2000 Frontier (Supercharged) Build and Adventures - Babe the Blue Ox

[ExpoMike]

That is very weird for a shock to break. Typically that is due to reaching the mechanical limits of the shock (topping or bottoming out). I have run Bilstein's in 17 different vehicles and have never broken one, nor have I broken a shock in any of the 59 vehicles I have owned.

 

[paulforeman]

I know the pain of broken Bilsteins 5100s, I broke my rear Tacoma Rear shocks a couple times, right at the end of the shaft to the eyelet. I ended up just rewelding with my TIG one and its been holding better that the factory welds.

I have a mig setup and would 100% weld them if 4WP ever doesn't honor my warranty for some reason. I'd like to keep returning them so that hopefully Bilstein sees enough of them come back that they fix the mfg. process for future users!

I needed almost 70K miles to bust my OME struts, the springs are still fine-- might give them a try, I'm happily on my second set.

I may do that in the future. The front rides ok with 4600s, but the rear could use something better and OME may be a good option. We'll see what I end up with. Thanks for reminding me about OME!

 

[paulforeman]

That is very weird for a shock to break. Typically that is due to reaching the mechanical limits of the shock (topping or bottoming out). I have run Bilstein's in 17 different vehicles and have never broken one, nor have I broken a shock in any of the 59 vehicles I have owned.

I've never broken shocks on anything except this truck. I have triple-checked the limits and I am not bottoming them out; the axle hits the bump-stops before hitting the bottom of the shocks. They do "top out" if I am flexing hard enough to lift a wheel, but that is also the case in my 4runner and I've never had a problem there.


The shocks are a "universal fit" part number so rather than weld the eyelets on, they are threaded onto the shock piston shaft. I've never seen this on any other "specific application" shocks. The shocks don't actually "break," rather, the shaft unthreads from the eyelet over time and vibration. It seems like a manufacturing issue. I've been able to reassemble them on occasion and put Loctite on the threads, but this doesn't seem like something I should have to do.