BP-51 Rebuild Mileage Poll (1 Viewer)

[Sandman614]

Well I guess this is the end of ARB/OME for me. According to arb tech support since my shocks are an early serial number and they have changed design they no longer carry parts for them and have determined them to be "end of servicable lifespan". Solution buy new BP-51, That will not be happening.
Time to move to a manufacturer that doesn't have such a closed service arrangement, doesn't require shipment across the country, and product that can be better maintained.

Original install date: 5/26/16 169k miles
Warranty replacement of leaking rear: 7/9/16 172k miles
Leaking & Beyond "end of service lifespan": 1/17/24 325k miles

 

[bloc]

Well I guess this is the end of ARB/OME for me. According to arb tech support since my shocks are an early serial number and they have changed design they no longer carry parts for them and have determined them to be "end of servicable lifespan". Solution buy new BP-51, That will not be happening.
Time to move to a manufacturer that doesn't have such a closed service arrangement, doesn't require shipment across the country, and product that can be better maintained.

Original install date: 5/26/16 169k miles
Warranty replacement of leaking rear: 7/9/16 172k miles
Leaking & Beyond "end of service lifespan": 1/17/24 325k miles

View attachment 3535492

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Not surprising. Between this and the poorly designed lower bushing bending the shock mount posts on the axle, I’m done saying these are a viable option.

 

[nimitz]

I ran BP-51s on my GX470 for about two years. I put somewhere around 15,000 miles on them before they started leaking (3 at once)in 2020. I reached out to ARB who said they could replace them since they couldn’t be rebuilt so I dropped them off.
They had them for a month before they told me that since the shocks were on a GX470 and that isn’t a supported platform, they could not honor the warranty. I explained how absurd that statement was but didn’t get anywhere. I then agreed to have them rebuilt at my cost and they agreed.
Another month passed and after numerous emails and calls they told me they could not be rebuilt because they did not have the tooling. I said “so what are the next steps?”
Another six weeks pass and I finally demand to speak to a manager and get the COO. I express my extreme displeasure at being strung along and basically getting screwed out of a suspension with no notice. After a bunch of back and forth, he agrees to buy my BP-51s back for 60% of MSRP. Grateful to be done with it, I accepted, sold everything else I owned made by ARB and have washed my hands of the company.

 

[Oakleyguy]

Original install date: 5/26/16 169k miles
Warranty replacement of leaking rear: 7/9/16 172k miles
Leaking & Beyond "end of service lifespan": 1/17/24 325k miles

Am I reading this right? You got eight years and 153,000 miles out of your shocks?

 

[Sandman614]

Am I reading this right? You got eight years and 153,000 miles out of your shocks?

Yes, both rears were warranty replaced because they leaked within 6months/15,000mi. The fronts have not been replaced but the bushings have worn out several times and I finally made correctly sized spacers in the same material all other shock makers use. I had thought about sending in my shocks for service (before they were leaking) but did not have another suspension to run in the mean time(2+ weeks it sounds like). Unfortunately now I don't even have that option, and obviously was never made aware of the design change by ARB that made early production models obsolete.

 

[KLF]

Bringing this BTT, for a couple of questions.

How can you tell that they need to be rebuilt, other than leaking? Mine have about 50K on them, they are not leaking anywhere. But the ride has gotten significantly worse over the last month or so, very bouncy, as if there no dampening at all. I haven't played with the settings yet, will do that soon.

If you sent them back, did you remove the front shock from the coilover spring? I imagine this would save a lot on the shipping cost.

 

[kcjaz]

Bringing this BTT, for a couple of questions.

How can you tell that they need to be rebuilt, other than leaking? Mine have about 50K on them, they are not leaking anywhere. But the ride has gotten significantly worse over the last month or so, very bouncy, as if there no dampening at all. I haven't played with the settings yet, will do that soon.

If you sent them back, did you remove the front shock from the coilover spring? I imagine this would save a lot on the shipping cost.

I did not remove the front shocks from the coilover assembly. Yes, that would save weight and some shipping cost. On how to tell if they are bad, you can do the classic "bounce" test on each corner but in my experience, with a heavy rig with heavy springs, its hard for normal sized humans to get enough deflection to really tell much. On a Corolla sure, on a lifted/build LC, pretty tough. Next would be removing the shocks and seeing how much resistance they have when manually compressing and extending them. If you can easily compress and extend them by hand, they are bad. If they are really bad, its obvious but otherwise, without experience as a reference, or a known good/new one for comparison this hard. A good suspension shop would probable have a damper tester/load cell to accurately test/tune a shocks. I'd like to believe that ARB does this when they inspect and test your shocks but based on my experience sending them back for rebuild, I'm not sure they really do more than a visual inspection and maybe a hand compression test. On mine, they said they "inspect" seals and o-rings but I really think they just do an external visual inspection and if there is no evidence of external leaks, they assume all of good inside.

My BP-51s are performing OK but when they wear out, I'm not going BP-51 again. IMO, they are not worth the money as they are not enough better than cheaper options and they fall short compared to higher end socks though that route is even more money.

