[EMT760]

Took the tire off this morning to more thoroughly inspect and confirmed that all parts are intact, the only thing to take a major dump was the shock taking an ABS sensor along for the ride.

View attachment 133400 View attachment 133401

You can tell that looks like fatigue, you can see the hole/ cap end? where the shaft goes has completely failed and pealed back. Woah.

Seems like Cobra guys had a failure or blown seals at low miles also. This sounds more like a Adlan American issue vs PRG Greg.

Aldan Coilover/Shocks - Club Cobra

I now have about 4000 miles on my car and my right rear Aldan Eagle has blown it fluid out. I have not had any track time on car yet only street miles.

www.clubcobra.com

 

[mikidymac]

I am not sure how these are setup but it sure looks like the threaded collar is up really high on the shock body.
Also what limits the down travel on your setup? The shocks should not be your down travel limiter as it will eventually pull the piston out of the body like the way yours failed. This is why people run limiting straps. I don't know how your setup works but these might be a couple things to look at.

 

[ccg1018]

I am not sure how these are setup but it sure looks like the threaded collar is up really high on the shock body.
Also what limits the down travel on your setup? The shocks should not be your down travel limiter as it will eventually pull the piston out of the body like the way yours failed. This is why people run limiting straps. I don't know how your setup works but these might be a couple things to look at.

RE: preload, I believe it is about a quarter of an inch above how they shipped from what I recall. It was adjusted after conversations with Greg.

RE down travel limitation: Sway bar is still intact, but no bump stops or the like. Greg didn’t even make mention of these on any phone conversation we had. I don’t think I’ve ever had a tire off the ground with this set up.

Truck was at 95,000 miles at time of install and 101,000 now. That make it 6,000 miles with maybe 100 of that being on anything you would consider “off road”.

 

[EMT760]

I am not sure how these are setup but it sure looks like the threaded collar is up really high on the shock body.
Also what limits the down travel on your setup? The shocks should not be your down travel limiter as it will eventually pull the piston out of the body like the way yours failed. This is why people run limiting straps. I don't know how your setup works but these might be a couple things to look at.

Most people don't really run " limiting straps" do they?? It seems like more of precautionary measure for a bad design. I would think more coilovers would fail and rip themselves apart but really don't really hear of this. I'm going with poor cast metal that is not strong enough for this application. We don't really hear this issue with Radflos or any other flavor of coilovers do we??? Unless OP is jumping his X at high speed, this shouldn't happen at 6k miles..

 

[ccg1018]

Most people don't really run " limiting straps" do they?? It seems like more of precautionary measure for a bad design. I would think more coilovers would fail and rip themselves apart but really don't really hear of this. I'm going with poor cast metal that is not strong enough for this application. We don't really hear this issue with Radflos or any other flavor of coilovers do we??? Unless OP is jumping his X at high speed, this shouldn't happen at 6k miles..

Lol most def not. According to Greg this does happen with the others in extreme situations and he has a box full of them. He seems to believe it an issue with the top hat design that would allow side load on the shaft. Apparently the shaft on this shock is also a lot thicker than most others on a 2” shock.

I’m going to give these another shot in good faith as they rode and drove awesome.

 

[EMT760]

Lol most def not. According to Greg this does happen with the others in extreme situations and he has a box full of them. He seems to believe it an issue with the top hat design that would allow side load on the shaft. Apparently the shaft on this shock is also a lot thicker than most others on a 2” shock.

I’m going to give these another shot in good faith as they rode and drove awesome.

A box full of them? lol. The thing is Aldan American is ultimately responsible for their design with input from Greg. It's a scary thought to think that customers are serving as " QC" testers for a bad design. I agree that they should be pulled until they figure exactly what's causing the failure or if it's isolated incident, however having a " box full of them" indicates he's well aware of this issue.

Imagine if that failure happened on the interstate? All because a cheap cast or inferior metal was used. I'm sure they ride great and I was seriously considering purchasing them after riding your posts and messages back and forth. I think I'm going to pass on this one. I think Greg is playing with fire with these. If he could prove they're using new " top hat" design I might re-consider. It seems like he's quietly trying to fix the issue.

