Damping and shocks

[jjustin]

Hi Guys,

I'm hoping somebody more clued up than me about such things could possibly answer this question for me please.

I've just this morning taken delivery of a pair of rebuilt rear shocks for my car. If I compress them at the same time on a hard surface (kitchen floor), they decompress at entirely different rates, with one of them fully decompressing about three seconds before the other and is noticably easier to compress.

Is this normal or should a pair of shocks be matched?

Having a pair of shocks that decompress at a different rate, does that mean that they each have different damping characteristics which would cause handling problems? If they decompress at different rates, this must mean that one is stiffer than the other, right?

The shocks were rebuilt by somebody very reputable in the Ferrari suspension industry so it's hard to accept that there could be a problem.

Any advice about this would be much appreciated.

Thanks in advance


Edit: When switched to 'hard', theres a good 30 seconds difference in the time they take to decompress. This cant be right.



>>> Edited by jjustin on Wednesday 12th January 17:28

[jjustin]

Thanks for replying.

No I didnt bleed them. Is it the norm to have to bleed dampers before fitting them to a car?

[jjustin]

I sent him an email casually asking if they need bleeding or anything before fitting and he said that they shouldnt be touched because they're very high pressure and they require special equipment and nitrogen to ensure proper operation.

Can anyone confirm that they're not right if they're decompressing at entirely different rates? I need to try and get a little more clued up before contacting him again to explain the problem that I think I have.

[jjustin]

Thats excellent advice, thank you.
I'll try pushing the rods in and out a few times to see if the characteristics change at all and if not, I'll send the guy an email to see what he says.