No more leaf springs!!!! C5Z06 want coilovers
01-19-2019, 01:13 AM
#81
Burning Brakes
I think it only clicks 10 times because your already starting at setting 1 or setting 11 but that is so strange that one shock only clicks 9 times. It seems like their QA guy got caught up in the shutdown. I begged Garret to please have the replacement shock inspected and tested before they sent it.
01-19-2019, 12:53 PM
#82
Le Mans Master
01-19-2019, 06:30 PM
#84
Those Aldan shocks are going to drive you to drink'n.......LOL.
Like somebody else mentioned before, you get what you pay for (quality control with the clicks). What I mentioned is you cannot test a shock by hand because nowhere in ANY shocks life will it expand "free air" like that. Again, the way the valve in the piston is designed matters as to how it will work. Because of the low cost of these shock assemblies, I'm guessing they use a very simple valving system that is speed sensitive based on the speed of the piston moving up and down. So it takes a minimum amount of movement in inches per second of piston travel to activate the valve orifices correctly and allow oil to either pass quickly or slowly from one side of the piston to the other. If you don't have enough piston speed movement then the valve orifices will not react correctly and you will get the results you're seeing now. Like I said in a previous post, the ONLY way you will know how these shocks perform from one to another is on a shock dyno. I'm just being honest here.
My very first car I bought with my own money (3 years of bussing tables after school, lol) was a used 1978 Trans Am with a throbbing 180 hp 403 Oldsmobile motor. But it was mine and I loved that car. The very first modification I did to the car was buy brand new Koni shocks to replace the original shocks with 45k on them. I spent a weeks paycheck to get those damn things and the first thing I did when I unboxed them was the compress and rebound test. Son of a bitch if these high end Koni's (high end to me at the time) didn't do the exact same thing those Aldans are doing. I would try to press two shocks at a time and one time one was faster then the other time the other was faster in extension. I spent an hour or two trying to manually compress and extend the shocks under force to see if I could get them to all react the same and they never did. The real kick in the ***** came when I tried the exact same test with the used factory shocks and they all extended at the same rate....exactly the same speed. To say that I was pissed and felt taken by Koni was an understatement. I talked to a mechanic friend that raced in the SCCA and he explained that you cannot move the shock fast enough by hand to get it to engage the valving correctly. Also, for the shocks to work correctly they have to be mounted vertically and cycled at speed to get the fluids and whatever gas was in there to separate correctly. Anyway, I put the Koni's on the car (at least they were a cool red color which should impress my friends) and off I went. In all honestly, I couldn't tell one bit of difference in ride comfort or handling. Good overall learning lesson for a 19 year old.
Good luck dealing with Aldan....hope they can make things right to your satisfaction.
Like somebody else mentioned before, you get what you pay for (quality control with the clicks). What I mentioned is you cannot test a shock by hand because nowhere in ANY shocks life will it expand "free air" like that. Again, the way the valve in the piston is designed matters as to how it will work. Because of the low cost of these shock assemblies, I'm guessing they use a very simple valving system that is speed sensitive based on the speed of the piston moving up and down. So it takes a minimum amount of movement in inches per second of piston travel to activate the valve orifices correctly and allow oil to either pass quickly or slowly from one side of the piston to the other. If you don't have enough piston speed movement then the valve orifices will not react correctly and you will get the results you're seeing now. Like I said in a previous post, the ONLY way you will know how these shocks perform from one to another is on a shock dyno. I'm just being honest here.
My very first car I bought with my own money (3 years of bussing tables after school, lol) was a used 1978 Trans Am with a throbbing 180 hp 403 Oldsmobile motor. But it was mine and I loved that car. The very first modification I did to the car was buy brand new Koni shocks to replace the original shocks with 45k on them. I spent a weeks paycheck to get those damn things and the first thing I did when I unboxed them was the compress and rebound test. Son of a bitch if these high end Koni's (high end to me at the time) didn't do the exact same thing those Aldans are doing. I would try to press two shocks at a time and one time one was faster then the other time the other was faster in extension. I spent an hour or two trying to manually compress and extend the shocks under force to see if I could get them to all react the same and they never did. The real kick in the ***** came when I tried the exact same test with the used factory shocks and they all extended at the same rate....exactly the same speed. To say that I was pissed and felt taken by Koni was an understatement. I talked to a mechanic friend that raced in the SCCA and he explained that you cannot move the shock fast enough by hand to get it to engage the valving correctly. Also, for the shocks to work correctly they have to be mounted vertically and cycled at speed to get the fluids and whatever gas was in there to separate correctly. Anyway, I put the Koni's on the car (at least they were a cool red color which should impress my friends) and off I went. In all honestly, I couldn't tell one bit of difference in ride comfort or handling. Good overall learning lesson for a 19 year old.
