Protech damper failure ?

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Protech damper failure ?

Postby simonbuk » Wed 04.01.2017, 12:19

I have a pair of 3 year old Protech dampers on the rear of my car. I have an occasional knock on the n/s rear which my garage now thinks is the shock - hes tried but failed to find any play in any of the suspension or other components.

Surely a modern day shock should last more than 3 years/5k miles ?

Is there any reported problems with these units ?

Looks like you can buy them new for £75 so not probably worth investigating whether they can be rebuilt ?
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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby Rambo » Wed 04.01.2017, 14:54

I never had any problems with the Protech rear dampers that were fitted to my Collapso Red in Feb 2008. I sold the car in April 2016 but that was over 8 years with an average of 3500 miles PA.

Are you sure it's not the bushes ?
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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby dapinky » Wed 04.01.2017, 16:55

I had Protechs all round on the red car when i bought it. One of the rear ones leaked, so I replaced them both (as the new ones were a slightly different design).

I contacted the company about rebuilding the ones I took off, but they weren't great at getting back to me so i gave up.

After the car was written off, it was noticed that both rear shocks (the new design) were cracked across the loop for the bottm bush, and thus only fit for scrap.

Due to my own experiences, i can't recomend Protechs at all and would go for something else. {Never known of a problem with the front shocks, though}.

(I now use AVO and can't fault them at all - when they were last re-built I just sent them to the company and they were all done and back with me within a week at about £50 a corner)
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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby simonbuk » Wed 04.01.2017, 17:03

Rambo wrote:Are you sure it's not the bushes ?


Couldn't find any bushes that were worn thats why he suggested the shock itself.......
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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby Rambo » Wed 04.01.2017, 17:48

Surprised at that after 21 years and taking into account the deplorable state of our roads
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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby tb10 » Wed 04.01.2017, 20:23

I rocked up at Protech's unit with a set of Shocks and they serviced them whilst I waited. I've not put them back on but I think servicing the 4 shocks was about £120.00?

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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby simonbuk » Wed 04.01.2017, 20:32

Rambo wrote:Surprised at that after 21 years and taking into account the deplorable state of our roads


Yes very true, maybe the checking was only done on the n/s rear when that was where the sound sounded like it was coming from. It has had a few new things over the last 3/4 years including ball joints, wheel bearings, new shocks/springs, so there might be more new stuff in there I haven't got receipts for. Think I'll take a wheel off tomorrow.....
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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby simonbuk » Wed 04.01.2017, 20:33

tb10 wrote:I rocked up at Protech's unit with a set of Shocks and they serviced them whilst I waited. I've not put them back on but I think servicing the 4 shocks was about £120.00?

Regards

John


Ok thanks, thats good to know :cheers:
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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby tb10 » Wed 04.01.2017, 21:03

Simon,

and that was in June 2016...........

:cheers:

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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby Simon_P » Wed 04.01.2017, 21:04

Have you tried the ARB ball joint?

Shock sounds like an expensive assumption - You won't know if it is the shock until you take the unit to pieces.
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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby simonbuk » Thu 30.03.2017, 12:57

Thought I'd continue with the same thread.........

Waking early this morning I followed a couple of threads on here that took me to a thread which mentioned ride heights, (can't find what I was looking at now)

It mentioned about the Protechs knocking a bit if the ride height was too low. It mentioned what the ride height should be - 17cm front, 16cm rear. Off to the garage after my Weetabix..........

I have roughly 15 cm at the rear and 14cm at the front (if I measured it correctly). So ride height too low and arse about face - lower at front instead of higher at front.

Tyres are 20/45/16 with 4-5 mm tread.

Now I can adjust the rears to try and get it to 16cm ride height if I find a C spanner, but the fronts I believe are standard so non adjustable ?

I have felt it was too low as I really have to crawl over speen bumps.

Interesting comment from Dapinky regarding broken shocks - didn't see it first time round, the other thread had pictures of them broken too.

Just passed MOT last week with flying colours.

How have I lost 3cm ride height at the front ?
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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby Brit-Car-Nut » Thu 30.03.2017, 13:47

Simon: ride height is controlled by several factors any or all of them can shift causing your issue.

The spring itself will, over time, start to collapse and if the driver was stout, the spring on that side is more likely to collapse more than the other side. If there is a dominant drive wheel and the car is driven "hard", the spring on that side will be prone to collapse more than the other side.

Suspension bushings also wear out over time and the inner pivots of the wishbones/raft will change centers which will also alter the ride height. You will need to check the inner and outer bushes and make sure that the pivots/bushes are centered in the wishbones.

You will need to eventually disassemble the struts and measure the spring's free length to see if they have started to collapse. There is also a chance the springs that were used were not exactly up to spec or made for performance and it is common for people to "lower" their car to make it handle better by reducing body roll.

I would rule out the bushings first and then check with Protech for the specs on the springs to see if they are off spec.
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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby simonbuk » Thu 30.03.2017, 16:39

I would have thought that if bushes have collapsed that much there would be movement in them - enough to be spotted by the MOT tester ?

Wheel arch height is 65cm rear, 63cm front.
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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby simonbuk » Thu 30.03.2017, 16:42

But yes, I agree, I'll have to start investigating and taking things off.
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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby lotusflasherman » Thu 30.03.2017, 18:35

Simon, ride height is mainly springs, not dampers, so I agree with suggestions that your springs might have 'gone soft'...

John Mountain parked his SE alongside mine at a Norfolk pub meet and said he thought mine was too high - I am on 17" wheels. I said I thought his was too low so next day I checked mine with my sophisticated ride height checking equipment (shown below) and it was 'spot on'...

ride height.jpg


John is now doing a rebuild which he posts to LEC Faceache and is replacing his springs as they had gone soft. I think he posted something on this site but can't find his thread but I did copy the photo he posted for future reference...
He put a new spring alongside his old spring with a steel rule... "a picture is worth a thousand words" ... Well done John .. :clap: Now we know what the free length should be...

spring length.jpg
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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby simonbuk » Thu 30.03.2017, 19:37

Wow - bit of a difference !!

Looks like they are cheap too so its a no brainer.

Do people replace with standard or uprated springs generally ?
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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby Giniw » Thu 20.06.2019, 15:54

Are these from SJS?
I am about to order new springs as I measured the free length of a front I have and it's only 268mm, so apparently a bit short as I read from the photo it should be about 275mm? (there might be a bit of parallax?)
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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby Elantastic » Thu 12.05.2022, 02:25

Hi All, Reviving this thread as I have a knocking sound from the rear suspension, bushes on ARB and top links have been replaced but noise sill there. Lower wishbones have no knocking, but squeak slightly When pushed up and down without damper attached.

Upon removing the rear spring from the damper it was apparent the spring had collapsed a bit and measured 25cm. Does anyone know why a lower ride height causes the knocking ? And what part of the shock causes the knocking? :shock: :?

Thanks all
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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby chrisP » Tue 24.05.2022, 14:58

Rear wheel bearing play?
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Re: Protech damper failure ?

Postby Elantastic » Tue 24.05.2022, 15:47

[quote="chrisP"]Rear wheel bearing play?[/

Hi Chris,

I did wonder about that as I noticed it after I’d replaced one of them, had some issues with the inner bearings not fitting on the rear axle, was like it had a smaller ID. When torquing them up correctly there was a clunk as it seated on the axle
Which I don’t remember happening during previous bearing replacements. No play in rears wheels apart from what’s meant to be there so guessed it had to be the bushes.

Dampers have been checked over, no cracks or leaks, and damper operates as expected.

I’ve decided to start stripping the rear suspension now to see if it is one of the bushes.
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