Broken rear shock

[ValleyRider]

Just came back from having my 2012 RT Limited rear brake pads replaced and some other work. They informed me that the rear shock is broken. They are contacting BRP to obtain confirmation that this is covered under my extended warranty. I have only 15,450 miles on the odometer. Hopefully they will get back soon and confirm this work is covered.

Has anyone else had this problem?

 

[Bob Denman]

We've had some folks report this... :shocked:
Glad to hear that yoor warranty is in place; I'm sure that it'll kick-in and take care of this for you! :thumbup:

 

[tigerdr]

They changed mine 2 times on my RT 2010 and was not under warranty even if had BEST warranty for five years.

Good luck...

 

[spacetiger]

What was broke? I'm guessing it was visible?

Jerry

 

[SpyderAnn01]

I had a broken one on my 2010 RT and it was covered under warranty. I also know of other owners who have had theirs replaced under warranty.

 

[ThreeWheels]

My early production 2010 went through about 5 shocks, all of them under the original warranty.
The rebound mechanism (valve?) failed, so the shock no longer functioned. The rear end bounced like a pogo stick.
BRP had a run of badly manufactured units, so they kept replacing a faulty shock with another one that was faulty until all the bad parts were out of the system.
A real PITA, but I have to say that BRP stepped up to the plate and fixed it.
I'm surprised to hear of a failure in a later production model.

 

[Highwayman2013]

We just had our rear shock replaced under warranty. No damping at all.

 

[spacetiger]

My early production 2010 went through about 5 shocks, all of them under the original warranty.
The rebound mechanism (valve?) failed, so the shock no longer functioned. The rear end bounced like a pogo stick.
BRP had a run of badly manufactured units, so they kept replacing a faulty shock with another one that was faulty until all the bad parts were out of the system.
A real PITA, but I have to say that BRP stepped up to the plate and fixed it.
I'm surprised to hear of a failure in a later production model.

THreewheels,

Thanks for the clarification of the cause of the problem.

One thing for a single shock to go bad, but to have 5 in a row go bad, the route cause may not have been the shock. They changed the rear shock, do you know if they put a later model rear shock in to cure the problem?

Nice to hear they kept working to sort it out, sorry for you to have to go through it.

Jerry

 

[redflasher]

The air bladder and plumbing associated with the rear shock was replaced last week and covered by BEST warranty.

 

[ValleyRider]

Broken shock

What was broke? I'm guessing it was visible?

Jerry

It was not visible. Only thing I noticed that the Spyder would bottom out on pot holes if I did not slow down to a crawl.

 

[ThreeWheels]

THreewheels,

Thanks for the clarification of the cause of the problem.

One thing for a single shock to go bad, but to have 5 in a row go bad, the route cause may not have been the shock. They changed the rear shock, do you know if they put a later model rear shock in to cure the problem?

Nice to hear they kept working to sort it out, sorry for you to have to go through it.

Jerry

The root cause was faulty manufacturing of the shock by the supplier. Rather than recall the faulty lot from the warehouses, BRP chose to run the lot out of the system through distribution to the dealers. In hindsight, not the best approach.
As I said, BRP picked up the tab for all of them, and once a properly manufactured unit was installed, I was trouble free for 20,000 miles until I traded my 2010 in for the 2014.

 

[spacetiger]

The root cause was faulty manufacturing of the shock by the supplier. Rather than recall the faulty lot from the warehouses, BRP chose to run the lot out of the system through distribution to the dealers. In hindsight, not the best approach.
As I said, BRP picked up the tab for all of them, and once a properly manufactured unit was installed, I was trouble free for 20,000 miles until I traded my 2010 in for the 2014.

Wow, you are very patience! :firstplace:

It doesn't say much about BRP business practices, we should all feel like guinea pigs.

 

[Dib52]

Yep!!

Been there, done that...twice! Last time I was out of warranty by 2 months and the boys at Louis Powersports took care of it and covered me! Nice to have a great dealer. I broke mine on a pothole. Know the pogo stick feeling!

 

[spacetiger]

An interesting problem. I would guess it would be worth looking at the rubber bumper on the shock. That rubber stopper is supposed to keep the shock from compressing all the way. It is a pretty thick stopper, but I wonder if it was compressed enough would it allow the shock piston to impact internal to the shock body damaging the valving at the top of the piston. if cracked, the piston would not offer much resistance to the oil, so all damping would be lost.

My experience with the springs tells me they are too soft, so it maybe there was a design flaw in the shock design that counted on the rubber bumper thickness to be the safety margin to protect the piston. But, if the springs are too soft, the bounding of of the rubber bumper would eventually compress it... just enough to allow the piston to impact..

So if anyone experiences this pogo effect, take a look at where your rubber bumper is on the shock shaft and note what condition it is in. If it is shot, than the shock is is compressing more than the designers designed the shock. So it could be the [heavy] weight of the rider and/or road conditions on the weak spring is the culprit?

Jerry

 

[ValleyRider]

Replacing rear shock

Just had a conversation with my dealer. They informed me that BRP will cover the replacing of the rear shocks under warranty.

BRP came through!

 

[Bob Denman]

:congrats: :2thumbs: