SHOCK ABSORBER PROBLEM

dommisalami

dommisalami

Well-Known Member
9
10
Hayward, CA
Vehicle Model
Civic SI
Body Style
Coupe
Greeting everyone!


I purchased a pair of Truhart sport shocks, unboxed them, removed the locks on them that prevent the piston from stretching all the way up, and I ran into a problem:

I wanted to test each shock by pushing down each of their pistons all the way down and then removing the pressure so that the piston can stretch all the way back up. The rear shocks were good; requiring equal pressure on both pistons and they went back at the same speed.

The problem was the front shocks/struts. Well the left one. I pushed both pistons down: the right shock was really hard to push all the way down but as soon as I let go, it sprung back up fairly quickly (just like the rear ones). However, the left shock was sort of easy to push all the way down and as soon as I let go, it started to go up and about ~1inch later, it came to a stop then proceeded to go up super slow. Eventually it did stretch all the way out. I repeated this process one more time and got the same results. Is this normal? Thank you for taking the time to read! =)
 
@jrotax101 or @Nix may know. I've never tried compressing one like that. I'd imagine it'd be a different story when there is a load on it from the car/springs.
 
I would think they'd be matched to work the same for each other at least.
Is there any rebound adjustment?
 
@webby - I was thinking the same thing.


@Monk - No rebound adjustment. They're very similar to the Koni STR.T. I found out from reading Chris Redshifft's review of them.
 
Current suspension, mostly bought from Chris Redshift's. Truhart sport shocks, Tein S-tech's, SPC front camber bolts, and fkxracing rear camber kit. Such a bargain!
WP_20150122_001.jpg
 
I was going to get the Swift Spec-R springs but decided to go with the Teins [slightly stiffer in the rear but still progressive =( ]. Hopefully I don't regret it!
 
It's kind of a crude way of testing them. Only a shock dyno can accurately show how it's behaving. They are new, yes? Contact the vendor you purchased them from..
 
I contacted Chris and he actually gave me the green light to go! Woo!

From Chris:
"Sounds like the right one has more gas pressure in it and potentially have slightly different seal friction characteristics (which is quite common when new). Fact is the gas pressure inside only need to be about 30 psi but maybe one is a bit higher? It's also common for Konis to be like this....for one shock to extend and one not to extend.


What funny is that Race shocks often have no gas pressure in them. The pressure is to keep the oil inside from cavitating because that can degrade the performance of the shock over long runs (like trips in a car).


So, the bottom line is that I don't think it's a big deal. I can swap them out if you are not comfortable with them, but I honestly don't think that's necessary. My guess is that if you put them on a shock dyno, they would be quite close through their range.... as close as Konis are anyway (which is to say sometimes not exactly the same)."
 
Be interested to hear how that setup rides after it's installed, was looking at the same setup yesterday.
 
I don't think you have much to worry about. The strut just controls the spring so the "extension" part of the travel will be handled by the spring pushing back up after being compressed. As long as it moves fully and doesn't get locked into a stuck down position I think it will perform just fine. Pretty inexpensive for performance struts so you might be seeing a little bit of the price reflected in the QC difference. Sounds like they are pretty darn good though.


Nice setup by the way. Definitely let us know how they are once you get everything on the car. I know Chris had a very positive review of the Truharts and I was actually shocked, ugh pun, seeing as how inexpensive they are.
 
What ever came of this issue? I have a set of Truhart fronts (bought from Chris as well) and Koni Yellow rears that I've been sitting on for about 6 months. I Just recently went to do the install this past weekend and noticed the same exact issue when I went to take the wire rod holding the shock compressed. The one labeled FR was extremely stiff and rebounded very quickly in comparison to the one labeled FL. I find it odd that we experienced the exact same issue unless the shocks were designed this way.

I'm holding off on installing them until I get some feed back from you or Chris. Did you notice any issues or did everything come out ok?

@dommisalami
 
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