Removed old Shocks: Should I be able to compress together?

[IAN]

I removed some old KYB rear shocks today. I can compress the shocks pretty easily. Are these history? Curious. Should I be able to compress this easily?

I already ordered new bilsteins.

thanks.

[gabenheimer]

The original Boge shocks on my '86 were fairly easy to compress by hand with 89,000 miles on them. The replacement Koni shocks were also fairly easy to compress by hand for installation but perform much better on the road. At any rate, ditch the KYBs and go with the Bilsteins. They seem to be the gold standard for Porsches.

Good luck

[masraum]

It depends on the type of shock. The Bilsteins that I put on the 911 were fairly tough to compress, and because they are gas charged extend by themselves. The Boge that I took off were marked "gas charged", but were so bad that at least one of them would compress under it's own weight, far from automatically re-extending. The other 2 or 3 were very sloppy non-gas shocks (they were all supposed to be gas, but the gas was gone).

non-gas/hydraulic shocks will compress fairly easily by hand as long as you are compressing them slowly. The problem is how easy is easy. I've heard nothing but bad about KYB.

Toss em and put the Bilsteins on.

[donstevens]

Originally posted by IAN
I removed some old KYB rear shocks today. I can compress the shocks pretty easily. Are these history? Curious. Should I be able to compress this easily?

I already ordered new bilsteins.

If you can compress them by hand they are worn out.

[David]

You can compress KYB shocks easily after about a week of use. I'd replace them with Bilstien or Koni.

[anthony]

I can compress my Koni reds with little effort when they are set to full soft. But if I turn them up a notch, I can't compress them by hand.