MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
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I need to service these forks and I bought the fox 20wt gold oil for £18 and the SKF seals for £25 withough realising that the oil charts show that I should use 40cc of FOX 5wt Teflon Infused suspension fluid in the damper side bath.
Has anyone used an alternative to this 5wt oil as it is a bit annoying to have to buy two different types of oil and does it work alright?
I am also tempted to compare the viscosity of the fox 5wt with these other oils I have for other forks:
****s Silkolene Pro RSF Race 5wt VI-370.
Rock Shox High Performance Suspension Fluid 5wt Custom racing formula.
in here
fox 5wt oil the viscosity is only 17 where in here Silkolene pro RSF 5 wt is 27 so I don't want to use that.
I believe the teflon infused oil is the same as the damper oil, the lower leg oil can theoretically migrate up into the damper so it's used to stop contamination or dilution of the damper oil.
The viscosity of the oil is a minor point for lower leg duties since its main job is just to lubricate the bushings.
Not sure I'd try using anything other than 5w Teflon in the grip/grip2.
There's a chap called Dougal who runs shockworks in new Zealand. His take on this is a little different. His comments are in various threads on MTBR if you want to look them up.
First off, fox gold is way better suited to bushing duties than the fox 5wt teflon so using gold on the damper side is way better.
Although the fit cartridge has a blow off port, the actual cycling of oil is no greater than a sealed cartridge, therefore, dilution of the oil isn't really a thing, especially if you're changing damper fluid once a year. He recommends motorex 2.5 but any 15cTs damper fluid will do.
However, if you just do lower services and never change the damper fluid, it will gradually get heavier and heavier over a very long time.
*I have not first hand experience with these dampers, I'm just passing on something from an internet source who has offered good advice on other suspension related things in the past.
I had the exact same fork and remember this palaver, and that the fox website was a bit unclear for the Rhythm fork.
Give TF tuned a ring - they didn't list it on their site but they did me a little kit with the right stuff in in nice small quantities. Very helpful on the phone (although probably shut down till January now!)
@mtbcowboy sorry, I meant grip damper. The blow off port is the reason fox say it should use the teflon oil but in reality, it doesn't cycle any more oil than the fit cartridge did/does.
According to Fox the GRIP damper ingests 5cc per 125 hour use. It does not use the same seal in the seal head as FIT damper does.