95jersey

Not sure if any of you get over to the C6Z forum, but I saw this and couldn't beleive it

http://forums.corvetteforum.com/show....php?t=2034637

Now the guy hit something like a 6x6 or bigger piece of timber with his front wheel, but it is still crazy. I personally would have thought something else would have broken before the actual shock mount. I see many of the vendors are already posting their reasoning that it was not due to coil-overs...what do you guys think?

Lancer033

the Exterminator dude has issues. Wonder if he has any real qualifications

AU N EGL

a 4x4 or 6 x 6 piece of road clagg and he did not see it? Hmmmmmmmm

BrianCunningham

95jersey

I agree, but that is not the point, regadless of the driver or the 6x6 log, that is a pretty bad failure. I really would have thought the A-arm would break first or the log would just get caught under the car, not sure how it broke the frame. I mean you should be able to drop that car from a couple feet and not break the frame...suspension yes, frame no.

Aardwolf

There's no telling what really happened, maybe it got jammed in a way that lever action transferred way more force then just hitting it. Odd to me someone would take pictures of the wood but not remove it. I haven't read the whole thread though.

gkmccready

Is the upper C6Z mount not just welded/bonded like the C5/C6 mount? Seems like it would take a lot of force to break a piece of gusseted aluminum that thick... I guess it's all about spreading the load.

C5/C6 Mount:

C6Z Mount:

Adam Boca

Here is the story.....

I was leading a road tour and JustJ was on the tour with me this past weekend...

Off to the side of the road is this 4X4 piece of wood, all of us missed it, and JustJ could not swerve due to oncoming traffic and could not slam on his brakes due to vehicles behind him.

Adam

95jersey

I don't think we questioning the driver or how he could not aviod the 4x4, but out of all the damage that could occur, a shock tower failure is most concerning, especially since the car had coil-overs. We have been dabating the potential for this failure for YEARS on this forum and have never heard of a single documented case...until NOW. And interestingly on a aluminum frame Z06.

gonzalezfj

It is not surprising to me to see this failure. GM designed the shock tower to take the shock absorber loads, not the entire weight of the car PLUS the shock load. When you subject a part to loads it was not designed for, you can expect failures sooner o later.

The coilover vendors will all say it was freak accident, becuse if they say otherwise people will stop buying coilovers.

Is it clearer now??

Frank Gonzalez

John Shiels

I have VBP springs I would not worry about the mounts and coil-overs. Didn't read the thread yet but it might be like saying your bumper fail because you hit a pole.

undertaker

trackboss

Unless a damper has little to no compression resistance the dampers transfer similar load to the mount whether using coil overs or not. When bottoming out they tranfer all loads to the mount regardless of spring.

John Shiels

Frank I have an 8x8 I think we need to test your theory and car!

Diesel68

I used VBP springs when I had a C4 because I feared this kind of shock tower failure. They worked really well and I had no regret. Even with the great coilover packages available, I will be going back to VBP when I upgrade the Z06. I'm a fan of keeping things as close to OEM to maintain reliability. I haven't had any major failures with any of my cars over the years because of that philosophy.

OCCOMSRAZOR

I read through the entire thread. Although I agree that there were some valid concerns brought up by a number of posters, what bothers me is the underlying ad hominem attack on sellers and manufacturers of coil-overs.

The assumption that any commentary by coil-over vendors should be somehow "suspect" or disengenuous is reprehensible. Specifically, the thinly veiled assault on the integrity of forum venders that some of us know personally is particularly offensive.

In today's litigious society, there is absolutely no benefit to build or sell a product that will harm the purchaser. Therefore, arbitrarily accusing coil-over vendors of not perfroming due diligence, or ignoring design flaws with a product because of profit motive is a logical fallacy of geologic porportion.

Those types of comments significantly harm the credibility of the accuser and do nothing to further the conversation.

One failure of a shock mount is not even worthy of anecdotal status, nor does it constitute a "trend." All it does it point out a problem that will potentially occur when driving over an 8x8 at speed.

However, a scientific analysis of the accident that would actually determine the loading that occured to that mount, combined with some sort of destructive testing of the strength of a stock aluminum mount would actually provide useful information. Adding a study on actual loads experienced by a shock mount on the track or on roads would also help determine whether the stock mounts are up to the task.

Anything less than that is just a bunch of people blowing smoke out of their a**.

But that's just me.

mgarfias

Amen brother.

Oyishdog

wow, that was a huge hit regardless of what suspension was/is on that car. I bet if I hit that with my tahoe, it would have broken too.

0Randy@DRM

You sir,
Have a very good post. For the past 20 years we have been under attack on the coilovers. It's just crazy, and I take it pretty personal. They all say because of the money. Well the couple hundred bucks per set of coilovers would never be worth a crash. You guys are not only just customers with credit cards. Some of you, I talk to more then my wife. I spend time with customers after hours, at their homes or my home. We want to work on the son's car in the future. Crap the shop was in mouring over the shop cat when she died. We aren't like the what the movie the "corparation" said about all the big business. We have a huge responiblity and work hard to make sure everything that leaves our shop is strong and well thought out. Sure we have a few problems here and there. But I think all companies have that.

Randy

burners

+1 on what Randy and OCCOMSRAZOR said. I, for one, would be interested in seeing more photos so we can better determine the damage and come to a more informed conclusion as to the cause of the failure.