What is the life of our shocks?

#1

Apparently RRT can dyno our shocks, but they’re pretty cheap shocks so maybe it’s not worth dynoing. So how many track days should we expect out of our shocks? I have probably 60 track days on mine.

#2

Great question. The answer probably depends on how often you, say, drive behind the tower at Roebling (or, in my case, launch the car through the Turn 5 gravel at Road Atlanta). Track days are easy on shocks. Off-track days are tough. :slight_smile:

Steve D.

#3

Ranger,

Thanks for Volunteering!:slight_smile:
We all know how much you love spending time and money testing stuff. For your next experiment and the greater good of Spec e30 send your shocks to RRT to have them Dynoed every season. Be sure to let us all know when they fail (# of Races to Failure).

#4

I don’t plan on changing mine till they are blown or I feel the suspension severly effected. I know in 2007 at Nationals the boys from Cali changed shocks, because they were nice enough to let me borrow an old one when I thought my front shock was blown (turned out the collar was unscrewed). They said they changed them each year! I raced my JS car on the same bilstein shocks for 5 years. I plan to run these ones at least as long in true Spec E30 spirit.

#5

I had an opportunity to talk with a tech at Bilstein. He was hesitant to give out a number but as a general rule, he said about 100K miles of street driving or about 10K miles of track usage would be the time to consider rebuilding the shocks.

So depending on how many weekends you are racing, that may be 2-4 years.

#6

Our shocks can easily be rebuilt. I sent the shocks off the right side of my car to Bilstein after the CMP accident last year. They replaced the seals in them and said they were fine sent them back to me…no charge.

#7

Gasman wrote:

My shocks lasted right up until I saw the little puddle of oil underneath the left one.

Steve, wish I’d known about the Bilstein service! :blink:

#8

Intersting that they rebuilt Steve’s for free. Steve, do you know of any rebuild price break for us?

Based on 10k mi., mine would be due for a rebuild. Here’s Bilstein’s link for rebuilding shocks. $65. Note that dynoing the shocks is part of the service.
http://www.bilstein.com/services.php?PHPSESSID=275d353b6a52807ade9b7b60afae3387

#9

Gasman wrote:

Steve -

You’re busting Moberg’s b@lls for buying take-off R888s but you put mismatched shocks on your car? :ohmy: :stuck_out_tongue:

Steve D.

#10

Well, I don’t know if I need new shox or not yet, but here is my problem I discover last race weekend, and I don’t think it’s normal.
When I lifted the car and put them on the supports I noticed the right wheel had a lot more travel off the ground and took me two-three more pumps on the hydraulic jack in order to lift the right rear, while the left rear didn’t have any travel off the ground.
I didn’t see any oil or anything out of the ordinary in the surrounding area or mounting points, so my “educated” guess is the shock is defective and needs to be rebuilt or get a new one. One guy accross from the paddock told it’s the “rebound” part of the shock not working as it should.
Any comments, diy fixes, or just send them to Bilstein or get a new pair?