Also, be sure to inspect your rubber bushings on the rear. They are poorly designed without an inner sleeve and wear out. Those are the only things ARB did replace on mine.

 

[Boston Mangler]

Protip for those with seepage or light leaking from shaft/seal...

Trick from racing dirtbikes for 20 years... Find a piece of camera film (the old 35mm style), wrap it around shaft and slide up and down through seal a few times

8 times out of 10 there is light debris build up between the shock and seals and this clears it out and will remain leak free for awhile.

I've done this MANY times with dirtbikes, and a few trucks with great success

Shock rebuilders will say it needs new seals, and MANY times, they are perfectly fine.

DISCLAIMER: If its heavy leakage, may be low on oil, then yes, rebuild time, but many times thats not the case.

My .04 (inflation)

 

[onelittlestar]

Bringing this BTT, for a couple of questions.

How can you tell that they need to be rebuilt, other than leaking? Mine have about 50K on them, they are not leaking anywhere. But the ride has gotten significantly worse over the last month or so, very bouncy, as if there no dampening at all. I haven't played with the settings yet, will do that soon.

If you sent them back, did you remove the front shock from the coilover spring? I imagine this would save a lot on the shipping cost.

Nitrogen pressure loss will do that

 

[KLF]

Nitrogen pressure loss will do that

That's what I'm worried about.

Just finished a 2000 mile road trip, the ride on concrete jointed roads was awful. Like riding a hobby horse. Need to figure this out.

 

[Boston Mangler]

That's what I'm worried about.

Just finished a 2000 mile road trip, the ride on concrete jointed roads was awful. Like riding a hobby horse. Need to figure this out.

FWIW, MANY of Tundra folks with BP51s have complained about Nitrogen loss. LOTS of them.

I had a set on the front of mine for about 40k miles and absolutely zero issues, but from all the rants I’ve read, seems I might of got lucky.

Honestly, that’s about half the reason I chose Bilsteins for the 200 over OME. Even though I’ve been a loyal OME customer for 20 years and 6 different rigs.

 

[cruiseroutfit]

FWIW, MANY of Tundra folks with BP51s have complained about Nitrogen loss. LOTS of them.

I had a set on the front of mine for about 40k miles and absolutely zero issues, but from all the rants I’ve read, seems I might of got lucky.

Fwiw, we regularly recharge Nitrogen shocks, OME and many others. Our $20k worth of Kings on the Canguro URJ201... also need a recharge after x amount of time. I do recharge on mine annually, use a no loss valve and it's quick/easy. We check them prior to install too!

 

[onelittlestar]

That's what I'm worried about.

Just finished a 2000 mile road trip, the ride on concrete jointed roads was awful. Like riding a hobby horse. Need to figure this out.

Unless it just started happening, that could be several things. Being able to adjust rebound/compression is very double edged sword IMO

 

[onelittlestar]

Fwiw, we regularly recharge Nitrogen shocks, OME and many others. Our $20k worth of Kings on the Canguro URJ201... also need a recharge after x amount of time. I do recharge on mine annually, use a no loss valve and it's quick/easy. We check them prior to install too!

THIS ^^^

I lost most nitrogen pressure on a sub 10k set of KING rears on our 4Runner, only realized it once I had pulled them off, never really noticed a negative change, but they were barely 50psi.

 

[bloc]

A small nitrogen tank and the correct regulator, hose, and no-loss filler isn’t a huge expense.. especially considering what these suspensions cost.

I still have my setup even after selling my Kings. The original plan was to do my own rebuilds.

I should probably post it for sale..

 

[onelittlestar]

A small nitrogen tank and the correct regulator, hose, and no-loss filler isn’t a huge expense.. especially considering what these suspensions cost.

I still have my setup even after selling my Kings. The original plan was to do my own rebuilds.

I should probably post it for sale..

I'll take it

 

[bloc]

I'll take it

Sending PM now.

 

[KLF]

A small nitrogen tank and the correct regulator, hose, and no-loss filler isn’t a huge expense.. especially considering what these suspensions cost.

I still have my setup even after selling my Kings. The original plan was to do my own rebuilds.

I should probably post it for sale..

Maybe post up photos of your kit, with links of where you got it?

Could this be done with the shocks still installed?

And can I use a regular tire pressure gauge now to check to see if mine are still charged?

 

[bloc]

Maybe post up photos of your kit, with links of where you got it?

Could this be done with the shocks still installed?

And can I use a regular tire pressure gauge now to check to see if mine are still charged?

No on the regular gauge. The volume of air is so small that just the little bit that escapes when applying and removing the gauge will have a significant impact on the pressure. The “no-loss” part of the adapter is an important detail.. it depresses the pin after everything is hooked up and sealed.

Generally the access port is on the reservoir, so usually that’s all you’ll need to unbolt to measure or adjust pressures.

I’ll try to dig my setup out and get some pictures and info in the next couple of days. Might be worth it’s own thread

 

[onelittlestar]

Ben @ FIlthy Motorsports has a good list of baseline parts you can acquire easily, mostly on Amazon to build out a basic setup for not much $