Guest

Dont make the same mistake I did and spend your money on junk. 3000 miles (mostly highway), absolutely no damage whatsoever, right rear leaking like there's no tomorrow. I heard it suggested that there may have been damage like a nick to the shaft or something along those lines. Not hardly. I could have spent $20 instead of $280 and had something that would be in the car for years and miles to come. And they think I should be happy getting them rebuilt... what, to get another 3000 miles? I think not.

Avoid these like the plague.

CamarosRUS

damn sorry to hear that. ive always heard good about those too.

i have a questions for you, i know Strange shocks are very similar to the QA1's but what i dont know is if these (Strange and the QA1's) are dedicated drag shocks or good twisty shocks as well?

SOM WS9

I have a set of the HAL/QA1 front shocks on my Formula and I love them! I have had no problems at all in the last 20,000 miles or so, and they perform like the day they went in. They work amazingly well for street/strip. After my personal experience, and seeing/hearing the experiences of others I would have to say that yours is a unique one. You can't base everything on one bad experience.

Guest

Well they should have served well for either. We did auto-x the car once and it did just fine. I think they were OK, nothing special or out of the ordinary aside of extremely short lifespan. I'd say if you have some and have more than 3000 miles, feel blessed.

SOM WS9

You're still basing this on one experience though. I have never heard of anything like this from them. I have the adjustable drag shocks on my Formula and my GTA will probably be getting a set for street use when it's done.

Guest

Not really. I did an internet search and found I'm not the only one who's had a problem with their products. Sure there's problems in any produced part but worse than that, QA1 flat out didnt care. Their answer to me was nothing less than tough luck. Great attitude. I already paid enough for them, last thing I plan to do is throw more money into a lost cause.

Here's a picture of the abused and beaten shock in question: (sorry for size, but I'd rather there be no questions)


There are other pictures on the same website. Anything weird you see are specks of dust.

Yes, I wiped the oil off. It was even leaking just sitting in the box. I guess I should store it for now vertically so it cant leak.

Xlr8torZ28

iTrader: (19)

I personally have an Eibach pro kit with Koni Yellows... I love the KONIs.... adjustable and way stiffer than the Koni reds...

CamarosRUS

arent the Strange shocks and QA1's about the same? are these more for drag use or can you use them for good corner carving as well?

86t/a owner

i will not use konis on anything anymore not to hijack the thread hehe, 3 sets now are junk on my buddys race car, one froze up, one blew a seal and the others are starting to leak, junk this is on a 86 camaro running high 9s, and they want 300 to rebuild two and a 8week turn around so i would not be running to koni either.

Neil

Man, that SUCKS!!!!! I agree with you guys, any product can have a fault, but it's the company's support or lack thereof which makes potentially NEW customers such as myself, shy away from them and look else where! Madmax you should send them the link to this thread and let them read for themselves how they are hurting their future business. Why they don't offer a lifetime guarantee is beyond me, hell I have KYB shocks and struts which are working just fine (have 40K + miles), are alot cheaper and come with a lifetime guarantee.
I was planning on going to coilovers using the QA1 shocks and struts, but now I might have to reconsider. Thanks for sharing your experience, that is exactly what these boards are for!

Xlr8torZ28

iTrader: (19)

my Konis have a lifetime warranty. I have had them on for 5 years now, with no troubles.

86t/a owner

yours might, but i was going to pick up my buddys bad set and have them rebuild, then changed my mind when they told me the price. here is the email, sorry it was 280 bucks and this was struts not shocks hehe

Nathan,

The struts would be $140/each to rebuild for the front of your Camaro.
The current turnaround time for this is currently 8 weeks. Please note
that the struts will be cheaper to replace than it will be to rebuild
if
they are the 8741 1030 (Special or Sports). Thanks for writing.

Gordon

Shagwell

...that sucks man! I've been planing on putting them on the back of mine after the new chassis is done, but I'm begining to wonder. - Funny part is we pound the hell outta them on the back of the 3000+hp 10.5 tire cars.....I guess pot-holes and speed bumps and such do more damage/wear....

jrsfast84

Well, here's my story, I have adj. Koni's up front and QA1 adj. on rear, they been on the car for 3 yrs. of racing and till this day no problems, but i bought a set of Strange Double Adj. for the rear so i could get a Wolfes Under the rear Anti-roll bar. to try to keep from Wheel standing, but my question would be why would you buy a Adj. rear shock for street driving, even if you go to the track to race, there not made for every day driving, stock 50/50 rear shocks and 50/50 or 70/30 front strut work fine. ( just my 2 cents).JR1.

Neil

Can you get a non-adjustable strut and shock with coil over from another company? I plan on converting to coil overs in the rear because I will be mini tubbing the car.

jrsfast84

Check out (Spohn Performance, Inc.) he has a rear shock and coil-over kit that you get rid of the rear coil spring, that's a great set-up for strip or street. JR1.

Neil

If I am not mistaken, Spohn uses the QA1 shock, right?

jrsfast84

Yes, your right QA1, they are a very good shock, but seriously all shocks have there ups and downs. they are a very good shock, if they were that bad i wouldn't be running them!!!!! . JR1

Shagwell

also, I noticed in the pic that those are the poly-bushed coil-overs, meaning they are "street" shocks. - these are what I've been looking at for mine(regular universal "pro street' coil-overs). hummmmm....well, atleast with me working at a hydrualic shop I have access to tons of o-rings...maybe I could just rebuild with better materials if I need to....

Guest

Well, here's what QA1 says about their own product:

"Stocker StarŽ
Externally adjustable, stock mount, bolt-in shocks for
drag racing, street performance, road course and pro-touring"

Doesnt sound like race only to me.

As for the shocks, seems like rebuilding them is fairly common, they are even nice enough to mention many times that they are rebuildable. For the $50 minimum it costs to do that, they get to be a really costly toy really fast. Also it seems that applications that arent intended to see anything other than direct vertical loading are the problem children, the front struts seem to have no complaints. QA1 also says they have some sort of double seal system to keep dirt away from the critical o-ring and the shaft, but my impression is it doesnt work very well.

Bilsteins are still doing fine. What a shock. (pun intended). Also pulled our best 60' ever, no junk 12-way adjustables installed. I dont think I will being going back, ever.