Dodged a bullet or missed out

[VroomVroomClonk]

My car has 4c, and had "misting" reported on 3 of the shocks going back over several years of old MoT's before I bought it. I replaced all 4 shocks (about £450 a pair I think) soon after buying it, and found that one of the misting shocks had absolutely no damping effort left in it at all once I removed it.
So beware, misting is legally a pass for an MoT, but it can obviously only go on for a while before it will completely run out of oil and stop working completely.

I spoke to my MoT tester about it (not the same test station that had previously passed the misting shocks) and he said that they are no longer required to do the push down on each corner of the car and watch it bounce test. He also pointed out that on a car with suspension as hard as a T5 it is very difficult to get any meaningful feel for the bounce and return damping that way anyway.

[Georgeandkira]

I read somewhere that the "multiple valving" used in modern dampers makes the bounce test a thing of the past.

A few threads have asked if regular shocks/struts can be installed as 4C replacements but I cannot recall if the question was answered definitively.

Absence of replacement lenses for our headlights is a crime.

[spudd]

I replaced the 4c rear shocks on my xc70 se lux earlier this year they cost me £335. just bought front set for £252. happy with those prices especially as the car only cost me a grand.

[VroomVroomClonk]

Originally Posted by Georgeandkira

A few threads have asked if regular shocks/struts can be installed as 4C replacements but I cannot recall if the question was answered definitively.

Mechanically it can be done quite easily, just bolt on the new regular shocks. The trouble is tricking the car's computer into thinking it still has 4C shocks so it doesn't put out error messages. People have achieved this by cutting the activation coils off the end of each of the old 4C shocks and connecting them back onto the original loom connector so the computer can't tell the difference. Just out of interest, I did try cutting these off and with all four of them it resulted in the coil wires being snapped off flush with the casing. This appears to happen to many people who try, and it makes it extremely difficult to get a decent soldered connection back on to the coil again.
I think a far better way would be to measure the inductance of a working 4C shock and then buy four replacement new inductors to fool the car, but I don't have the equipment for measuring inductance.