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Hi all. Need somebody with more expertise than me. I have an 01 vert, 95k miles. Figured it was time to change shocks. Been poking around on the forum and bought the Z06 shocks from the dealer. The front shocks went on really good and went to put on the rear shocks and saw they were leaking. In all my years, I have never seen this before with a new shock. I took the shocks back to the dealer and got two more. Those were leaking as well. The parts guy called the GM Tech and was advised this is normal. He said they add some sort of lubricant or silicone to the top to help preserve the "shelf life" of the shock. Has anyone ever heard of this or should I just spend the money on Bilsteins? For reference, the part number for the rear shocks is 25819268
I am thinking it is more likely to be a protecting coating like cosmoline (sp) than hydraulic fluid which would be inside the shock itself. Is it all over the shock or just about mid ways down ?
im gonna wipe them off again let them sit over night and see if they are still dripping I always have these out of the ordinary problems.....thax for the reply
This is a VERY timely post. I just bought some C6Z Euro rear shocks for my car. Box came, I opened them up to take a look, and there's oil/fluid all around the body, just under the plastic boot. It doesn't seem as thin as typical hydraulic fluid, but I've never seen this on new shocks before, and was going to do some searching about it. My initial guess is that it has something to do with packaging and preserving for a longer shelf life. Since you had two sets like this and I have one, it's probably safe to assume it's normal.
Does cosmoline have a smell or color? I've seen OLD cosmoline under the hood of a 25 year-old BMW that turned crusty yellow, but is there some way to tell what it is when it's first applied?
We've been told by the GM engineers the same thing. There is a protective coating of oil and also they told us once the shocks are installed and compressed there are no issues. Out of all of the 100's of sets we've sold of these we've only ever had 1 bad shock after it was installed.