What causes a shock to go bad?

[84k5]

The passanger side front shock has a decent amount of oil coming out the top. I'm assuming it's going south. There were originally duals, but I took the shorter one off. It's a doesttch..whatever oil shock. Only has 10,000 miles on it. I ran some bumpy stuff at decent speed for a while yesterday. I'm wondering if heat killed it? Maybe just got a bad one? I think I'll replace them with some gas shocks. Thanks.

 

[ZZ4x4]

Be sure that the shock is not too short and is not able to bottom out in the extended position at max suspension droop. In my experience this is the most common way to destroy a shock when jumping the truck /forums/images/icons/shocked.gif . I...uh mean.. I hear this is true. Tends to cause cracks at the welds and who knows what happens inside. Some cheaper shocks can have flaking chrome pistons rods which will no longer seal or you may have just a bad upper seal. Mounting certain shocks upside down also makes them not work (but not usually leak). JT

 

[Chris_T]

violence on TV and in video games?