Good luck dealing with Aldan....hope they can make things right to your satisfaction.
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03Zcrit (01-19-2019)
01-20-2019, 09:58 AM
#85
Racer
Thread Starter
I think it only clicks 10 times because your already starting at setting 1 or setting 11 but that is so strange that one shock only clicks 9 times. It seems like their QA guy got caught up in the shutdown. I begged Garret to please have the replacement shock inspected and tested before they sent it.
This is such a pain.....
01-20-2019, 10:04 AM
#86
Racer
Thread Starter
Those Aldan shocks are going to drive you to drink'n.......LOL.
Like somebody else mentioned before, you get what you pay for (quality control with the clicks). What I mentioned is you cannot test a shock by hand because nowhere in ANY shocks life will it expand "free air" like that. Again, the way the valve in the piston is designed matters as to how it will work. Because of the low cost of these shock assemblies, I'm guessing they use a very simple valving system that is speed sensitive based on the speed of the piston moving up and down. So it takes a minimum amount of movement in inches per second of piston travel to activate the valve orifices correctly and allow oil to either pass quickly or slowly from one side of the piston to the other. If you don't have enough piston speed movement then the valve orifices will not react correctly and you will get the results you're seeing now. Like I said in a previous post, the ONLY way you will know how these shocks perform from one to another is on a shock dyno. I'm just being honest here.
My very first car I bought with my own money (3 years of bussing tables after school, lol) was a used 1978 Trans Am with a throbbing 180 hp 403 Oldsmobile motor. But it was mine and I loved that car. The very first modification I did to the car was buy brand new Koni shocks to replace the original shocks with 45k on them. I spent a weeks paycheck to get those damn things and the first thing I did when I unboxed them was the compress and rebound test. Son of a bitch if these high end Koni's (high end to me at the time) didn't do the exact same thing those Aldans are doing. I would try to press two shocks at a time and one time one was faster then the other time the other was faster in extension. I spent an hour or two trying to manually compress and extend the shocks under force to see if I could get them to all react the same and they never did. The real kick in the ***** came when I tried the exact same test with the used factory shocks and they all extended at the same rate....exactly the same speed. To say that I was pissed and felt taken by Koni was an understatement. I talked to a mechanic friend that raced in the SCCA and he explained that you cannot move the shock fast enough by hand to get it to engage the valving correctly. Also, for the shocks to work correctly they have to be mounted vertically and cycled at speed to get the fluids and whatever gas was in there to separate correctly. Anyway, I put the Koni's on the car (at least they were a cool red color which should impress my friends) and off I went. In all honestly, I couldn't tell one bit of difference in ride comfort or handling. Good overall learning lesson for a 19 year old.
Good luck dealing with Aldan....hope they can make things right to your satisfaction.
Like somebody else mentioned before, you get what you pay for (quality control with the clicks). What I mentioned is you cannot test a shock by hand because nowhere in ANY shocks life will it expand "free air" like that. Again, the way the valve in the piston is designed matters as to how it will work. Because of the low cost of these shock assemblies, I'm guessing they use a very simple valving system that is speed sensitive based on the speed of the piston moving up and down. So it takes a minimum amount of movement in inches per second of piston travel to activate the valve orifices correctly and allow oil to either pass quickly or slowly from one side of the piston to the other. If you don't have enough piston speed movement then the valve orifices will not react correctly and you will get the results you're seeing now. Like I said in a previous post, the ONLY way you will know how these shocks perform from one to another is on a shock dyno. I'm just being honest here.
