timmy26

Dealer indicated I needed to replace magnetic selective ride control shocks. I live in Virginia Beach, VA. Does anyone know a good repair shop in the area?

beboggled

Just replace them with regular shocks or coilovers and have the mag ride disabled. The mag shocks are very expensive to replace. Theres a write up around here somewhere

Blitzkrieg

F45 and F55 suspension is complete junk! Yes JUNK!

Tear it all out and replace with Coilovers, you will save money and your car will ride/handle 10x better!

DanSavage

I'm one of those weirdos that likes my F55 suspension.

Did your dealer say that all four shocks had to be replaced? If so, what was the reason?

I checked at GMPartsHouse.com and rear MSRC shocks are $634 ea. and front MSRC shocks are $813 ea.

FWIW, there's a reason why Ferrari and Audi licensed the technology from GM and I doubt it's because of inferior ride and handling.

El original

My GF and myself agree...the F55 magnetic ride is excellent. I understand they rarely fail as there are no moving parts only a seal issue or bent shaft fails. Something smells at your dealership!

C5Dobie

Do all '03's have the mag ride? How do you know if you have it. I have an 03 Z06

timmy26

The dealer stated all four were leaking. I never notice much difference between sport and tour ride. The car i own has had some major modification with the intake, exhaust and rear end. The car runs great and very fast (not good gas mileage - 23 mph highway). The ride is bumply and now when I hit a bump on the interstate the rear end seem to sway. I have ridden in several C5s with magnetic ride and in tour they were fairly smooth.

How can i check for leakage and how much trouble to install shocks and reset warning? I still would like to get a good shop in virginia beach, va to check it out before I attempt to change the shocks.

DanSavage

There should be a noticeable difference between Tour and Sport. There is on mine. Mine is very smooth in Tour and Sport, but Sport is stiffer.

If you're simply R&Ring the OEM MSRC shocks, and you have the right tools, (jack, rachet/sockets, etc.) the shocks should not be that difficult to replace. You should also be able to reset the warning in the DIC once you've replaced the shocks.

I found a site that shows how to R&R the shocks.

http://fuzzydiceracing.com/test.htm

If you're looking to replace the OEM MSRC shocks with conventional shocks, you'll need to follow the procedure in post #3 as 8VETTE7 suggests.

art43

If you can get under the car you can see leakage on the shock, kind of a greasy look. Just replaced two of mine. They cost about $600 apiece for the fronts and about 450 apiece for the rears. Got them at www.shopchevyparts.com

Vetteman Jack

Don't know how many miles you have on the car, but I would say it is very unusual for all four shocks to be leaking at once. Before I would spend nearly three grand on shocks, I would either install some good regular shocks and tune out the F55 option or install some coilovers as mentioned above.

Lee DeRaud

Also probably wouldn't hurt to get a second opinion from a non-dealer mechanic before you do anything expensive...

timmy26

Thanks everyone. I'm love the MSRC ride, looked for over a year to find Yellow O3 with MSRC. Vette was a daily driver for me. Love it that much. Due to work and snow, I'm having to wait to obtain a second opinion.

timmy26

Thanks! I tried Shopcheveyparts.com, but didn't find any F55s. Do you have a part number or name of someone to talk to?

1BADAZ50TH

I personally like my selective magnetic ride control and notice a big difference between touring and sport. Can you tune your coilovers from in the car? Worth the price imho.

T-TOP TOM

If you would install coilovers would the 80 MPH warning still come up?

c6miller

On the advice of my dealer I replaced my front shocks. They said one was leaking and time (10 years) more than milage may have been the cause but I replaced both.They matched a forum vendors price so the total was over $1700 installed. I'm suspicious that all 4 of yours could be leaking.

DWC4

This sounds like something I'd be comfortable doing myself, but I really don't want to purchase a $400 Tech II just for this. I've not tried the local dealers to see if they'd perform this service, I"m assuming no or very pricey.

Any suggestions, what kind of shops have Tech II other than a Chevy dealer? (in the Denver CO area, now)

Arodman

I heard the replacements of those shocks are appx 600.00 apiece plus installation

ScumOne

I just had my local Vette mechanic program out the F45/SRC option on my 99 C5 so I could put Bilstein Z51 spec shocks in instead. I love that old 99, but replacement shocks were $1800 (best price on all four I could find from multiple sources) plus shipping, $300 to install the shocks.

The Bilstein Sport Z51 spec shocks with installation, programming out the SRC ($100 for that), and checking for errors was $827.

Trying to figure out what I should spend the $1300 I saved on.

oldschoolvette

there is a reason the term STEALERSHIP was coined