Aftermarket Shockies?

[Ean Austral]

G'day All

I have read varied reports of success with aftermarket Shockies , so has anyone had success or are they sourcing OEM from the Uk.

I think mine are still OK , but don't think it would hurt to investigate the options considering the weight of these cars.

Cheers Ean

[Epic pooh]

I've got Dunlop branded shocks in mine (Allmakes PR part). They were around $1100 ex-uk landed for the set. A set of OE Delphi (branded LR part but in Delphi box) are about $1600 if I recall correctly.

My Disco now handles, tows and drives great (apart from wandery steering and clunks that I am currently chasing, think it is lower column related) what more can I say, will report back if the situation changes unduly!

Mine were done at 130,000 (7 years old) and were well and truly stuffed - but it was only when they were changed did it become obvious how stuffed they were - 'twas a slow progression to oblivion.

HTH

[jonesy63]

G'day Ean - another option is the Arnott Industries front suspension struts. We've only seen mention of them on this YouTube video: Discovery LR3 - Arnott Air Spring Install - YouTube

The link for the product - shows they use Bilstein shock absorbers. They offer lifetime warranty inside North America, or two years outside. I have no idea if they're custom designed Bilsteins for them, as several people here had no luck with Bilstein (or Koni's for that matter), direct from suppliers in Australia.

Product link: https://www.arnottindustries.com/part_LAND_ROVER_yid4_pid175_gid723.html

Of course, the hassle is if something does go wrong! Shipping part back to USA and waiting for replacement and so on.

IMHO, if you want to upgrade a D3 suspension - the best bet would be to install D4 shock absorbers. They are firmer than a D3 and suspension is a lot more controlled. At the cost of smooth (and sometimes "floaty") ride quality.
Cheers,
Rob

[Graeme]

I fitted genuine 2009 D3 shocks to my D4 then when they wore-out after about 60K kms I fitted cheaper Britpart-boxed Delphi versions. After 25K kms I'm starting to think about the next set as these have already softened on slow movement to the extent that the vehicle lurches a little on the first turn of the wheel, not that they were originally as good (different valving) as the genuine D3 shocks.

[Graeme]

IMHO, if you want to upgrade a D3 suspension - the best bet would be to install D4 shock absorbers. They are firmer than a D3 and suspension is a lot more controlled. At the cost of smooth (and sometimes "floaty") ride quality.
Somewhere in between would be my choice.
I've inquired if my original rears can be refurbished as they only did 40K before failing abruptly, then the fronts too if all OK. I'm hoping the 17" non-LT tyres to be fitted tomorrow coupled with the D3 sway bars has softened the ride enough to go back to D4 shocks. The ghastly jarring on bad corrugations still haunts me though.

[jonesy63]

Graeme - was the "ghastly jarring" with the 19" or 20" wheels?

[Graeme]

19" Pirelli ATRs on a slow down-hill windy section of gravel road where presumably the locals powered up-hill. My wife wanted to get out and walk.

Edit: I found the ride generally too harsh so changed to D3 shocks, then D3 sway bars then 17" rims, all contributing to the final much-improved ride until the D3 shocks went floppy.

[bbyer]

I fitted genuine 2009 D3 shocks to my D4 then when they wore-out after about 60K kms I fitted cheaper Britpart-boxed Delphi versions. After 25K kms I'm starting to think about the next set as these have already softened on slow movement to the extent that the vehicle lurches a little on the first turn of the wheel, not that they were originally as good (different valving) as the genuine D3 shocks. I noted the comment about the non Genuine but Delphi branded, and inferred to be "same as" seem to be, well .... are not.

While I have no experience with the air springs, a couple of years back, I purchased new brake rotors that over here are branded OEM, and are supposed to come off the same factory floor as the Genuine but are a bit cheaper - not much, but somewhat.

Well maybe they do come out of the same factory shipping door save for a different box, but these rotors had missed the anti-corrosion coating station. Three months later, when one looked thru the wheel spokes, the surfaces of the rotors not in contact with the pads looked the colour of railroad tracks. I then had to pull the wheels off, clean up the rotors and paint the rusted surfaces with silver heat paint - it works, but it was not worth the cost "saving."

I guess one can presume the Delphi branded air spring is probably the same rubber bladder but the shocks are somehow different, valving, quality, or who can say, but there is a quality difference.

My 3 now has about 180,000 km on the factory installed air springs so I am going thru the same exercise - should I replace with OEM Delphi or with Genuine? I note that I can still see the Delphi stickers along with the LR factory stickers on my original air springs; I guess I will just have to pay up and be happy.

[Ean Austral]

I noted the comment about the non Genuine but Delphi branded, and inferred to be "same as" seem to be, well .... are not.