 

[mikidymac]

Most people don't really run " limiting straps" do they?? It seems like more of precautionary measure for a bad design. I would think more coilovers would fail and rip themselves apart but really don't really hear of this. I'm going with poor cast metal that is not strong enough for this application. We don't really hear this issue with Radflos or any other flavor of coilovers do we??? Unless OP is jumping his X at high speed, this shouldn't happen at 6k miles..

Yes, either limiting straps or bump stops. Your shocks/struts should not be your travel limiting device. Think of the shock piston acting like a slide hammer trying to rip the top of the shock off every time they reach the travel limit, something has to give.
The limiting straps are common on pretty much every serious off road racing vehicle so not due to bad design. The ruys running huge coilovers and bypass shocks know the shocks are not the limiting device.

Keep in mind, I am not saying that is what caused this failure but something to look into seeing the failure point on this particular shock.

 

[ccg1018]

A box full of them? lol. The thing is Aldan American is ultimately responsible for their design with input from Greg. It's a scary thought to think that customers are serving as " QC" testers for a bad design. I agree that they should be pulled until they figure exactly what's causing the failure or if it's isolated incident, however having a " box full of them" indicates he's well aware of this issue.

Imagine if that failure happened on the interstate? All because a cheap cast or inferior metal was used. I'm sure they ride great and I was seriously considering purchasing them after riding your posts and messages back and forth. I think I'm going to pass on this one. I think Greg is playing with fire with these. If he could prove they're using new " top hat" design I might re-consider. It seems like he's quietly trying to fix the issue.

Sorry, let me clarify I meant to say that the box full broken shocks is from the other big brands such as Bilstein, Radflo, Fox, King, etc. This was the first bad Aldan shock he’d seen in over 70 sets that have been shipped out or at least from what he told me.

I’m trying to be as impartial as I can be given that this thing could have killed me, my wife and our dog.

We are in agreement, when I get them, if the top hat design isn’t significantly different I don’t think I will risk it again either.

 

[ccg1018]

I’ve been pretty bummed out over this and today I decided to have a look at the driver’s side for clues and found what appears to be evidence that the coil spring is hitting the shock shaft. My guess is that this is what took out the shaft.

 

[Ssanders224]

Again....

Whoa.

 

[mikidymac]

I’ve been pretty bummed out over this and today I decided to have a look at the driver’s side for clues and found what appears to be evidence that the coil spring is hitting the shock shaft. My guess is that this is what took out the shaft.

View attachment 133442 View attachment 133441

That makes perfect sense.... Look at your picture in post #1 and there is nothing to locate or hold the top of the spring. It is literally a flat piece of aluminum with no isolator or anything to hold the top of the spring, center or align it.

 

[ccg1018]

That makes perfect sense.... Look at your picture in post #1 and there is nothing to locate or hold the top of the spring. It is literally a flat piece of aluminum with no isolator or anything to hold the top of the spring, center or align it.

I think this was intended to be a “design feature” rather than a liability. You’re supposed to be able to flip the top hat and use it in a Titan Swap application.

The redesigned top hat should have a taper down that doesn’t allow for any sort of coil contact with the shaft. I guess now that I’m looking at it it makes sense.

 

[mikidymac]

But it could still have a groove to center the spring?
I still don't see how it would break the shaft unless the top shock mount is totally rigid and doesn't let the shaft move when the suspension cycles. That is why most have a bearing eyelet or the two rubber cone washers at the top mount.

 

[ccg1018]

But it could still have a groove to center the spring?
I still don't see how it would break the shaft unless the top shock mount is totally rigid and doesn't let the shaft move when the suspension cycles. That is why most have a bearing eyelet or the two rubber cone washers at the top mount.

I’m no engineer, but I suppose that makes sense.

Looks like my theory may be somewhat correct. You can see the two spots where lateral shaft (or coil spring) movement was machining the inside of the coil spring.

I’m wondering if the top of the shaft gave way and with the movement of the coil spring it caught the shaft and with an extraordinary amount of energy of the compressing spring then ripped the bottom of the shaft out from the shock body.

This would also explain the shaft having exited the coil spring near the bottom and now being lodged in there.

Did I mention there was a loud enough bang that I thought I’d blown a tire and by the time I came to a complete stop the coil was 50-100ft behind me?

 

[edubs77]

Considering buying these so just waiting for updates.