My very first car I bought with my own money (3 years of bussing tables after school, lol) was a used 1978 Trans Am with a throbbing 180 hp 403 Oldsmobile motor. But it was mine and I loved that car. The very first modification I did to the car was buy brand new Koni shocks to replace the original shocks with 45k on them. I spent a weeks paycheck to get those damn things and the first thing I did when I unboxed them was the compress and rebound test. Son of a bitch if these high end Koni's (high end to me at the time) didn't do the exact same thing those Aldans are doing. I would try to press two shocks at a time and one time one was faster then the other time the other was faster in extension. I spent an hour or two trying to manually compress and extend the shocks under force to see if I could get them to all react the same and they never did. The real kick in the ***** came when I tried the exact same test with the used factory shocks and they all extended at the same rate....exactly the same speed. To say that I was pissed and felt taken by Koni was an understatement. I talked to a mechanic friend that raced in the SCCA and he explained that you cannot move the shock fast enough by hand to get it to engage the valving correctly. Also, for the shocks to work correctly they have to be mounted vertically and cycled at speed to get the fluids and whatever gas was in there to separate correctly. Anyway, I put the Koni's on the car (at least they were a cool red color which should impress my friends) and off I went. In all honestly, I couldn't tell one bit of difference in ride comfort or handling. Good overall learning lesson for a 19 year old.
Good luck dealing with Aldan....hope they can make things right to your satisfaction.
Not that it's a legitimate test, but I got the exact same extension on both shocks on the 7 click from soft setting. I decided to test them to see if I could "Unstick" the cam adjuster so I can get 10 clicks of adjustment. It was recommended that I'd drive it for a bit, as their thinking is that it's stuck.
I guess one bit of good news about all this is no more wheel hop and traction has improved on WOT with these new ones.
01-23-2019, 01:52 AM
#88
Racer
Thread Starter
I'm in the same boat brother. I have a similar thread following my trials with these shocks but it's in the C6 section as these are on my C6 ZO6
https://youtu.be/KXMjLttb9RI
https://youtu.be/KXMjLttb9RI
I'm supposed to get my new replacements tomorrow. This will be the third set. I'll update when I get them.
Man............
01-23-2019, 05:04 AM
#89
Burning Brakes
Were your fronts bad too? I couldn’t test them because the spring is still so long that when you wind the perch all the way down I could only hand compress about an inch. Not sure if you had a different way to test the fronts.
Last edited by 03Zcrit; 01-23-2019 at 05:07 AM.
01-23-2019, 07:41 AM
#90
Racer
Thread Starter
Since the spring is too long, we'd have to take off the bottom perch to do that. Or try it while they are on the car and perform a push test.
01-23-2019, 08:32 AM
#92
Racer
Thread Starter
Replacement shocks - less oscillation on softer settings
Not sure why this video isn't uploading. I will try again.
Last edited by SVT_Z06; 01-23-2019 at 08:40 AM.
01-23-2019, 08:36 AM
#93
Racer
Thread Starter
The difference between the two videos are:
-Replacement shocks on a softer setting
-Replacement shocks on a lower ride height
-Cleaner exhaust tips
I'm wondering if cleaning the exhaust has something to do with the less oscillation. Hmmmm....
-Replacement shocks on a softer setting
-Replacement shocks on a lower ride height
-Cleaner exhaust tips
I'm wondering if cleaning the exhaust has something to do with the less oscillation. Hmmmm....
01-23-2019, 08:57 AM
#94
Le Mans Master
01-23-2019, 09:42 AM
#95
Racer
Thread Starter
The fronts only have a compression adjustment.
Rears only rebound.
The reason for this is on their website I believe.
Last edited by SVT_Z06; 01-23-2019 at 09:43 AM.
01-23-2019, 10:03 AM
#96
Le Mans Master
Holy crap! That's a real problem. I looked all over their site (even prior to my last post) and couldn't find anything explaining why. But the only plausible explanation is that these shocks are still targeted to drag racers. That would make complete sense for that use (see 90/10 drag shocks as an example). But it's FUBAR for any other purpose. Quality concerns aside, for street or any kind of competition involving cornering, these things should be avoided like the plague.
01-23-2019, 04:45 PM
#99
Burning Brakes
Holy crap! That's a real problem. I looked all over their site (even prior to my last post) and couldn't find anything explaining why. But the only plausible explanation is that these shocks are still targeted to drag racers. That would make complete sense for that use (see 90/10 drag shocks as an example). But it's FUBAR for any other purpose. Quality concerns aside, for street or any kind of competition involving cornering, these things should be avoided like the plague.