Adding oil to Fox Airs

[SCDL Guy]

Can I add oil with the shock fully extended, or does it have to be compressed.  With a stock shock how much oil can I add before I should be concerned?

[dsrace]

you can add with shocks fully extended but let the pressure out first! then remove the schrader ( valve stem tit  ). with stock 2.0's you can only add 30cc's of oil over stock level. I add in 5cc increments, but you can add in 10 cc increments if need to.

[SCDL Guy]

I added 30cc and could still feel it bottoming, barely. So a few nights ago I added another 30cc. Whats going to happen if I drive it like this? Any idea why I was still bottoming? How would I remove the excess oil?

[Admin]

what stroke is the shock, as far as i was aware, every shock was different as to the amount of oil that could be added... Maybe there was not the intended amount of oil to begine with? is the shock bottoming out, or is the chassis bottoming out not letting the shock work as it should?

[Yoshi]

[dsrace]

"is the shock bottoming out, or is the chassis bottoming out not letting the shock work as it should?"  bugpac's and yoshi's question x3


As I was told (by the fox shock rep) number of years ago, 8.5 - 14 stroke air 2.0's will accept an additional 30cc's of oil before re-valving. anymore than that could and/or will damage the shock. you could call whoever you purchased the shocks from and find out factory fill amount then empty yours and start over.

[Doug Heim]

Do not over fill as I was told by FOX that it will cause seals to blow.

[fabr]

I was looking at a chart today that showed the oil capacity @ approx 5-600 cc depending on stroke.So in reality you don't add much to them total and you'd better have the right amount to start with so I'd say you need to totally drain and start over.

[SCDL Guy]

I called FOX today, was told my 10" travel shocks should come from the factory with 260cc, and I could add up to 30cc more oil for a total of 290cc. I drained them after work and found they had 280cc, which included the 70cc I had previously added. So they came low from the factory(210cc).  Thanks for the help.

[fabr]

You bought them new and they were THAT far off?

[Engineer]

You bought them new and they were THAT far off?

Might depend on how long they were left to bleed out.  What viscosity is this oil?

[plkracer]

The oil is pretty thin. I've heard it's 5w at some places, and 7wt at others. I know my fronts are way off from what they should have been. When I had the n2 out, I could feel them cavitating about 1.5 inches before the shock would bottom out. I haven't added any, but I want to pull the oil out to see how much is actually in there.

[fabr]

I use 5W Amsoil shock oil in the coilovers. I can't see it being an issue when draining.No way there was that much still in the shock after draining. I mean 80CC? No way IMO.

[odypilots]

Make sure to cycle the shock a few times upside down after you start draining it. If you don't, the shock will hold some oil.

When filling, I added half my oil, then cycled the shock some to work the oil through the shock.  Be slow and sure, otherwise you can shoot oil all over the place. After that, to determine the maximum oil I could add, I slowly compressed the shock all the way and added until it was full.

This was with Fox Airs 2.0, by the way.

[Yoshi]

On the FOX airshocks, aren't you able to fully compress the shock, then fill it all the way up with oil for the max usable in the shock?  I know if you have too much oil, the shock will not bottom out, it will hydrauloc lock and actually bottom out on the piston inside instead of fully collapsing, so if the shock is fully collapsed and you fill it with oil, then you should be able to top it off and be safe.  Adding the nitro won't effect anything, the nitro will compress as much as it needs too, the oil cannot.

Again, this is a question, I believe I was told you can do that from a shock seller, although i've never tried.....