Complete Elka Fail (1 Viewer)

[Nay]

Won’t bury the lead: don’t buy Elka.

I have the DC remote reservoir front coilovers that we installed over Christmas on my 2008, they are leaking at the hose already, nothing but road miles and some cold winter temps (Elka is a Canadian company). I submitted a warranty claim a couple weeks ago and not a peep from Elka. Nothing. Nada. So I either have to pursue this through other channels or pay to have them rebuilt and the hoses replaced. Toytec can handle it and are local to me, will cost the better part of $500 and Toytec says Elka has issues with their hose manufacturer so that lines up. Elka makes Toytec’s Boss Aluma line so they probably know.

It’s disappointing to have early failures (both shocks) and a manufacturer who doesn’t bother to stand by their product especially when the price point is $2,500. My son just put Kings on his 2008, looking like a much better choice, we’ll see how they hold up and if not if there is any customer service, at all.

Leaking Elka.

New Kings on the other rig.

 

[crikeymike]

Do they use a swivel joint where it meets the resi and the shock body? Maybe if it's a rigid mount, it came loose and could be tightened up, potentially saving from a rebuild.

If it's how the hose was crimped at the fitting, then that's really not good at all.

 

[LINUS]

I hear you - my Yamaha 4WD quad was supposed to be “extra great” on Elka shocks, but I left my low HR Grizzly on stock & friend did those in a similar Yamaha quad.

His blew an oil seal ~18mo back/2yrs after installing, my stockers are just fine & I rarely lost him esp since here is all forest & no long straight stretches.

I put Icon coilovers on FR my truck, but I only other like Fox as generic upgrades.

Hard pass to Elka.

 

[crikeymike]

What was the resolution from Elka on this?

 

[Nay]

What was the resolution from Elka on this?

Nothing. But I ultimately felt that I needed to get this in-house where I could deal with it due to not trusting a warranty service and it being unrealistic to RMA for an indeterminate period of time with my daily driver truck on jack stands.

$550 later I have custom 4000 PSI Gates hoses with rebuild through Toytec, who is local to me. Toytec said the hoses were dry rotted.

I have seriously considered trying to sell these to get to a more serviceable solution, but then I figured I’ve fixed the problem.

Bigger picture getting over my annoyance, this type of shock is going to need periodic service/rebuild. If you take them off the truck yourself and drop them off if you are lucky enough to have a local shop that can service Elka, you are looking at $900 each time if you are doing all four corners.

It’s a good shock - having adjustable high and low speed compression adjustment enables a ‘tune’ you could chase with valving setups. The big thing is Elka doesn’t support self-service.

If you have a UTV or snowmobile and send your stuff in for service at the end of the season there’s no downtime. I send in my EXT mountain bike shock once a year since it’s not a self-service supported product, but it’s not feasible to ship in your daily driver front suspension. That’s why I decided to basically make the Elka a Toytec product to have local support.

I’m doing King in the rear with the single compression adjustment. I prefer this on mountain bike suspension - the more complex stuff is hard to get and keep dialed in and King has full DIY service support. I looked into Dobinsons, but felt King was the longer term self service future proof route pairing with the Elka front.

The lesson here for me - and I was wary of adding complexity at the outset - is maintenance costs will exceed a high purchase price over time if you can’t service it yourself.

The flip side is these big trucks can haul ass on rough roads loaded with people, mountain bikes off the back, loaded with gear - all you need is high end suspension. Go in eyes wide open about the longer term cost and how much upgrade you really need. I’m increasingly impressed by this platform and I’ll get as much out of the Elka fronts as is cost effective.

If I had access to a service kit I’d keep them in the long run, but we’ll see how it goes over the next couple of years now that the hose issue is fixed with a six month rebuild warranty.