i went to a track day at gingerman with my '85 Si after 5 years of garage time. rented a u-haul tow-dolly since my tow vehicle is limited and sold the trailer in '99.

the first session was at about 6/10's to bed the new carbotechs and to shake down the car a bit. decided that the tires were no longer up to the rear bar setting and made adjustments.

when i came in after the second session, oil was dropping by the driver's cv. turned out i had blown a tokico illumina (don't start on me, Lee, these were the old ones).

was this a coincidence or did i possibly damage a shock by using the tow dolly?

(btw, the best $39.95 i ever spent since i will not do it again or buy one. now looking at 3/4 ton pickups, enclosed trailers and storage rentals.)


Modified by tom91ita at 2:44 PM 7/15/2004

 

I have used dollies millions of times and never had any damage as a result.

 

I don't know if it was the dolly's fault but those things always make me nervous how the car is secured by just strapping and ratchiting the wheels down.... that and you can't back the damn things up.

Again I don't know that the dolly did the damage but I personally believe they do place some strain on your suspension because your basically pulling the car by its front wheels like pulling someones arms out of their sockets ... they are probably fine but they don't sit well with me.

 

I'd blame the 5 years in the garage before the tow dolly. A little dirt on the shock shaft, a little aging/drying of the oil seal on the top of the shock, then the next thing it sees is a race track.

At least they are realatively "cheap" shocks.

Scott

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tom91ita &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">i went to a track day at gingerman with my '85 Si after 5 years of garage time. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Good for you, welcome back to the land of foot to the floor in 4th and 5th gear

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tom91ita &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> (don't start on me, Lee, these were the old ones)</TD></TR></TABLE>



<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by tom91ita &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">was this a coincidence or did i possibly damage a shock by using the tow dolly? </TD></TR></TABLE>

I have heard of people damaging shocks when using a tow dolly but that has typically been a rear on a low and stiffly spring car with admittedly bad roads where the rear suspension was subjected at highway speed to bumps and bangs, and general road conditions much worse than the track.

I too think that the failure is probably more an issue of the shock not having been used for years. To lubricate the guides and seals, usually a very small amount of oil stays on the piston rod but your parking it for the long run may have let that dry up or get dirty in addition to the rod seal itself drying out. Add that situation to its first real movement in years to being on the open and maybe not the smoothest roads and I'd think this is not really that surprising. I don't think the dolly was really at fault here but the lack of suspension on it and likelihood that the car was strapped to the dolly at the tires so the chassis was free to move fully probably didn't help matters lot.