damn, i just got my used TEIN basics on a few weeks ago and one of the struts in the front blew witha vengeance today. i noticed the puddle of hydraulic fluid under the car and ripped the wheel off. the whole top of the strut is seeping fluid wicked bad.

i emailed TEIN but i couldn't find anything along the lines of a phone number. if anyone has any info about TEIN's USA branch that they could pass along to me it would be greatly appreciated. if anyone has a TEIN basic front strut for an 02/03 lancer they they do not need and are willing to sell to me, this would work out just as well as a new one from TEIN (if i can even get one) would.

oddly enough i was always worried about blowing my stock struts and here i go blowing a TEIN strut... pretty wild.

 

hopefully the guy you got them from has the warrenty card so than tein will hopefully replace it thats what happened to a friend of mine a couple years back

 

yeah, i sent TEIN's USA branch an email, hopefully they will work something out with me. i can't just take the strut off and send it back though seeing as how i already sold my stock OZ suspension. all i have left are springs.

 

Are you still driving your car? And www.car-part.com

 

i'm only going to drive it when i have to, i'm going to call TEIN USA on monday, i already sent them an email. i'll see how quickly i can get a replacement. hopefully they will be able to sell me a single strut.

guess i shouldn't have sold off my stock suspension so quickly, i could have had the front struts back on in less than 30 mins. i haven't even paid off the TEINs yet!

 

Don't know about a replacement, but I know you can mail it to them for a rebuild.

 

yeah, i am not sure about that. trouble is that i can't have my car down for however long it takes to get the strut rebuilt. i've got to get to and from work at the very least. it's a small business so it's not like there are a bunch of people who could cover for me if i am not there.

i called them up just to see if i could get through, no one was there so i left a message. i will call again sometime tomorrow if no one calls me first.

 

one thing i was wondering was if i could get say KYB struts... well, i'd probably have to get stock OZ struts from actually... but anyway, if i were to get stock-ish struts and swap them out, could i still use the TEIN springs? i'd just do the whole front end until i got the busted TEIN remanufactured.

i can also imagine i'd need an alignment after all this screwing with my suspension business.

 

for all interested parties i'm working with vivd racing and TEIN to get them to split up a set of the basics so i can buy one when their shipment comes in on thursday. hopefully they do not have to sell all the sets that they get and they will be able to break one up for vivid and myself.

i'll post any updates here.

 

here's the most recent update!

TEIN does not sell direct so i had to go through a distributor. i was working with vivid in AZ but that didn't really work out. it did not look like TEIN would break one of their fresh sets of coilovers for them.

after all this i called gabe at RRM. i should have called RRM FIRST! all the guys there are extremely helpful and will go the extra mile for their customers. we worked it out where he will try to get them to break a set so i can get one of the struts that came in to TEIN today but if he can't he'll just special order the one strut. TEIN estimated 1-3 weeks for me to get the strut reconditioned and that was out of the question since my lancer is my daily driver. a special order might take just as long, but at least i will still be able to drive the car until the new strut comes in.

for RRM and gabe:

...a whole six pack is in order for them!

 

cool. good to hear. Crazy the strut blew. havnt heard of a tein strut blowing on a lancer yet. your the first that I know of.

 

that is what everyone said!

i don't drive that hard, either. i have an idea as to what could have caused it though... i was picking up my girlfriend the other day and some idiot was flying straight at me pretty fast on the wrong side of the road and totally almost creamed me. i just did one of those where you just shut your eyes and cut the wheel away from the guy as hard as i could.

the guy missed me fortunately but i totally spun out pretty hard. that guy didn't even stop... HAD to have been drunk.

 

RRM has always had hands down the best customer service no question.

 

CRAZY...

Maybe the maneuver caused strain on the coilover and caused it to burst. Since, they are used, you never really know how the original owner abused them.

These things happen.. but atleast you got it worked out!

 

my friend DID autox with them for awhile. i am almost sure that the fancy moves i had to make when i spun out were the cause of the thing biting the dust.

no new strut yet, but it should be coming soon. i'll call gabe at RRM or send him an email after it's been a week or so.