The van has been clonking the last coupleof days dear...

Denise has been using the van as her daily since her bug failed the MoT and the little bit of welding required to sort it has turned into a body of marathon. This morning as we piled a fridge and freezer in the back of it to take to our son's place she said "can you have a listen whilst we go over there as the van has been clonking the last couple of days".

Sure enough, hit a bump, clonk clonk.

The van was driving as it always has done other than this noise, so got changed when I got home to have a look under it, bearing in mind it was dry this morning and raining rather hard this afternoon which is when I had time to look! Typical!!

Initialy the speedo cable looked like a likely suspect as it was banging on the steering damper, but it wasn't loud enough or clonky enough. Everything else looked ok. Went around all the shocks, not expecting to find anything as they were new less than 6 months ago, only to find the front NS one has broke! Looks the rubber bush on the lower mount has seperated from the shock and the shock is now not attached properly, it's moved inwards leaving the rubber behind.

I think I'll phone VWH tomorrow and ask them how long they expect a shock to last, don't know if they will change it but I expect them to last a tad longer than this

 

Pretty sure they were boge units on the front and I fitted a pair of gas units on the rear end

 

Just don't let them persuade you it's somehow your fault for fitting them wrong...

 

I'll see wha they say.

Is it possible to fit them wrong

 

Headlamp rims 3 weeks .legal stuff stops me from saying more .

 

This happens often with dampers on the front most people fit a large washer to stop the damper moving away from the rubber

It shouldent happen though

 

Spoke to them today and they want pictures of the shocks in situ on the van before they will refund. In the meantime I have had to fork out for replacements.

Apparently they have never heard of front shocks doing this before.

I'll keep you posted

 

Not sure if this is helpful, but your post reminded me of a problem I had with my shocks. I paid a lot of money for adjustable Spax shocks of the correct length. A mate was round and offered to fit them as he's in that type of business. All fitted well length wise etc, until he pointed out that the lower eyelet was a lot narrower than the originals. We tightened the lower nut down fully and looked at the shock and you could see it was pulled to one side and was being strained.

We swapped them back to the originals and I rang the supplier the next day. They were helpful and said they had never ever had anyone report this problem to them and had sold 1000's of pairs and had these specially made for them by Spax. I said I didn't doubt their sales figures but they didn't look right and for £180 the pair, they should fit! The guy was very reasonable and told me they had a late bay suspension mock up in the workshop and he would personally get a new shock fresh out the box and try for himself.

He called me back the next day and said do not fit the shock without a 10mm spacer on the bottom stud!


This problem may not relate to your make of shock but it's worth checking that the eyelet is the correct width , mine now has 3 thick washers between the eyelet and mount.

 

In response to Silver's post, there is no space between the metal tube that fits over the stud and runs through the bush and either side of its mount. No movement there.

NS lower mount



OS lower mount



As you can see in the pictures the NS rubber was completely seperate from the shock and the OS was well on the way to doing the same.

I've emailed the pictures to VWH so will await a response.

And the shocks were Sach not boge

 

I have tried to do what your shocks have done by themselves. I was going to knock the middle out of my old ones and use the inner metal tube to make spacers for my new shocks. I never did manage to smash them out, hence the washers. ???


The next question you will be asked is:

Spoiler

Is you bus lowered or modified sir

 

If you tighten the bottom fixing while up in the air, it'll be permanently twisted when on wheels due to change in angle of suspension arms. Haynes details this. Best to leave lower loose until it's back on the floor. This might be your problem, but they still shouldn't fall apart IMO.

 

Just a quick update on this.

Fitted a replacement pair of the same brand shocks, as I said earlier, only to find when I checked on them at the weekend that the N/S shock lower mount is starting to seperate again

I've spoken to VWH regarding this only to have them insist the fault must be with my van as they've 'sold hundreds of these and never had a problem before'. They have agreed to refund on them though...

In the meantime I've ordered a replacement pair of a different brand from Megabug to fit at the weekend and have arranged for the Terry's at Volksfarmers to double check that there is, as I'm sure, nothing else wrong with the van.

Just a tad miffed that I have to do the job yet again

 

Could you slip a very large washer on your lower mount before you put the shock on. This should stop it sliding off it's own rubber mounting.