Well, after only around 6 months of low milage driving on my Progress Springs/Illumina combo, I'm the proud owner of a blown front strut! I loved this drop - very even, just low enough, and still a fine ride. But last week the ride suddenly got horrible. Sure enough, I pulled the front wheel to find the Illumina had spewed it's fluid all over the housing covering it in a thick layer of black grime.

So it's back to stock for the moment while I rethink my options. I swear, my Max looks like a freakin off roader now. It's like the springs stretched while off the car. Full 5 finger gap.

Worst part: the Illuminas are only warranted for a 1.5" drop, so I'm SOL on this one. So now I'm hunting for H&R's or Maxspeeds if anyone's selling. Oh, and some 18's.

Has anyone else blown an Illumina yet? I'm not sure if I can recommend pairing S-techs and Progress with these struts any longer...

EDIT>>Oh yeah, is SWA the cheapest place to pick up a single Illumina? Around $115 shipped IIRC.

 

Not that I know of... haven't seen any fluid spurted anywhere.
I'm also on stock springs though

 

Don't mention that you had the Progress springs when you contact Tokico. They will never know what type of springs you were running.

 

hunt for some kyb agx and eibachs.

Best maxima suspension! : ]

 

agx are crap compared to illuminas.

 

well,
They might not be Koni's, but i think they are great. To each their own.
i don't wanna take away from housecor's post anymore, so enjoy your opinion.

 

I agree, you have them off your car....you can pretty much stick any other springs on them if you have to, to take pictures or take them somewhere to get replaced.

 

Any particular reason why you think you blew the strut? Was it simply that the drop on Progress was too low?

I was wondering if maybe having the strut stiffness set to soft or too stiff could contribute to the blown strut..or is that even possible?

 

Come on housecor post some pics of the 5 finger gap. How could they prove that they were on a lower drop than 1.5"? Owell, sucks for you man. Hope everything works out for the better.

 

I was wondering why you had mentioned selling your springs on another post on the org.

I was down to picking Illuminas with either Maxspeeds or Progress springs and I have to admit the warranty thing is making up my mind for me. I had no idea Illuminas were warrantied just to 1.5".

 

They don't have to know what springs you had on the car. For all they know, you could have put a lift kit on the car. Tell them you were running Maxspeeds. They certainly drop the car the least.

 

what about the hp's (blues), are those warrantied the same?

 

No problems here on my Illuminas

knock on wood

 

Illuminas are gas shocks...I could be wrong, but wouldn't that mean there's no liquid of any sort inside them, at least nothing more than a little lubricant? Stock shocks are oil shocks, of course.

 

send it back to tockico they will determine the reason. they cant tell what springs you have but can determine the area of the strut taht it was working . a 1 1/2 drop should be fine though maybe it is just a freaky seal. before i read the post i thought you had teins s tech on the car they will wear even the toughest stuts out. any thing lower then 11/2 will hurt struts after a while. i could be a year or two or two days. the strut has to work harder in an area it should have travel in. when i did suspension work on hondas the main problem would be the springs being to low. in new york the streets suck then you have a lowered civic bouncing on bump stops causing too much heat for the strut. we had people come back so many times asking why. after a while we just put a sign in the shop telling customers about drops lower then 1 1/2 and that we recommend camber kits. half didnt care slammed the car driving off with -3 degrees camber in the front,and then would come back with bald tires after a month asking why. if you want a slammed spring be prepared to get a shorter stroke strut. most times you would have to get a full coilover( not sleeves) any way maybe you just have a bad one and theyll warranty it. ive warrented plenty on my cousins vw. hope this helps and sorry for it being long

 

More reinforcement to get coilovers...hahaa

 

It's possible that if they opened them up, they could visually see where the majority of the wear markings are in the piston's stroke. Thats a direct indicator of how low the springs are.

But this is just a theory...

 

"gas shocks" is a bit of a misnomer. All shocks are hydraulic, the difference between gas shocks (most/all new vehicles use them, right?) and non-gas shocks is that "gas shocks" have pressurized gas (nitrogen? something similarly inert?) filling up the excess space, rather than air at atmospheric pressure. The high-pressure gas keeps the fluid from foaming, which allows them to perform consistently under fast operation.

At least that's how I understood it

 

Oh man, sorry to hear that housecor. I hope it doesn't happen to me though. I have the same setup.

 

exactally mike t. when we did warrenty work the would call the shop and void if the shock had heat build up in the bootm of the shock. never really asked but heat from being near bootming out is my guess. we sent illuminas from a race integra that had 800front and 1000rear spring rates and had blown and they denied warranty. it was obivous though. the spring rate was way to high and the heat from the car being on the floor killed them. the customer wasnt happy but thats what you get when you drive a. scca car on the street. the car was purpose built for lime rock, mid ohio and built on some kind of budget. was a nice car and emmission compliant (barely) coil overs really are the best when you want a low stance. teins and b&g are threaded to allow the strut body lower in the mounting. this lowrs the ride but keeps the stroke and travel the same. im done building suspension and doubt ill do anything other then a rear sway bar but if i do go crazy ill do it right and get good coilovers.

