life of spheres

tomsheppard · Unread post by **tomsheppard** » 24 Feb 2003, 16:48

The rear spheres of My BX are renewed and the front is now the stiffer end. the sevice history tells me that the spheres were replaced with second hand items 50,000 miles ago. The front pair are not matched, one being smooth sided and dated 98 the other having a weld around it and no visible date code. I suspect that a sphere has packed up and not been noted on the history. (The accumulator is on about a 17 second tick period, so it is not a cause of concern.) Ought I assume that they are both duff and swap them out or should I buy a single recon and just change the one with a weld on?. Keeping the system well matched is for sure the best way but this is a matter of economics. The front struts are tired and I am not at all sure that I would get the full benefit of new replacement spheres. Fortnightly treating the struts with silicone grease helps somewhat but the rise is a little jerky and at around £230 for replacements, it could get expensive. I haven't checking and regassing facilities and I suspect that to have it done professionally would cost more than recons so I'll invite you all to proffer your usual good advice, please.

Unread post by **alan s** » 24 Feb 2003, 17:18

Tom,
I wouldn't stuff around doing one. I would suggest that you get the specs for the correct spheres & get onto Andys and replace both. If you just replace one I'd reckon it will make the other feel like crap as after that mileage it will be down for sure.
If you don't want to lash out on new ones, get a price on second hand/recons as the price for them is most times less than the cost of regassing & you usually get some kind of warranty with them.
Alan S[:D]

tomsheppard · Unread post by **tomsheppard** » 24 Feb 2003, 18:12

Thanks Alan. I had just about formed the same conclusion. I reckon I'll buy a couple of recons for the front and a new accumulator so that I know that it will be OK for a while. Certainly the bounce test seems to give different stiffnesses left to right but I wasn't sure how much of that is due to strut maladies.