King Shock Spring "Exploded", Anyone Else???

So I hit what I can only describe as the largest pothole I have ever driven over in my '18 OR the other day, and it did this to my passenger side shock:



The alignment was way out after the hit, and I'm just amazed that this is what took the beating and the small parts like the sway bar link are totally fine.

I off-road in this truck at least once a month on hard and soft stuff (cape cod beaches and rocky VT/NH/ME washouts and 4x4 trails) and I've never had any issues off-road with these.

Anybody else had this issue of spreading/wiggle on a king spring like this before?

FWIW around 70k on these Kings, now is the time to replace them with something new, seriosuly looking at Bilstein 8112/8100, so any thoughts on those would be great too!

The Kings have been awesome, and I called them to ask about this and they said I can send them in but they'd probably replace the spring and both shock bodies and it would cost the same or more than new shocks, not sure if thats true but the passenger side body is dented now from the spring hitting it and they're all very very corroded (New England).

Would love any thoughts!

 

^It's a somewhat common problem:
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/broken-spring.660904/
https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/broken-king-coilover-spring.654792/

Closing the last coil and grinding it flat is standard practice for coilovers. However, if there's a deviation in flatness or parallelism, the coil is put in bending and can break. Happened with one of my Icons in my previous truck (this was before Icon switched to Eibach springs). "Corrosion-assisted fatigue" as the metallurgists call it.

 

Just curious, and not trying to be "That Guy", but are King shocks not made to take big hits at speed? I'm wondering if they are really for slower off road action? I am not an off road guy so just trying to gain some knowledge.

 

@kent50 I have no idea honestly, just know that these have worked great for the last 70k!

@3JOH22A Thanks! I think this is exactly what happened based on those threads, just surprised to see it happen so suddenly...

 

70k miles and all that rust you have going on will do that.

 

"Corrosion-assisted fatigue" so it was probably brewing for some time. Mine happened on pavement pulling into my garage. Most of the off-road shock companies are based in California and have no idea what rust is.

Toyota changed the spring end design in the TRD Pro shocks as a result of the failures. The design eliminates the thin tapered section but won't work with threaded adjusting perches.

 

they might want you to think they are speed off road shocks but i doubt thats the case. (especially for a 4k lb truck)

 

Corrosion is what broke your spring. If you look at just about any broken car spring out there you'll see it's from snow country.

My flat ground spring pro fox still look brand new with 85k in socal.

Whatever you get you'll have to get used to doing rebuilds and replacing the spring much early.

 

Wrong. Beach cities, like where I work as a mechanic in Huntington Beach, see PLENTY of rust. Also we have mountains that put down salt or brine. Silly comment.

 

Exposure time is important. Try sitting in this for 3 months each year:

 

Not a chance. I'll take my good weather and extremely high cost of living lol.

 

Did your truck drive differently after or how did you know to look for this issue after you bottomed out?

 

The biggest indicator was my steering wheel was about 20 degrees off when driving straight, so I knew something had changed with the front assembly.

As far as weather concerns and suspension parts in New England, anyone have experience with shocks that last a bit longer up here? I know about fluid film and I apply it pretty regularly on all suspension components on my vehicle, they still rust, saltwater is everywhere where I live.

 

@Bertw192 had the same and we have minimal corrosion issues in WA.

 

Yup, corrosion.

 

Your pictures are tiny, hard to make out what exactly happened

For what its worth I got probably 50k miles on my mine here in Maine. Lots of Fluid Film, but also lots of salt..

I generally hear people say you should rebuild any brand off-road shocks after ~30k miles. After 70k in salt and off-road conditions, I cant say I'm too surprised. Though I totally get it, I still haven't had time or $$ to rebuild mine so Im not dissing you for that

 

Mmmm I'd also address those coil buckets. Probably next thing to start cracking

 

I live in a cold wet state and am
thus fully aware of rust. However, I think people might be overestimating its effect on modern automobiles. Many automobiles last multiple decades in my state without a corrosion based failure in a coil spring, frame, or any other large steel part. Do the to look rusty and ugly? Yes. Fail? Not that often. Fail sooner than in a warm, dry state? Yes sir.

 

bro you drunk? kings are literally made for baja racing and everything else

 

King makes shocks. I assume they outsource the coil springs. The spring broke, not the shock. Either way, it’s hard to make a spring that is both indestructible and has the soft spring rate required for performance.

Anyway, king shocks are designed for high speed off-road racing, however I’m guessing their street offerings are dumbed down to satisfy the general mall crawler. An off-road shock needs increased damping for “big hits”, but also needs an enhanced hear capacity and heat dissipation to handle the increased workload. In other words, it’s needs both strength and endurance. Non of these aspects are required for mall crawling.