 

Trust me, you don't want to see this. It's painful to look at. And actually, I checked and it's well over 1/4" higher than stock! These stock springs are slow to settle I guess. Just take this shot and picture an additional near 1/2" in wheel gap.

Anyone else noticed the front wheel gap is far worse on 5.5 gens then 5th?

That's what I'd expect. Tokico will open the strut and examine for wear. Considering my drop had settled to around 2" up front, they'd likely see the results. Even if they didn't, the turnaround on warranty claims looks painfully slow. I'm not waiting 8 weeks for a new strut.

I've heard this before, but it's an overgeneralization IMHO. A mild drop (<1.5") matched with adjustable struts produces an excellent ride and exhanced handling with reliable results for much less $. If by "go crazy" you mean 1.5"+, then yes, I agree - go with coilovers. At this point I'd be a fool to disagree with that!

 

I was wondering, what was the setting on the front or blown strut???? Because to me it sounds like the setting was high. But I don't know, could be wrong!!!!!!!

I myself ride on the settings of 2 or 3 with H&R springs(never tried 5). Real good ride!!!!!!!

 

first time i heard that happen. oh well. u still goingto stick with illuminas?

 

Thanks, I had a suspicion it was something like that.

 

housecor i wasnt meaning that you did it the wrong way by lowering your car i meant it as if i wanted a slammed car i would go with coilovers. sorry it came out wrong. there is nothing wrong with your setup. i think illuminas and hp's are great shocks and great for the money. ive used them in just about all the cars i had. and had great results. about the warranty paret i agree its timely and i myself would by another and send the blown one. if they warrnty it you have a spare.

 

I have no problems with my KYB GR-2 struts, i got them for 6-7 months now and no problems at all. I got Tein springs too.

 

I blew one of mine also with Progress springs.

 

I knew of quite a few SRT-4 owners on my old forum that had blown Tokico struts... I don't think it was your springs cause I ran Progress for almost 9k on the factory Dodge struts with no problem... the funny thing is that it the stock struts on the SRT-4 are also Tokicos...

KYB AGX & Koni's are better then Tokico IMHO.......

 

ya, lots of honduh boys love them tokicos ; )

 

I've run 2 all around since purchase. I tried other setting for a few day but 2 was the best match for the Progress spring rate IMHO.

And yeah, at this point, I plan on sticking with Illuminas. I only have one to replace and I'm still not convinced this is a widespread issue - though 2k2nyc having a blowout on the same springs is troubling for anyone running Progress or lower. When/if anyone with mild drops starts reporting issues, then I'll be more concerned. They should perform reliably with <1.5+ drops. Thus far this appears to be the case.

My only concern is this: Do you think I've done any damage to the other struts?

 

Housecor, was this you passenger strut which has been making noise since day 1? Mine was the driver's side which I felt was always defective due to some noise issues.

 

Um..no. coilovers are the best suspension.

 

this thread makes me not want to put on the s techs i have lyin around. i'm sad, i wanna at least try the strut/spring setup before i splurge and get a coilover. How fast would the 2.2" kill an hp?

 

I have tein bro with kyb gr-2 for 6-7 months now and i got no any problem!!!

 

lol..i had the same setup for about a year and the ride was bouncy as hell.

 

I'm surprised you can stand to ride on the suspension setup. That had to be the worst suspension I've ever experienced. It bounced around so much that it was unpredictable...the OEM suspension handled better than that setup.

Now that I've got H-Techs and Illuminas I'm riding nice.

I'd say if folks have blown a couple struts with Illuminas that your days are surely numbered with GR-2s and S-Techs.

 

people IMO dont know what a "good" ride quality is. they think what they have is the best TEINS S-tech and GR-2s are horrible. look nice as hell, but thats where it ends,....

 

I don't think Tokico has good QC.. I bought Tokico Dirtra's for my turbo Mazda's back in the day directly from Mazda comp. parts and never had a set last over a year... Granted the streets in Miami are not the best, my AGX, Koni and bilstines never blew out on me....

 

Oh man, that's 2 5th gens that blew an Illumina on Progress springs. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

 

i dont know about you guys, but i love the ride of my stechs and illuminas, and im really praying that this thing about blown illuminas is just stupid mistakes made with some of the illuminas, because i love my drop too much to raise it up, no way... sorry for you progress and maxspeed people but your too high off the ground for me, stechs are sick and look much better IMO


brandon