# Fox fork owners: how often do you rebuild, change oil, etc...?



## man w/ one hand (Dec 29, 2003)

How often do you have your fork rebuilt, change your oil, etc. AND is it cheaper to get Fox to do it or a local place, like Suspension Experts for me, (I live in western NC). Having a 2011 36 Talas redone that has to have new uppers w/kashima and a new air spring...possibly gonna cost as much as a new fork !?!!!! :madman::madmax:
I let it go too long before getting this done, I know it would've been cheaper had I got it fixed long ago, but I bought a 2014 36 Talas and never got around to getting the 2011 fixed. :madman:


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## 11053 (Sep 19, 2009)

Bath and seal service= every 30hrs is the target. Sometimes seals can go longer, but I always stay on top of bath fluid levels. Depends on how much ride time the particular fork is getting. Some of my Fox products get bath + seals every month in peak riding windows.

Air Spring= I check it during every leg bath change.

FIT dampers= I now ride them till they die or I can detect they need a bleed. The majority of my FIT dampers have been excellent long beyond the recommended service intervals. I don't follow the FOX timeline on the FIT cartridge.

Bushings= I've been getting close two 2 years out of bushings. If there's no knock and stanchions look good I keep riding them. Even with proper bath oil service and maintained fluid levels, bushing knock will eventually appear for me.

A complete overhaul from FOX comes with a warranty. 
Fox service for complete rebuilds is actually very fair if you aren't stuck having to replace worn parts.

Best thing you can do is to close the interval on bath oil service as this will allow you to best monitor stanchion wear, oil migration, etc before you end up having to replace damaged parts.


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## man w/ one hand (Dec 29, 2003)

Had to send my 2014 36 180 Talas w/ FIT cart in after 1 month, due to an oil leak, wrench at my LBS said that Fox said "there are microscopic scratches in the kashima and I hadn't kept the wipers clean, (for the entire month I had I owned it) and due to that they had to replace the uppers too". Does anyone else here on MTBR w/ a Fox fork, try to keep your wipers clean so you don't get microscopic scratches during the 1st month of ownership?? That means taking some sort of pick to get inside the edge of the wiper and clean them out so they don't get build up and cause the kashima to develop microscopic scratches in the surface and causer the fork to leak oil.....I miss the old Zocchi'z...buttery smooth for at least a yr or so w/zero issues & it doesn't cost the price of a new fork to get rebuilt.

SUX.


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## charging_rhinos (Jul 29, 2008)

Sorry you're having problems. Mine have been very reliable to date. It's odd that you'd get scratches so quickly. have you had any falls that might ahve brushed things up against it? I did have one incident with my first fork where I fell while walking down a particularly spicy bit of trail that I wasn't prepared for. Just slipped and of course the bike came down and brushed a stanchion over the only freaking rock in the vicinity. the scratches were quite small, but it did consume some oil after that point. Another possible cause might be way you transport your bike. Do you use a rack or transportation method that might rub on the stanchions, like a Dakine truck pad, or tossing the bike on its side in the car? That might cause some very subtle wear if a bit of dirt is being pushed into the stanchion. Just a thought. 

But as I said, I have had no real problems with my past 2 Fox forks. First one had the older crappy seals/wipers, and they needed replacing probably every 3 months of riding. My current 36 seals have lasted a year with zero signs of leakage. I'll drain and refill the oil from the legs every 2 months or so, and I can usually tell how the seals and wipers are doing just by the amount of crap in the oil. It always has a bit of dirt in there, but it's been holding up great so far in comparison to my old fork. 

Doing the maintenance yourself is really easy. Far easier than many people make it out to be. It takes me about an hour (working at a rather leisurely pace) to drain and replenish the oil, and each time costs probably $5 in oil at most. And when seals need replacing, that adds on another hour to the process at most, and another $25-30 for the seal kit. Super easy, as long as you aren't the type that over-tightens things or ends up with extra screws after everything is put back together  I just don't like to pay a shop $100+ for something that I can do for $35 and a few relaxing hours with my tools.


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## man w/ one hand (Dec 29, 2003)

Thanx Rhino, I do indeed use a Dakine pad, however, for entire time I rode Marzocchi forks & used a Dakine pad I had zero issues w/ my forks. I ride as much as 2-4 hrs through the wk & then another 4-8 hrs on the wkend, so I am putting a decent amount of hrs on my fork, however, I don't know of anyone that rides MX that has to rebuild forks as often as Fox says is necessary w/ bike forks. Planned obsolescence ?? Hell I was *****ing about the prices of new bikes, (WTF!!), and now with this fork it's going to cost as much get it fixed as it did to buy it. I mean who is buying $300 & $400 cassettes & such?!?! I usually put a new drive train on, cassette, chain, rings on about 1 or 2 times a yr...no more. Guess I'm gonna ride my old Nomad & VP Free into the frigging ground & that'll be the end of it.


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## azdog (Nov 16, 2004)

Oh man if I had suspension experts that close it would be very tempting to go there. Heard nothing but great stuff about that place.


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## charging_rhinos (Jul 29, 2008)

Yeah, i hear you there. Old Marz forks were rather divey and weighed a ton. But they just kept on going. And when they finally started to leak, replacing everything was super easy. It seems like both RS and Fox have gone to great lengths to lighten everything, maybe even too far in some aspects. Neither are half as burly as the old stuff.


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## TheRage43 (Jul 19, 2012)

Short answer:

More often than any Marz owner...


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## man w/ one hand (Dec 29, 2003)

TheRage43 said:


> Short answer:
> 
> More often than any Marz owner...


Werdat.


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