Blown shocks?? Falcon suspension

So begins the saga that I was hoping never to deal with. I've had these Falcon shocks on my truck for about 2 and a half years, maybe 30k miles in that time. I've done some light offroading with them, never really abused. Recently I started hearing a clunking noise in the rear end and decided to take a look. What I found was very depressing. 3 out of the 4 shocks appear to be leaking fluid. Both rears and front passenger side. I guess I'll have to get a hold of Falcon and see if they can help me out. Otherwise I'll be in the market for some cheap replacements. Bilstein 5100s here I come
(Last 2 images are the driver side shock which appears in tact still).

 

Never heard of the brand. Are they supposed to be good?

 

Yep these are fucked. I would warranty them if you can or go oem…

that said you may want to do some rust prevention… you have major rust building

 

thats what the shock is trying to do

 

Falcons are big in the Jeep world. They started offering shocks for Tacoma's maybe a few years ago or so.

 

Have you heard of teraflex? Probably one of the biggest jeep suspension companies and has been around forever. They used to make good stuff. Wouldn’t be surprised if like e she one else they tried to save a few bucks and started making garbage.

Yep. At least in the jeep world it’s a good product.

 

I emailed them about it. It looks like they have a 3 year warranty so hopefully they'll help me out.

Yeah the rust is a byproduct of 6 years worth of NY winters. It was undercoated when I bought it but probably should get it recoated before next year.

 

Looks like they might be rebuildable? Just a thought anyway....

 

I believe they are. Unfortunately this is my daily driver so waiting weeks for that process would suck.

 

Have heard and used them a long time ago.

 

Not sure how good they are but it’s very popular with jeep crowd.

 

I like the shocks overall. They perform pretty well, but obviously this is a big negative. For $1500 I expected to get more than 30k miles out of them

 

Update, after emailing their customer service with photos and proof of purchase, they said there is a 3 year warranty on the shocks and sent me an RMA sheet to send them in for rebuilding. I'll have to figure out a vehicle for 3 weeks while they're being fixed, but it's nice to know Terraflex stands by their products. I'm going to send in all 4 shocks to have them rebuilt. They said if they don't find anything wrong with the 4th one that's not leaking I'll have to pay for the rebuild, but I'm good with that for the peace of mind that they're all good to go.

 

Exposed damper shafts are a big no-no in my book… especially up here in the Northeast. Figure out some proper covers and longer seal life should ensue. I’ll throw some ideas your way if this interests you.

 

That would be great. Anything to protect them more moving forward since this is my one freebie getting them fixed.

 

I've had issues with my rear 5100s on my 2nd gen. They both started leaking about 2 years after I got them. 3 months apart. They were right outside the 2 year warranty so I had to buy new ones.
I don't really wheel the truck so there's no reason why they should have blown out.

 

For the front, a strut bellows/boots/bump stop assembly… it needs to be open on the bottom (most are), not zip tied to the shock body. I’ll try do dig up some pictures of a few I’ve done. The rear can probably take a HD boot of some type. The seal head faces down, so it won’t collect debris.

 

So something like this for the rear shocks? Would these work for the front or something different?

 

Pick up some take offs from any model Taco for cheap here or FB would be my advice. If you lived close to me, I would just give you my old OEM stuff.