What caused this?

Saw this on Instagram, and was wondering if anyone has ever seen this happen before?


Shock failure due to spacer? Or poorly manufactured shock from factory!

 

That spacer on top of the shock caused it. The spacer allows the shock to bottom out without the lower control arm hitting the bump stop. That forces the shock body to absorb the impact and, in this case, it broke.

 

^^^^ yup. This is a perfect example to all those who claim spacers work fine.

 

This happened to the GF's brand new 2012 Trail Team FJ. It was the rear shock though and it was pretty bad. It busted a hole in the floor...lol

I'm kinda going away from bilstiens, because of this and I've had both of my rear ones go out. I'm sure that the coilover in the top post was caused by the spacers though.