Blown Rear Shock, What do? (from OME essentials 3" Kit - Nitro)

Hi all,

I just recently had my first off-roading adventure on December 32nd for new years and it was a blast. Unfortunately for my buddy, he did a number on his new 2019 Ram 1500 to the tune of around 5k. Unfortunately for me, but certainly less so I seem to have blown one of my rear nirto-shocks which was recently installed as part of the OME essentials 2.5-3" kit.

Obviously I was a little tough on them, so I am wondering if I should go ahead and upgrade my rear shocks so this wont happen again or just order the same ones and replace them. What do ya'll think and how much should I be expecting to pay if I get a decent deal? Is this something I should install myself or take to a shop?

In the picture I was able to push the shock down with my hand to compress it, it did pop back up but very slowly. My other rear shock appears to be fine, but it there a way I can tell if its blown without removing it from the mount?

Thanks for all the help!

 

Ouch. What were you doing offroad when they blew?

 

The Tacomaholic himself! Love your vids.

There was a blind drop on one of the trails probably 18 inch or so tall, hit it maybe at 25 mph or so and definitely felt like it bottomed out.

 

call Marie at Headstrong

 

Thanks man! Ahh gotcha.

 

Here's yaw problem. You did this on December 32nd that means you were still in 2020, should of done it on January 1st then you would of been in 2021 and all that bad crap from last year would not of still been with you.
And i'd leave that mud on there good for rust protection.
What kind of music were you rocking out.

 

How in the world can you loose a nylock nut, couple washers and rubber bushings on a shock without damaging the shaft or frame mount? Is that all the further your shock will raise up into the perch under it's own pressure? Or did you take it apart before the pic?

They are supposed to raise up slowly when compressed, did you lose any fluid?

 

Haha, should have thought of that! We were playing some grunge, blues, and bluegrass. It was quite the time playing loudly into abyss with only a few lucky cows listening in. Not much rust risk here in Texas so the mud will be coming off shortly!

I was also surprised and at first wondered if the shop installed wrong. On further inspection the threading on the shock is totally flattened out so the nut just stripped right off. First pic is shock under its own pressure. It feels too easy to compress to me, so I definitely think it's blown, but even if not the threads are dead so I have to replace either way. Any recommendations? Feeling like I should probably upgrade to something more robust.

 

Ome shocks are pretty robust that sucks though. I’d look at getting bilstein B110s they are a longer shock they’re more flexy if you wanna spend some funds king, fox, icon, and ADS are really nice.

 

I’d check your shock mount to make sure the shaft didn’t eat away at it. I suspect that the top nut probably wasn’t torqued correctly when installed and slowly backed off. With the nut loose it was probably rubbing on the shock mount as suspension cycled up and down which wore down the threads. Did you notice any clunking as you drove and hit bumps?

I have a really hard time believing that the nut just suddenly exploded off the shaft stripping everything. That would have to be a really intense top out because bottoming wouldn’t put force on the nut in the correct direction to rip it off that way. Not to mention I don’t think the shock sees that kind of force unless you had way too short of a shock for your leafs installed which I seriously doubt is the case with your OME setup. Maybe some intense flexing could pull the nut that way but still have a hard time believing that when so many (myself included) have tens of thousands of miles on OME shocks without any issues like this. That’s a really weird failure mode.

what leaf pack are you running?

I’d suspect some kind of issue with the install and don’t think more expensive shocks would have prevented your issue. Properly torqued bolted connections are very strong, improperly torqued not so much.

 

This is definitely the best theory so far, makes way more sense if it was already a bit loose. I'll try and see if I can get the shop to own up to it. As for the mount, I'll clean it off after work and take a picture and report back.

 

maybe take a torque wrench to the other side and check if it’s torqued to spec or loose. No guarantees since you can always forget one bolt while tightening the other but if the other side is loose you might have your smoking gun.



https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/the-torque-spec-guide.318116/

 

Looks like you didnt even tighten the nut down when installed. That shock isnt blow, just hardware missing.

 

usually it's the nut behind the steering wheel causing issues. . .

 

If you heard the shock top out when you hit the hole, the shock is the limiting factor in your suspension travel and repeated top outs will eventually blow the shock.

But that doesn’t explain the threads on the top. Loose nut from the install makes sense there

 

Just checked my steering wheel nut and it was a bit loose too, good call. I'll tighten that bad boy right up!

 

More curious as to what the dodge guy did tbh.

 

He was a madman out there, his first time ever taking his baby off-road I believe. When I was riding with him he was going way too fast on the trails and fishtailed around a corner slamming his bedside into a tree trunk. He just kept going as if he didn't even notice it and it wasn't even until the next morning when the reality set in for him. Surprisingly he was actually not drunk during these escapades, or I wouldn't have let him drive at all. Even so I tried to tell him just to ride with me since his truck was so much more expensive.

After we were done he asked me if he did a good job. I told him I was pooping my pants the whole time I was riding with him so that's gotta count for something!

 

Are you sure its 'blown'? Why, specifically, do you believe it is blown?

If your only symptom is not connected at the top, then get a new rubber isolator, washer, nut and just hook that baby up.

a Blown shock will show evidence of oil running down the body.

Top out is bad mkay. But that being said...the force required to pull a shock apart (assuming its been properly mounted on both ends) is wildly enormous. That isnt likely...

 

I assumed it was blown because I could push it down with one hand, which seems like an incorrect assumption after reading some of the replies here. I would like to just remount it but the threads on top are looking very flat from the nut getting stripped off. I will take a closer picture when I get a picture of the mount for damage as well.