So last month after a track day I found one of my front AST's to be blown and spewing fluid all over my wheel/wheel well. Seeing as though the fronts were brand new as of this season, and had only 2k miles on them, this concerned me. I had it shipped back to Brian at AST-USA and he got back to me right away after he took them apart. He noticed that I had my ride height set pretty high, so I explained how I needed to clear my 9.5" wheels with 255s up front. I had the adjuster / lower spring perch set above the top of the shock body, so that a few threads were sticking out. I know a few other AST guys running like this due to the shorter springs that are supplied so I figured it was fine. Apparently the spring perch was high enough that it was putting side loads on the top guide which caused the o-ring to fail, hence the fluid leaking out. The damper was literally "topping out", which is basically the opposite of bottoming out. Most people who lower their cars excessively will run out of bump travel; I was running out of droop travel.
As recommended by Brian, I called Terry at Vorshlag to discuss my options of having a spacer made - this seems to be a common problem in the E46 world so they already had a solution for that. Terry quickly had some spacers made for me, and shipped them overnight so I could attend my Auto-x that weekend. The spacers sit between the upper spring perch / bearing and the bottom of the Vorshlag camber plates themselves. However, this causes a problem where the stack height is too tall to be able to get a lock nut on the top of the strut, so a custom nut was made where it sits down inside the camber plates and is threaded with a "nut" on the top. Interesting concept, and actually works great. I took some pictures of when I first took them out and was playing around with the spacers, so excuse the dirtiness.
This shows the Vorshlag plates without the spacer
This is the Vorshlag plates WITH the spacer
Without the spacer
Again without, notice the amount of threads available for the upper nut
With the spacer in place
Without the spacer there is sufficient threads for the upper nut
With the spacer, the threads do not show
The new upper nut has a threaded portion that fits down in there, and tightens up top. Genius solution if you ask me!
In place, before tightened down
New parts installed, all said and done...
The knob sits right above the nut on the new setup.
The new nut and spacer - nut is on the left, spacer on the right
The "newest design" of the sway bar collars with locking rings on the top and bottom that lock with spanner wrenches. In this most recent design, it's not possible to pinch the shock body by over tightening the bolt.
I've put a good amount of miles on the car and auto-x'd it since these were installed, and I've had zero issues and the shocks are actually in their optimum range of travel now. I'm pretty sure this also took care of a clunk that I had in the front that I couldn't figure out, since I was hearing the shocks top out. If you are running AST's and have a similar issue, I'd call Terry and get these spacers - they'll run you $30 for the set. Hope this helps!
As recommended by Brian, I called Terry at Vorshlag to discuss my options of having a spacer made - this seems to be a common problem in the E46 world so they already had a solution for that. Terry quickly had some spacers made for me, and shipped them overnight so I could attend my Auto-x that weekend. The spacers sit between the upper spring perch / bearing and the bottom of the Vorshlag camber plates themselves. However, this causes a problem where the stack height is too tall to be able to get a lock nut on the top of the strut, so a custom nut was made where it sits down inside the camber plates and is threaded with a "nut" on the top. Interesting concept, and actually works great. I took some pictures of when I first took them out and was playing around with the spacers, so excuse the dirtiness.
This shows the Vorshlag plates without the spacer
This is the Vorshlag plates WITH the spacer
Without the spacer
Again without, notice the amount of threads available for the upper nut
With the spacer in place
Without the spacer there is sufficient threads for the upper nut
With the spacer, the threads do not show
The new upper nut has a threaded portion that fits down in there, and tightens up top. Genius solution if you ask me!
In place, before tightened down
New parts installed, all said and done...
The knob sits right above the nut on the new setup.
The new nut and spacer - nut is on the left, spacer on the right
The "newest design" of the sway bar collars with locking rings on the top and bottom that lock with spanner wrenches. In this most recent design, it's not possible to pinch the shock body by over tightening the bolt.
I've put a good amount of miles on the car and auto-x'd it since these were installed, and I've had zero issues and the shocks are actually in their optimum range of travel now. I'm pretty sure this also took care of a clunk that I had in the front that I couldn't figure out, since I was hearing the shocks top out. If you are running AST's and have a similar issue, I'd call Terry and get these spacers - they'll run you $30 for the set. Hope this helps!
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