Last time I was at the dealership, the mechanic stated that my F55 shocks were leaking and they needed to be replaced eventually.

I'm having trouble finding any place online that sells F55 shocks. Are those available outside the dealership network? How much am I looking at to replace all four?

 

I think they are probably a dealer item. They are also NOT under the service contracts. If your car is still under the 3 year warranty they may be covered under the original plan.

 

How many miles do you have on your C6? Is the dealership telling you all 4 are leaking!?

There have been very few reports on this forum about these shocks failing.

They are very expensive to replace new. Perhaps you can find some at a salvage yard for a reasonable price. I have 75,000 miles on mine, and know of another forum member with about 125,000 miles on his without any problems.

 

WOW!!

Yes - they're going to wear out eventually, after a few hundred thousand miles, but I haven't heard of any general problems with leaky F55 shocks. These things are designed to last hundreds of thousands of miles.

What your dealer is telling you sounds like something unscrupulous auto repair shops used to do to try to drum up additional business by getting customers to buy unnecessary parts and repairs.

If your shocks are leaking, your dealer should have been able to show you the evidence before trying to sell you $5,000 worth of repairs.

If you get them from the dealer and pay list price, you're looking at almost $4,000 just for four shocks!!!! I'm sure your dealer would probably be charging quite a bit for the labor.

If you get them from a forum vendor, you can save a lot of money.

I'm not sure of part#s, but a quick search of a couple forum vendor sites indicates that there is one part# for the front shocks (each one lists for $1,020.96, and discount prices are about $615 to $665 depending on vendor).

The rear seems to use a different shock on each side. There's some indication that the 2005-2007 have different part#s than the 2008-2010.

Left Rear lists for around $970 with a discount price of $580 to $630. Right Rear lists for around $860 with a discount price of $520 to $560.

So, even with a good forum discount, you're looking at around $2,400 just for the shocks.

Now, after all that discussion of prices, I call !!!!!!

I sure would get a second opinion, or just keep track of them yourself. If they're leaking you're going to notice it on your garage floor. They're more likely to leak when compressed by suspension dynamics, but if you crawl under the car you can easily check occasionally to see if fluid is dripping down the side of the shock.

I bet you won't find anything!!

I might be looking for another dealer - not just for a second opinion, but for a longer term relationship! If you have a very expensive problem, they need to take you out into the repair bay and show you what's going on.

Bob

 

If one truly is leaking, don't bother replacing any others. It's not like old school shocks that slowly die from the first day of use.

There's a post within the last 10 days, either here or on the general C6 forum, by a member who just replaced his F55 with coil-overs. PM him to possibly buy what you need.

BTW, just for reference, how many miles on your car?

 

If your F55 shocks have actually, really failed then you are the first to report it on the Forum.

As mentioned above, some have changed them out for a competition/track shock and spring setup but no one has ever reported a failure as far as I've seen/heard.

+2 for dealer BS.

 

Interesting. They did not really make it sound urgent, just mentioned it. The inspection sheet states: "Front + rear shocks leaking". Weird. If they are so unlikely to fail, what are the chances of two or more failing at the same time? I should get under the car and see what's going on.

This is an '06 with 45,000 miles (so, out of warranty).

$2,400 after forum discount? Ouch!

 

Wouldn't you get a fault code on the DIC if the shock(s) started leaking the Rheonetic fluid? Seems like the sensors would stop working properly!

 

For sure. I'd get under there and wipe them clean as a whistle. Then get under there again in a month or two and see for myself.

I might be able to accept ONE shock having a problem but "front and rear"?? I strongly suspect

Z//

 

A(nother) read through the service manual on this stuff appears to show no way that the system can tell if the basic shock tech is healthy - just whether the electronics (sensors and actuators) are operating within set parameters.

Z//

 

F55 shocks are rebuilt by Bilstein in San Diego

 

Watch out...an unscrupulous mechanic will squirt fluid on the shock to show you its leaking or actually puncture it. Maybe take a sample with...MR fluid is not like conventional hydraulic fluid or oil. Check it out here on page 5:

http://www.vehicledynamics-expo.com/...y_1/burson.pdf

If you suspect something's isn't right take you car to be checked somewhere else. I've got a set of MR dampers boxed-up in the garage but I'm not sure I want to sell them...sorry.

 

No they are not! These are not Bilstein's. They are made by Delphi.

 

I think he's correct.

http://www.nextautos.com/issue-14/te...ic-personality

San