiple sets of both over the years, so I'm not just blowing repetitive gas here. It only took me about 20 years to learn . . .
TurnerX19 said:
The shocks were on the vehicle for a year without ever being compressed near the limit, and a years worth of crud was stuck to the shafts. now we start using them only is the dirty zone for a few minutes. Innadequit seals fail.
I dunno about that, I regularly load my van up with cargo and it definately smacks the bumpstops once in awhile. Definately not a year.
In reply to rustomatic :
What is it that you learned? Only two negatives I read about on Bilstines is the price point, and some think they ride too rough.
Do you have more info. for us?
In reply to twowheeled :
I don't know. They were only available for the rear in my Legacy, not the same coverage in models as KYB I suspect
