shock absorbers

[AndyC]

Dampers that don't dampen. Within 6 months of use on the Esprit they were provinding no dampening, less than you'd expect of 20 years' old dampers. The Excel, much the same except I don't know how long they'd been fitted before I purchased it so they may have lasted longer than the 12 months before I found them unbearable.

[Hawaiis0]

Score so far 2 - 1 in favour of Protecs. Half time. What will the second period produce?

[Bigvolvo]

Hmmm, none the wiser then. Didnt expect such polarized views! Perhaps the damper rate was set incorrectly? This is why Id prefer non adjusable shocks.

[Lotus-e-Clan]

You may have hit-on a significant point re: difference in opinion about the Protechs.

One of the built-in features of the Protechs is that they have more than one settable "click range" built-in to the valving.

At least this is true for my Clan's Protech dampers - you can remove the adjusting knob and move the adjustment spindle to give a different range of adjustments.

Initially my front Protechs were just too hard even at the lowest setting (the Clan is V light at the front made worse by running a rear radiator and not a front radiator). So as per instruction, I removed the knob and reset the range to give lower bump values.

So it is just possible that Protechs meant for Lotus have been assembled with the adjusting knob in the wrong range - ie too soft as in Andy's case?

[AndyC]

Possibly, but initially they had a decent amount of damping, within 6 months they were virtually closing down with just the weight of the piston.

[Lotus-e-Clan]

Where they fitted with dust protectors too?

[AndyC]

Don't think so, but there was no problem with fluid having leaked out, it was just the valves inside allowed fluid to move too easily.

[Lotus-e-Clan]

Fairy snuff.

We can only speak as we find.

My Protech rears came with covers but the fronts didn't, so I transferred the old Spax covers to the fronts ...I haven't run without covers since the old cover-less GAZ rears on the Clan started to knock (no obvious fluid loss -but valves became noisy) and I lost confidence in them so on went the Protechs. The cover-less Gaz rears on the Lotus haven't lasted well - so 1+1 = 2 disappointments = move-on to something else (even though lack of covers may be significant?).