coilover wear
 

Quick question for people with coilovers - how good are they wrt wear? I am considering buying a used set, so I'm trying to figure out:

- how many miles would be too much? (alternatively, how many miles on yours and any problems?) 1k? 10k? 100k?
- how to check if they're still "good"?

Thanks,
-Dmitri

bump. i'm sure someone has coilovers on this board :lol:

if all you can say is "i have x miles on mine and no issues", please do ;)

I have about 20K on my Tein Flex and they're still fine. That's also on downtown Chicago roads which are not really in the best condition and hundreds of track miles. I'm kind of curious to see how long they last given the torture they endure every day.

cool, that's reassuring.. keep em coming guys

well my OEMs are 55000 miles into some pretty hard use and still fine . Aftermarket coilovers should theoretically last easily as long .....

My first post :)

I think buying used coilovers is not the best thing to do becuase you never know how they were abused / used etc. Unless of course maybe you are buying them from a friend and a trustworthy source.

Another thing to consider is the type of coilover. Is this a twin tube or a monotube?

A monotube will at some point fail becuase of the higher gas pressure, which in turn puts more pressure on the seals, which are typically the first thing to go. To help know if this is the case, take the spring off of the coilover, wipe the piston rod shaft clean and then compress the shock. When it returns to normal positioning, see if there is any oil on the piston rock, if so, not a good sign.

A twin tube has low gas pressure and there fore will not have the potential problem of blowing seals like mentioned above. The ride characteristics of the twin tube will be more comfortable and life of the shock should have better durability. In comparison, a monotube will be a more stiff harsher ride.

When a coilover manufactuer makes coilovers they ideally have to reach the same standards or exceed that of the OEM parts. So the life of a coilover is either equal to the life of the OEM parts or somewhat better. But at some time all parts will digress in performance that could be 60K later though. And if you paid $1500 for a set of coilovers that lasted 60K, you got a very good deal.

I would suggest to save your money and buy new. Hope this helps.

Justin

good info, justin

Justin, that's a hell of a first post. WELCOME!

Thanks, Justin, nice post! I am looking at Tein Flex (I want EDFC, and feedback for street applications is good) which are not monotube.. If you can get around 60k miles out of a set of coilovers (that haven't been abused), then buying a used set with 5-10k miles could be a good value, since you're likely paying half of retail price but have something like 80% life left in them..

Disassembling them wouldn't really be an option when buying used, but I guess checking for fluid leaks is a good start? That or tossing them on a pogo stick :lol:

60K miles was sort of an example, I'm not sure that is all acurate in the amount of life it would last. I'm just saying if you were to get 60K that would be worth every penny wouldn't it?
Coilovers are made to equal or best the OEM standards of the suspension. I think that OEM suspension would last around 25 to 30K before you would change out shocks and that would be with no lowering springs. If you were to install lowering springs, the life of the shocks would be much shorter because of the shorter stroke and with time the bottoming out of the shock, therefore needing replacement.

Of course this is just my opinion. Perhaps the life of the OEM shocks is much longer than I perceive them to be.

J.