No offense to Tim at all, honestly, but I don't think it's fair to condemn QA1s flat out at this point. What about all the other people (myself included) on all the other forums that have had no issues with these shocks? This is the first time I've ever heard a complaint about them.

Tim, is it possible that people just aren't noticing their shocks are blown? How could you tell your shocks were ruined? Could you tell just from driving on them or was the inspection necessary to find the faulty units?

I feel like I'd notice if mine were shot, the truck is so much stiffer with these shocks. If anything happened to them it would result in my axle banging off the underside of the bed and my front tires slamming into the wells immediately.

 

HI!... $1300?????? Only $628 a pair for the Quickset 2's or $354 a pair for the QUICKSET 1's.

 

I don't disagree. I am only one data point. But a damning data point nonetheless.

I have zero faith in QA1. I spread the good news and the bad news alike. They had a chance to do right by me and blew it. Had they honored my service request on the second blown shock in less than 10,000 miles, I might be more forgiving.

And the data speaks for itself. One in five is not good, but forgivable. Four out of five is catastrophic. And that assumes that the fifth one is working properly. Only a shock dyno could tell me for sure.

If it were only the fronts or the rears, maybe my suspension is wrong (too much travel, too long a piston, etc). But it's not. And, from careful measurements, I don't think that the shocks on either end can be bottoming or topping out.

D&D says that they can tell easily whether I am doing anything wrong. We shall see.

Highly possible. If one shock is shot on the rebound, and the other on compression, neither wheel would be in absolute oscillation. But the shocks would still not be working.

I am more active and interested in my suspension than most. But I was still, err, shocked to find out how bad they were. Even considering that QA1 people are more sophisticated than the average owner, it would not surprise me at all if there are lots of people running around on blown or worn QA1s.

As an example, I had noticed that I was getting a distinct crabbing on the 1-2 upshift. And any burnout would result in the back end crabbing out to the driver's side. Every time. I was thinking bad limited slip, but then I laid down about 100' of two-wheeled black streaks and ruled that out. Then I was thinking maybe that the Metco t-bar preload had gone out of whack. Now I think that it was blown compression on one side, blown rebound on the other, allowing the back end to rotate about the centerline on the upshift.

The first one was leaking. That's easy.

The second one I discovered during a suspension redo. I noticed that I could slide the rod in and out with just hand pressure. Unless you have guns like Fade2Black, you shouldn't be able to do that with any setting other than "1."

The third and fourth ones (and the now completely blown out second one) I discovered on Sunday when taking them all off to send to D&D.

They are all in varying stages of decay. Some work in one direction, but not the other. Some are completely blown, others are only partially blown. I might not be able to feel the partially blown ones, but they might still be hurting lap times (like the crabbing issue above).

I want to know that my shocks are working properly on all four corners all of the time. I hope that D&D can get me there.

 

Thanks for the response. I'll check my rear ones (the front ones just went on recently) and get back to this thread.

I'd be very interested to hear what D&D says. Also, if you wouldn't mind PMing me I'd like to get an idea of what they're charging you for the rebuild on your set. With the way I run mine (7 front, 7 rear) I have to wonder how long they'll last now.

 

I don't do PMs, and since no SV offers a competing service, I see nothing wrong with posting the prices here.

D&D said that the average QA1 rebuild runs $65 per shock. So I will have $1,000 in my shocks.

 

Since we are using Mustang shocks for the rear, Koni has double adjustable shocks. Check, but think Koni's are like Bilsteins, guaranteed for life.

 

What spring rates are your running?

 

He charged me $166 to rebuild and revalve my 2 front shocks.

 

Without doing further research and I could be wrong but those look like private label QA-1's to me. Air ride technologies also use them as well as many others.

I won't dispute what Tim is saying. Those are fragile shocks. In my opinion and observations, if you run more than 800lb front springs and higher rate rear combined with higher than 7 on the adjustment, they won't last long. On a stock suspension on a soft setting you might get 25-50K with them. Bottom line, this is a product that overpromissed and underdelivers.

Not much choice out there.

TB

 

Ruslow 1000lb coils.

I agree. I read up on those shocks on their site yesterday and by the description I'm 99% sure those are QA1s with a different sticker.

 

D&D rebuilt my QA1's. Quality work, quick turnaround, returned phone calls. I'm happy.

Bob

 

The fact that so many of us have needed D&D is not a ringing QA1 endorsement.

 

What amount of clics are you running at the track? (front and back)

 

There are alternatives:

1. Strange Engineering shocks.
2. Penske Shocks

These are two that I know of off the top of my head. I have been using the "strange shocks" for a while with no problems at $130/pair for the rear, they are near the stock bilstein price.

 

Tim,

Just for giggles, buy some strange shocks and try them out. They are cheap and I think with your "track experience" you could give honest feedback on their performance at the track. They are for the rear only.

You *might* find out that more expensive isn't always better, or not.