It makes a little squelchy noise on rebound but it often seems to do this! Is this a sure fire sign that it needs a service or just how it is?

I wouldn’t normally bother until I felt a problem but I am going on a two week holiday so want to take preventative measures if I need to!

Any ideas??

Squelchy noise is generally a sign of cavitation, but for most xc/trail applications you won’t notice much difference unless it’s quite bad. One thing to to check is if you get the correct/expected amount of sag/travel for your air pressure. If the damper nitrogen charge has leaked then the shock will be soft as well as noisy.

Noise can also be caused by oil in the air chamber moving through the positive/negative auto balancing ‘valve’, which is not an issue.

If it feels ok, I’d just whip the air sleeve off, clean & grease and see how it goes.

In my experience all OE forks/shocks/brakes need a service from new they seem to have just enough functionality to get them out of the door.

It’s part of a cunning plan to make us upgrade when all that’s needed is a bit of tlc

The symptoms you describe are typical of an RP2 that needs a simple air can service. I guarantee the shock will feel and perform much better.

The sign that my RP2 needed a service was the pool of oil underneath my bike in the garage.

All good now, seems better than ever.

Inconsistent damping is sign, as the gas in the nitrogen isn’t as effective as damping as the oil, you’ll also get a squelchy noise, in bad cases, but as said above the float fluid passing through the transfer port in the air can also cause a bit of squelch.