While I have no experience with the air springs, a couple of years back, I purchased new brake rotors that over here are branded OEM, and are supposed to come off the same factory floor as the Genuine but are a bit cheaper - not much, but somewhat.

Well maybe they do come out of the same factory shipping door save for a different box, but these rotors had missed the anti-corrosion coating station. Three months later, when one looked thru the wheel spokes, the surfaces of the rotors not in contact with the pads looked the colour of railroad tracks. I then had to pull the wheels off, clean up the rotors and paint the rusted surfaces with silver heat paint - it works, but it was not worth the cost "saving."

I guess one can presume the Delphi branded air spring is probably the same rubber bladder but the shocks are somehow different, valving, quality, or who can say, but there is a quality difference.

My 3 now has about 180,000 km on the factory installed air springs so I am going thru the same exercise - should I replace with OEM Delphi or with Genuine? I note that I can still see the Delphi stickers along with the LR factory stickers on my original air springs; I guess I will just have to pay up and be happy.

Maybe I need to investigate further as I assumed the shock and the air spring were separate and you could just purchase the shock. Am I mistaken in my assumption?

My car has 105,000ks and by the time I get back home will be closer to 112,000 so gather that seeing it isn't a Toyota where everything lasts forever if you believe what you read, I should start to investigate options.

Cheers Ean

[Graeme]

My non-LR Delphis had been stamped "Land Rover" but attempts had been made to grind it out. Perhaps they are quality rejects but because quantities seem to be freely available, I suspect they are not rejects and that the stamping is perhaps due to all bodies being stamped early in the production process. I'm more inclined to think they are either valved to very early specs or are deliberately not the same valving as what Delphi have produced for LR possibly to avoid breaching a LR-Delphi production agreement.

[sheerluck]

Maybe I need to investigate further as I assumed the shock and the air spring were separate and you could just purchase the shock. Am I mistaken in my assumption?

My car has 105,000ks and by the time I get back home will be closer to 112,000 so gather that seeing it isn't a Toyota where everything lasts forever if you believe what you read, I should start to investigate options.

Cheers Ean

You're not mistaken, the air spring and shock are available as separate assemblies.

[Graeme]

The non-LR Delphis were complete assemblies. I wanted air-springs too because after only 100K kms my original airsprings already had significant cracks inside on the folds. That the assemblies cost very little more than just the non-LR shocks from the same and other suppliers was a bonus. Next time air-springs wont be needed - only every 2nd time for my usage.

[Epic pooh]

Mine were complete assemblies - I chose this route as it seemed a lot easier to change out than the alternative of R&R the airbag (and at 7 years old, the rubber aint going to last forever, so it seemed like time).

Not sure that this will add anything to the conversation, but when I was looking (I dithered for a long time about it) I found the options to be:

Koni FSD, shocks only, would have been my preference (have loved them in other vehicles, but Terry's experiences turned me off and it is not a sports car);

Bilstein shocks only (seemed to have had similar problems to the Konis and I've never driven on a set of Bilsteins I liked - Subaru fan bias here - handle well, but ruin a good ride);

Arnotts / Bilstein as detailed above;

Genuine LR (most expenisve option by far);

Delphi boxed (have LR stamped on the bag itself but not on shock that I could see);

Britpart boxed (Delphi as above);

Allmakes PR (Dunlop) - which I chose after discussion with supplier and price/benefit consideration (ok, I was being a cheapskate & thought since Dunlop make a lot of heavy duty suspension & airbags they'd probably be ok).

The choice to do the entire strut made it a quick and easy change out (including faffing about, took aprox 30-40 mins per corner).

Anyhow, at this point I am happy with the choice, ride is great, handling is back to normal (better than I remember TBH) and offroad ride is super smooth again. HTH

[Graeme]

This time last year Koni had withdrawn their D3/4 shocks from sale in Oz pending some research into why the front shocks weren't lasting. Regardless I couldn't be certain that the ride was going to be smooth enough on rough roads, indeed some UK reports suggested they were not.

Swapping the air-springs doesn't take long but it seems that a lot of people don't replace the shocks until they're way overdue and by that time the air-springs probably need replacing anyway.

[TerryO]

As most know I had two sets of Koni's, they were great when new but both sets failed, Koni replaced them each time, the second time they replaced them with the replacement Delphi's.


Mine have last only about 10,000 k's before losing their dampening, now they pretty much just wallow all over the place.


Personally I would pay the extra and go with the D4 original shocks next time.

[Graeme]

Mine have last only about 10,000 k's before losing their dampening, now they pretty much just wallow all over the place.Worse than mine! At least I now know that I'm not imagining that mine have gone off.