Shocks cold weather sensitive

I wasn't entirely sure at first but since we've had this cold -30 weather, its like night and day. The shocks stiffen up and the suspension is rock solid, and sounds like ball joints are gone. But yet if I have it sit in the garage and pull out, its back to smooth sailing. If the fluid that sensitive?

Need an aftermarket electric heating pad for them.

Man oh man. I've been aggravated by this since I bought my truck. Tons of posts about it. Ford has an SSM out that says it's normal. Not normal as far as I'm concerned, but the only way to eliminate it is to upgrade the suspension which isn't cheap.

So, for now I'm waiting for warmer weather!

Once you drive around a while and work the shocks they heat up themselves. I think the oil is just a less viscous when it is cold.

I will say that on Snoball Day 3 after being Dipped in the Water and Driven around, then driving home on The Day 4. My suspension was hard as a rock but finally warmed up and smoothed out later on down the road.

I had 0 issues at snoball

CB Freshness said:

I had 0 issues at snoball

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I bet it was like riding on marshmallows.

OrangeAddict said:

I bet it was like riding on marshmallows.

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Clouds actually

Yes. Shocks are temperature sensitive. Two things will happen. The first the oil thickens and contracts. IF there isn't enough oil volume in the shock, it could cause travel issues. Second, the gas force in the shock will drop because the oil contracts and the pressure drop due to the lower temperature (Ideal Gas Law). A result of this pressure drop, the fluid might cavitate (or dissolved gas and oil vapor form in oil). The final outcome is the shock functions at a diminished function. I tried to spare the long winded answer there.

Things will right themselves once you driven a little. I definitely wouldn't take it out off road right away. For normal driving, I would think it would be fine.

This is 100% normal with these kinds of shocks. And upgrading is only going to take them longer to heat up. Some of the race teams we run with put heating pads on their shocks to heat them up for qualifying. And that could be when it's 80 or 90 degrees out.

Shocks like these have an ideal temperature. Under that temperature and they are too stiff, over it and they are too soft (or "shock fade").

That's what I figured. More for racing application. Too bad most of my daily driving is limited to 30 minutes at a time. Good to know that its normal though.