Terra Firma Shock absorber

Hi

On hearing an unusual noise from my car going over one of the many speed humps in london, I looked under the front axle to see the bolt holding the shock to the axle had sheared

These are Terra Firma shocks and only done about 2000 miles and have failed fitte to the correct torque values etc.

Surprised at such a rapid failure

Are these good shocks and what do you guys recommend only used on tarmac and the odd field

Thanks

Ash

OEM standard shocks are as good as anything and in many cases cheaper than the bull****ted up ones.

ive had +5 terrafima snap after a few weeks, the company sent me 4 new ones, they have been ok for the 2 years Ive had them

Have new'ish Terrafirmas, excellent ride with load, unloaded quite hard, too hard for me, new OEM BOGE brought, just need a fit fitter

Don't see why anyone bothers with anything other than OEM Boges unless they have fitted extended range springs and want to lift the car - the OEM Boges are cheap and give the best ride.

Druim said:

Have new'ish Terrafirmas, excellent ride with load, unloaded quite hard, too hard for me, new OEM BOGE brought, just need a fit fitter

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Fit them yourself - piece of **** to do!

StuckAgainSteve said:

Fit them yourself - piece of **** to do!

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INO fitted the Terras not long ago

Druim said:

INO fitted the Terras not long ago

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Oh, in that case, I take it you're not fit then? Get well soon!

I have put 20k through my Terras without any grief and they haven't had an easy life. TBH I think a lot of the improvements are just the fact I put on a 180k fresher set of dampers, but I like the fact they are shiny.

AP90 said:

Hi

On hearing an unusual noise from my car going over one of the many speed humps in london, I looked under the front axle to see the bolt holding the shock to the axle had sheared

These are Terra Firma shocks and only done about 2000 miles and have failed fitte to the correct torque values etc.

Surprised at such a rapid failure

Are these good shocks and what do you guys recommend only used on tarmac and the odd field

Thanks

Ash

Click to expand...

I fitted terrafirma shocks to my p38, they rode ****, when we checked the compression and rebound on them they were all different they said send them back to check them and they found one was over gassed, one had a valve in upside down both rears were oddly under gassed,they sent four new shocks out which we checked and they were all ok, now the car doesnt boat any more but is still quite hard, but they were very honest about it ! and covered all costs.

Thanks everyone,

never had no probs with the ones that i had i used my last range on and off road and would i buy another set hell yes in a heart beat

I have just changed my shocks to terrafirma as the oem ones i had fitted 70 000 miles ago as when they got hot the damping was not there and one broke the lower bolt.
The terra firma seem a stiffer ride but I havnt taken off road yet.
The others went to Mongolia twice and also through Turkey but they always bottomed out when hot.
Hopefully this year I will be able to tell you what they are like after this years trip.

ovalandrover said:

I have just changed my shocks to terrafirma as the oem ones i had fitted 70 000 miles ago as when they got hot the damping was not there and one broke the lower bolt.
The terra firma seem a stiffer ride but I havnt taken off road yet.
The others went to Mongolia twice and also through Turkey but they always bottomed out when hot.
Hopefully this year I will be able to tell you what they are like after this years trip.

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Stiffer shocks will put much more load through bolts and mountings off road.

ovalandrover said:

I have just changed my shocks to terrafirma as the oem ones i had fitted 70 000 miles ago as when they got hot the damping was not there and one broke the lower bolt.
The terra firma seem a stiffer ride but I havnt taken off road yet.
The others went to Mongolia twice and also through Turkey but they always bottomed out when hot.
Hopefully this year I will be able to tell you what they are like after this years trip.

Click to expand...

Gas in shocks is to stop the oil boiling forming bubbles and losing damping. Range rover shocks are double acting with about 25% plunge resistance and 75% rebound resistance. Shocks should not bottom out, suggest you get some new bump stops. The harder the shock on rough terrain the more load you will apply to them and their mounting points.

I must say I didn't realise that the TF's were stiffer than stock, still a very comfy ride.

I had already ordered the replacement TF's before reading the comments on here as I would have gone for Boges for the comfort

Here's a pic of the failure

Are those pics recent? I recall a user in RR.net having the exact same problem and, at the time, TF said something about a manufacturing problem that had since been solved. If that's recent, I guess they never solved it

Yes, last week, one of the replacements had a plastic upper body and a slightly different lower weld, I have asked Island 4x4 if they can sort me out a credit note or something, thay asked for pics hence the above fitted in August 13 about 6500 mostly motorway miles, the only off roading I do is Waitrose car park......

wammers said:

Gas in shocks is to stop the oil boiling forming bubbles and losing damping. Range rover shocks are double acting with about 25% plunge resistance and 75% rebound resistance. Shocks should not bottom out, suggest you get some new bump stops. The harder the shock on rough terrain the more load you will apply to them and their mounting points.

Click to expand...

Had new bump stops but the car still bottomed out after about 1 hour of travelling over rough roads. all the heights were set up and usually travelled with the height locked at standard height when on unsealed roads mind you the roads were very ordinary and normal driving on motorways they were ok.