Warranty Shocks?

[VX4EJR]

Drive over a speed bump and you'll know for sure if your shocks are blown.
You'll pitch fore and aft like a boat on rough water.

Thanks for the info! Thing is, I feel like the/my VX does this anyway because it is so rigid as many have posted with the stock suspension. In other words, you go over a speed bump and almost feel like you'd get whip-lash because of the stiffness. It's hard to tell if a shock is doing it's job or not, but I guess if the fronts were bad you'd have a low rider....??

I'll double check the swaybar and see, but last I looked around the front left wheel well and underside...nothing looked broken, out of place or worn.

[mbeach]

Thing is, I feel like the/my VX does this anyway because it is so rigid as many have posted with the stock suspension. In other words, you go over a speed bump and almost feel like you'd get whip-lash because of the stiffness.

A vehicle on toasted shocks will continue to pitch after crossing the bump -it's pretty obvious if you see it occur. Just hang out in a parking lot and watch the different vehicles go over the bumps -the new ones (good shocks, hopefully) will eat up the impact and translate little motion to the driver. The beater cars (unmaintained, likely bad shocks) will flop about like fish out of water. In any case, this fore-aft pitching is not normal, even for a 'stiff' vehicle.

It's hard to tell if a shock is doing it's job or not, but I guess if the fronts were bad you'd have a low rider....??

The shock absorbers do not suspend the weight of the vehicle. They only serve to control the motion of the spring. Your ride height will remain unchanged as the shocks wear out.

I'll double check the swaybar and see, but last I looked around the front left wheel well and underside...nothing looked broken, out of place or worn.

Mine was pretty far gone when I finally got to it -and it took over 2 months just to track down. The best method I found was to crawl underneath the truck, and have my wife bounce up and down in/on it. That's the only way I was able to find the source of my noise. Once this $26.00 part was replaced, ALL of my weird noises were gone. It was amazing.

[psychos2]

i found out mine were bad when hitting a bump going around a corner . the front end would hop over and the wheel would shake back and forth. i took it in and they told me the shocks were ok. i took the service manager for a ride in the parking lot to prove him wrong. if you go to a parking lot and get the vx going in drive and hit the brakes and the front does a big nose dive the shocks are bad. also when you do this the front of the vehicle will continue to go up and down a few times before it will stop moving. that is what the shocks are supposed to control. right now i have the rancho 9000's and one of the fronts is bad so when i stop fast i get one side that does a nose dive. i made sure to bring up the fact of how unsafe it was to drive. shawn

[VX4EJR]

Ok, here is a picture of my front left shock. There is some kind of stain or fluid at the top where I circled. It doesn't seem like water and it hasn't rained here, it's just at the top too...doesn't go below that and there is no drips down further or puddling to the ground.

Would this be a leak??

[mbeach]

That sir, is a leak.
Not in a typical location either. Most (I assume) of our leaks have been from the bottom of the shock (inside the boot, where the shaft enters the shock body).

[Heraclid]

Well, I took the plunge and have the Rancho RS9000X shocks on the way, finally. I'm somewhat depressed today because there's a rallycross going on at Joe's and I'm not there. But I said I wouldn't run rallycross at Ft. Meade again until I had new shocks and I'm sticking to it. It's killing me though!!! Thought I would have them on by now but things just didn't work out that way. Lately, there are some places I go through several times a day where my VX is taking the bumps pretty hard and never used to. Do not want to bang the truck apart, and I think the rears are hurtin' pretty bad at this point so definitely not too soon for the change.

[mbeach]

I have the RS9000Xs on the Ironman and I have been pretty happy with them. For the money, they work exceptionally well. My next set might be the Bilsteins, only to say that I've tried them.
I've also been looking hard at the Fox 2.0 shocks.

Whetever I choose for the I-man, I'd still like to have the stock units on the wifes VX.
Now I'm dealing with another shirt at Isuzu -someone named "Marie"

Here's the rundown/runaround as of today,
Isuzu: We'll cover the shocks if the dealer says that they need replaced.
Dealer: We'll replace the shocks, if Isuzu says they'll pay for them.

..and now we've come full circle...

[mbeach]

Red Tape, Fear, and Incompetance

Since Isuzu is on the way out of the market, I no longer have a regional service rep. I have some tool named "Clode" and a local service manager who's scared of getting stuck with a bill for 4 new shocks.

The dealership's ONLY way of testing the shocks is the manual bumper bounce test -which I pointed out is neither quantifiable nor repeatable to any degree of precision. The shocks pass this 'test', and I'm stuck with them. He mentions a fear that he will replace the shocks, then Isuzu's engineers will deem them alright after conducting some mystery 'test' on them. This same person had also never heard of a shock dyno. Unacceptable.

Regional Warranty Guy, Clode, claims that the engineers who will actually do the testing to verify whether or not the shocks can be replaced under warranty are "unreachable by telephone" -WTH?
I just want to know what test they are going to perform, I'm sure that they are not going to bolt them up to a 01 VehiCross and jump up and down on the bumper.

This is just one more reason to debadge. I'm even wetsanding the 'Isuzu' off of the mirrors now.

[Spike]

Thanks for the info! Thing is, I feel like the/my VX does this anyway because it is so rigid as many have posted with the stock suspension. In other words, you go over a speed bump and almost feel like you'd get whip-lash because of the stiffness. It's hard to tell if a shock is doing it's job or not, but I guess if the fronts were bad you'd have a low rider....??

I'll double check the swaybar and see, but last I looked around the front left wheel well and underside...nothing looked broken, out of place or worn.

Hey man, been a long time!

I have that click in front driver side once in a while too. I also notice if i run over a manhole cover or some similar unevenness.. the front driver side 'chatters' slightly... this has been going on for a few months (winter)

I had it over at Murphy... they coundnt find anything wrong with the suspension or shocks... but did do an alignment and spin balance (at my request)... it seems to be a LOT better... but not 'perfect' Murphy has me irritated. Now that I am out of factory warranty, they almost dont want to work on it, even though I have a bumper to bumper aftermarket warranty and would get paid something for their 'hassle'

[Raque Thomas]

Thanks for the info! Thing is, I feel like the/my VX does this anyway because it is so rigid as many have posted with the stock suspension. In other words, you go over a speed bump and almost feel like you'd get whip-lash because of the stiffness. It's hard to tell if a shock is doing it's job or not, but I guess if the fronts were bad you'd have a low rider....??

"It is so rigid" - if that is the case, your stock shocks are working as designed. The VX is designed to have a rough ride - some of us like that, others are looking for different shocks to soften the ride. If your VX starts wallowing and riding soft with a lot of soft bounce - that will tell you that it is time to replace the shocks. The standard ride is going to be VERY tight, hard on bumps with a quick rebound. If you don't like that kind of ride, there are other shocks available and a couple of SUV's from Cadillac that ride a little softer. The VX was designed to be a "sport" SUV with a tight suspension.

[SGT.BATGUANO]

Remove the questionable shock(s) and check compression & rebound by hand