I seem to have killed my Bluto in six weeks and am not sure whether to fix it myself or just send it back.
It's the RCT3 version (Motion Control damper).
Out of the box it seemed to be fine. All the knobs did what they should. It was a bit linear and I could blow through the travel quite easily, which is unusual for me. But it felt fine, so I just figured I'd ride it and buy some tokens at some point to make it more progressive.
Recently I noticed that I was no longer using all the travel and at the weekend it started to feel pretty harsh (like it was locked out) and I only used around 2/3 of the travel. I also noticed a sucking sound if I bounced up and down, which I don't remember before.
Checking it over quickly this morning none of the knobs seem to work any more. Pedal and lockout have hardly any effect on compression and the rebound is pretty fast no matter what I do with the adjuster.
I'm guessing that if I take them apart I'll find that at least some of the oil from the damper is now in the lower leg, but should I bother? I could just send them back to CRC. However, if I do that I'm without the forks for a while. They could just claim that seals aren't covered by warranty anyway, which is fair enough. At the other end of the spectrum they may just send me a new fork, which sounds fine but I've stuck some custom orange decals on these and don't fancy the hassle (and cost) of doing that again (plus cutting the steerer and fitting a new SFN).
So, hivemind, what would you do?
send them back.
It's under warranty still I assume. Send it back.
Probably good advice, thanks, but I suspect it's still going to cost me more than just fixing it myself.
What will we do with broken Blutos?
What will we do with broken Blutos?
What will we do with broken Blutos?
Early in the morning!
Way hay and up she rises,
Way hay and up she rises,
Way hay and up she rises,
Early in the morning!
Put them in a box and send them back
Put them in a box and send them back,
Put them in a box and send them back,
Early in the morning!
Way hay and up she rises,
Way hay and up she rises,
Way hay and up she rises,
Early in the morning!
Wait for Yodel to lose the parcel,
Wait for Yodel to lose the parcel,
Wait for Yodel to lose the parcel,
Early in the morning!
Way hay and up she rises,
Way hay and up she rises,
Way hay and up she rises,
Early in the morning!
Post on STW about your loss,
Post on STW about your loss,
Post on STW about your loss,
Mid morning between aeropress coffees
Way hay and up she rises,
Way hay and up she rises,
Way hay and up she rises,
Early in the morning!
That's what we do with a broken Blutos,
That's what we do with a broken Blutos,
That's what we do with a broken Blutos,
Early in the morning!
Way hay and up she rises,
Way hay and up she rises,
Way hay and up she rises,
Early in the morning!
Way hay and up she rises,
Way hay and up she rises,
Way hay and up she rises,
Early in the morning!
Read more: Irish Rovers - Broken Blutos Lyrics | MetroLyrics
🙂 😀 
Love it and I'm glad somebody picked up on the title.
Literally just seen thread, beaten to silly reply asking about if it happened early in the morning by almost an hour. 😉
Have you rubbed spinach leaves over them?
Wait for Yodel to lose the parcel,
Wait for Yodel to lose the parcel,
Wait for Yodel to lose the parcel,
[s]Early in the morning![/s]sometime in 24hr window
Ftfy
Mine are strong to the finish
For the damping, you could check whether this was the problem:
(This is the 3rd time I've posted this recently in relation to RCT3 dampers)
This was the cause of the lockout failing on my RCT3 Blutos after 3 or 4 rides. Very easy fix: just unscrew the damper and lift it part way out. Run your fingernail around the spring and if you hear it click into place above the shim, you've done it. Mine has been fine since (>12 months).
I also had a problem with mine where the air spring was leaking air into the negative chamber because there was almost no grease in it. Made the forks feel very harsh, but crash through their travel). You can tell if it's this because you will be constantly losing air pressure (you can try venting this through the "hidden" valve that you see when you remove the bolt from the bottom of the left hand leg). An air spring service sorted this out, but you may not want to go to those lengths if you can get them done under warranty. Even when working properly, I've found that they need 2 or 3 tokens (120mm) to provide a decent amount of support and not blow through the travel.
Thanks tillydog. I knew I'd read something about a spring migrating somewhere, but was blowed if I could remember where, so that's really helpful.
I think we're all agreed that sending them back to CRC would be the sensible option, so I almost certainly wont do that 🙂 Get ready for a follow-up thread where I break them properly.
Before realising that the damper wasn't working I was working on the theory that it was the old "air migrating into the lowers" problem, since I've had that on pretty much every Rockshox fork I've owned. It was interesting to read about the "secret valve" at the bottom. At least that shows that they know there is a problem, even if the can't fix it !
Well, if you don't want sensible, how about finding an LBS you've never bought from and trying to get them to di you a SRAM warranty return? 😈 (I'm nothing to do with any shop anywhere!)
