My car has factory fitted uprated shocks, lower and stiffer than the usual ones, and I find that despite not abusing them I go through the back set every 30-35,000 miles. As new ones are quite expensive, I am interested to know whether there are simple things I can do at home that don't require a hoist.
They aren't adjustable, just the Subaru own 2006 STi shocks.
Any useful ideas gratefully received.
Realistically, there's not a whole lot you can do. What will help though is to clean them periodically, especially where the parts slide in and out of each other. The objective being to keep foreign matter away from the seals. Depending on shocker design a high pressure cleaner can be quite useful here.
A common cause of rapid shocker failure is faulty mounting points. This may not be at all obvious visually but if the mounting points cause either end of the shocker to be forced even slightly to one side it will cause all the wear in the shocker to take place in a concentrated area, rather than being spread over the diameter of the affected part. This most commonly results in rapid seal wear.
The same effect can be cause by over tightening the nut on the pin end of the shocker. It really doesn't need to be as tight as most people seem to think. Check your manual for the specifics.
If properly installed, there's really nothing to be done. As mentioned above, you can clean them to prevent the seals from being damaged by grit. Most setups have covers over them anyways that keeps most of the dirt out. Those covers tend to fall apart after a few years though. Either way, I don't think I've ever seen a failure due to seal damage.
Have you considered going with a different brand? What are other people's results with that particular setup?
The clunk/lateral motion was most likely the top plate. Those, generally speaking, seem to be a weak point. I've had to replace the top plates on the struts on my MR2 multiple times (damper unit itself is still functioning perfectly).
