Fox stanchion wear?

ali266

i have recently noticed a couple of faint lines apearing on the stanchions of my fox 32's near the seals. am i right to believe this is due to bushing wear, and how can i fix this?

Dick Scruttock

To fix it you will need a new crown/steer unit and bushings. When was the last time you serviced them?

warpcow

Firstly make sure they're not dry inside (when was the last time you changed the lower oil?).

Faint lines don't mean it needs replacing. They'll last for years to come if taken care of properly.

welshkev

I noticed mine too late on a pair of 36's I bought second hand..i hate fox forks, it seems to happen a lot. my 36's are shagged and it'll cost nearly £500 to fix!

I've never had this happen with any rock shox that I've owned :?

The Rookie

Fox do seem to need (anecdotally) a lot more maintenance than certain competitors, wear on the stanchion could be due to lack of lubricant (they have a short service interval) or due to debris trapped in the top seal neither of which is strictly Fox's fault if they have been serviced as they should. That said I would get RS instead of Fox, they need less maintenance (according to the manual) and survive poor maintenance a LOT better.

ricardo_smooth

New RS lowers service is only 25hours........so they're now worse than fox's interval

BigAl

ricardo_smooth wrote:

New RS lowers service is only 25hours........so they're now worse than fox's interval

To do what?

Now, as a married fellah with two teenage kids, 25 hours would be perhaps 6 to 8 weeks riding for me ( in spring/summer, longer in winter). But for some on here that's probably a month of riding, maybe less?!?!

Do people really service forks that often? I certainly don't.

DCR00

I do my Fox forks every 15-20 hours, sometimes less in the winter, and i oil the stanchions before every ride

Lower leg service takes an hour max

Doesn't seem that much of a ball ache to me, versus damaging stanchions, but others may disagree

njee20

DCR00 wrote:

I do my Fox forks every 15-20 hours, sometimes less in the winter, and i oil the stanchions before every ride

Lower leg service takes an hour max

Doesn't seem that much of a ball ache to me, versus damaging stanchions, but others may disagree

I've got friends who'd be doing it more than once a week, that's a joke!

Was never an issue on older Fox forks, I had some 2005 F100 RLTs I never touched, and they were perfect for a couple of years. Only started seeing it as commonplace in the last 6-7 years really.

DCR00

njee20 wrote:

DCR00 wrote:

I do my Fox forks every 15-20 hours, sometimes less in the winter, and i oil the stanchions before every ride

Lower leg service takes an hour max

Doesn't seem that much of a ball ache to me, versus damaging stanchions, but others may disagree

I've got friends who'd be doing it more than once a week, that's a joke!

Was never an issue on older Fox forks, I had some 2005 F100 RLTs I never touched, and they were perfect for a couple of years. Only started seeing it as commonplace in the last 6-7 years really.

The way i see it, the forks are a pretty important part of the bike's performance, and are often the most expensive part attached to the frame, so i don't mind spending time looking after them

I did the same when i had Sektors

njee20

Not arguing with that. I'd not be doing it once a week though.

DCR00

njee20 wrote:

Not arguing with that. I'd not be doing it once a week though.

Nah, f*ck that

ricardo_smooth

Either way, those that complain about fox's intervals and are raving about pikes may not know this about the lower leg service as the long service is 200 hours.

poah

lower oil change is 50 hours for the pike, clean and lube air spring is 100 hours

ricardo_smooth

Not the new ones according to the review in Enduro magazine. The long service figure came from pinkbke (no short one quoted).

However it seems some more light reading has turned this up:

Every ride: clean stanchions, lubricate dust seals and stanchions (they say "upper tubes" in the manual), check air pressure, inspect stanchions for scratches.

25 hours: check front suspension fasteners for proper torque

50 hours: "Remove lowers, clean/inspect bushings and change oil bath"

100 hours: "Clean and lubricate air spring assembly" and "Change oil in dampening system (including hydraulic lockout)"

02gf74

if tou take a look at the fox bushings, they are a split aluminium tube with a number of (teflon?) segments on them - the gaps presumably are to allow oil to get past.

I would imagine there was not enough oil in the forks to cause the coating on the stanchoins to wear.