Hello guys What is the reliability of the 550 shock absorbers ? I was getting the suspension warning light. Dealer traced it to a faulty actuator but later call me back saying that in fact the top of the shock is broken and the whole shock need replacement. The cost is.... not unsignificant. Looking back in my car's file, I found a receipt for another shock absorber. I am surprise to have two shock failing when the car is has just covered 20 000 miles. Any experience from other 550 owners ? Apparently what fails are the plastic gears in the shock, on which the actuator connects. Has anyone developped an upgrade ? Am i the only one suffering from this ? Cheers and happy motoring.......
C'mon, I can't believe I aam the only 550 owner who has this problem !!!! Where is the 550 squad ????
On my '99 550 I have had 2 shock acutaros replaced at about 25,000 miles. Shocks so far (knock on wood) have been fine.
Mine is a 2001, and I have reviewed the cars entire repair/maintenance history from day one for the last 4 years or so. One shock actuator was replaced last year (at appx 7300 klm's), cost was in line with other posts...meaning relatively insignificant. Other than that, my car has had no problems regarding the shocks. Also, having spent many hours reviewing the search forum for 550 info, I have not noticed a significant number of complaints regarding the shock absorbers. The actuators,yes....these babies apparently like to spin! Do you tend to switch between Sport and comfort mode frequently (cant believe this could make a diff..)? Or use sport mode while driving hard on uneven broken pavement...wondering if that behavior might constitute 550 "suspension abuse"?
No just normal use. Most of time in comfort mode. What I have gathered is that the actuators control the shocks through geas which are located at the top of the shock. Two things generally happens : 1. the actuator spins on itself and end up tanled in its cables. this happens mainly in the front one, apparently for some front geometry reasons. 2. the gears - which seems to be made of low grade plasic - break. The only fix apparently is changing the whole shock. On the technical manual graph you see clearly the gears... I was wondering if anyone had bothered producing thee same gears in metal. Given the cost of a whole shock, this makes a lot of sense. Or it's just me being plain unlucky ??
Also common is the pins pushing out the back of either connector to the shock actuator, or just bad connections generally.
Read about the problem, neither of my cars have had issues other than mildly spinning actuators. My current car is a very late production 01, one of the last 550's, so hopefully has the superceded parts. Bobafett did a post with parts diagrams,pics, and part differences. HTH