OT, it probably depends on what you want. Tillydog is probs right with diagnosis and method, so really it's down to do you wanna play fork mechanic or take a chance on what SRAM do and see if the next one works if they replace? Given the decals etc I'd be inclined to open it up and back off / warranty if it turns out to be needing parts that were obviously badly fitted/broken and need money to replace.
Well, if you don't want sensible, how about finding an LBS you've never bought from and trying to get them to do you a SRAM warranty return?
Now there's a plan 🙂
Actually, it's interesting to hear what other people would do, but in all honesty there was never a chance that I'd be able to resist pulling them apart and having a poke around. Probably do more harm than good of course. But if all else fails I can always march into my nearest LBS armed with nothing but my sense of entitlement and demand that they sort out my problems for me. What could possibly go wrong 🙂
Well, I pulled the damper out, which was easy enough. The springs (there seem to be two, one above and one below the blue disc) seem OK, although I'm not sure what they do! The main problem seemed to be too little oil. There seemed to only be around 70ml in there. Topping it back up to the recommended 106ml seems to have fixed everything (for now). Of course that still leaves the question of where the oil went (assuming it wasn't low from the factory). I'm guessing that when I pull the lowers I'll find it in there and I'll presumably need to replace the o-rings on the seal head. But it's working now, so I think I'll just ignore the problem until it returns. Who knows what else I'll have broken by then 🙂 Thanks for all the good advice (even if I did ignore most of it) and the song lyrics, which were brilliant.
This is the photo from the MTBR thread:
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
What you're checking for is that the spring (dotted blue) isn't hooked under the shim (dotted green) like it is in the red circle here - the spring should sit completely on top of the shim and hold it shut.
[IMG] 
[/IMG]
You may have to turn the blue lever on the damper to fully open to be able to see this more clearly.
Running a fingernail around the spring is enough to peel the end of the spring back into the right place on top of the shim.
Not sure how you checked the oil volume, but it's worth checking the oil level is 71-77mm below the top of the leg, as quite a bit of oil gets trapped inside the rebound damper and doesn't always come out (need to cycle the damper a few times, at least). Too much oil could well cause damage when you start to use the forks in earnest.
[url= https://sram-cdn-pull-zone-gsdesign.netdna-ssl.com/cdn/farfuture/UOXBWRJgAuGWbsFbicmJXLA_ZDLKCgnH5wxKfAiThtM/mtime:1478642022/sites/default/files/techdocs/gen.0000000005176_2017_fs_oil_air_coil_spring_spec_rev_c_english.pdf ]2017 Oil specs (pdf)[/url]
[i]"*Oil Height - Measure from the top of the crown (above the upper tube) down to the oil."[/i]
Hopefully you will have sorted it (Early in the morning ... 🙂 )
Thanks. The spring didn't seem to be caught on anything (I could move it around with a pick). I couldn't really see what it was supposed to be pushing against though. Should the blue bit move up and down?
I turned the bike upside down and cycled the suspension a few times to get all the oil out, before re-filling it. I couldn't work out how to measure the height from the top of the crown though. It was around 50mm from the top of tube to the oil and something around 20mm more to the top of the crown. So it's roughly right, which will have to do 🙂
Send it back for a refund and get a maintenance free Lauf Carbonara fat bike fork
I couldn't work out how to measure the height from the top of the crown though
It's measured from the top of the fork crown (i.e. the top of the tube where the damper screws in), [u]not[/u] the top of the crown race (just in case...) - put a bend in a piece of wire at the right depth and hang it over the edge of the fork tube. If the tip just touches the oil, then you're good.
FTFY 😉JohnClimber - Member
Send it back for a refund and get [b]half of a short travel [/b] [s]maintenance[/s] [b]damping[/b] free Lauf Carbonara fat bike fork
Hmmm, I'm thinking I might have too much oil in there now then 🙄 I have bounced it around enough to use all the travel multiple times though and there is no sign of hydraulic lock, which I though was what you got if you put too much oil in the damper, but maybe it's worth pulling the damper out again and checking the level. As I say, I suspect that it will be going down anyway as it's probably leaking into the lowers, but I'd rather wait until the bottomless tokens arrive before pulling it all apart.
I am always struck by how simple forks are when I pull them apart. Especially given the price! They are not much more than two tubes that are nice and smooth inside and out, with most of the work being done by oil, grease and a few o-rings that can all be replaced for a few quid. All those fancy "technologies" that manufacturers like to talk about don't seem to amount to much more than a hole or a gap of just the right size for the oil to flow through. I guess what you are paying for is all the research required to work out how big the hole should be 🙂
Anyway, thanks for all the advice, it's been really helpful.