coil over issues.??

[meet07]

i bought some used tanabe pro-series coilovers. ive never seen them before but there a two piece coilover setup with the adjustable pillow mounts up front. u can also adjust the softness and hardness of the front coilovers. well i just installed these on my 89 240 with a rb25. i drove with them on for like 2 days with no problems. they road pretty good for coilovers. well yesterday they started to bottom out. i didnt see any fluid around the sleeves. i mean i drove with them for a day or 2, pulled the motor and put it back in. maybe the cold got to it or maybe they cant take the weight. i bought them with 9000k from a used vehicle. any input from the experienced??

[94_240sx]

Buying used coilovers is not a good idea. It looks like there's a small leak. I would send them to Tanabe and rebuild. Sorry to hear this.

[meet07]

as soon as I get a chance this week im going to seperate the coils from the shock. I talked to Tanabe and it may possible be that the motor is just to heavy for the coils spring rate. but the passenger side seems to have more bounce.

This is the passenger side. I sprayed it down with penetrate. But the muddy substance is what came from the piston after compressing the shock with a jack:



Driver side. The sleeve looks a lil cleaner:



other shots:

[meet07]

well i seperated the coils from the sho ck. if i compress the front shocks the come back up themselves. thats a good sign that the shocks are doing there job rite??

[adrianfromthecastle]

well i seperated the coils from the sho ck. if i compress the front shocks the come back up themselves. thats a good sign that the shocks are doing there job rite??

not necessarily. Springs bring the shock back up. What's more important than the piston coming back up is the resistance or stiffness is has. Are they hard to press in and pull out? If so, then they might still be in good condition.

[meet07]

it took two hands to press the shocks in. i noticed that the passenger side seem to have a brown substance on it when i pressed it in. it also made a hissing noise when pressing in. that one maybe starting to go out. when i adjusted it to hard it stayed compressed unless i turned the dial to soft. she popped back up then. im assuming the oil in the shock is suppose to be clear rite??

[tramp_drift240]

took two hands to compress the shock?

im guessing two hands weigh like...a total of 4 or 5 pounds TOPS, so i think theyre incredibly busted. theres no way they'll dampen anything with the weight of a whole car on top of 'em.

[crackler]

FWIW, You can't tell if a Koni shock is blown by compressing it by hand, due to the fact that you can't generate enough speed / force to actually cause the internals to "work" like they do under real world conditions. I imagine this would be true for most shocks.

BUT. . if you are spraying shock oil out all over your springs, and you can hear a hissing sound, I am sure they are fine.

I have some Koni's in my garage that I compressed in all the way about a year ago, they still haven't came back out. I'm sure they're fine.