Fox forks '15 hour service'

The card from Mojo that came with my forks says you need Fox Float Fluid and Fox Suspension Fluid.

Do you have to buy the official Fox stuff or is there a cheaper alternative? Also what weight Fox Suspension Fluid would I need for my Fox 36 Vanillas?

Any other tips or anything else I should know before doing it (bit scared of taking them apart!)?

Ta

ordinary fork oil from a motorcycle shop. but your warrenty will be void. The whole purpose of the fox servicing schedule is to enable them to get out of paying for warrenty on their unsuitable products

Anyone without an axe to grind got an opinion? 🙂

In the manual it says you would need 7wt for the oil baths and 10wt for the damper – on the card from mojo it says you should put 5ml in before re-fitting the base nuts, but doesn't say which one.

you noticed that too, grumm?

Oil is oil, pretty much. But, viscosities and characteristics vary wildly, there's no 10 10W fork oils that perform exactly the same, mad as it seems (Belray 15W is thinner and "faster" than Silkolene 10W for instance). So, if you're going for an exact result it's not a bad idea to use the exact fluid which is recommended.

Though I'd probably cheap out 😉

All I do is the following…

Bike updside down, remove wheel/brake

Loosen lower bolts

Knock push rods loose from the lowers with a soft mallet

Remove lowers

Wipe clean lowers seal, keep them upside down to stop muck falling inside. Fully clean if dirt has passed the seals.

Grease seals.

Apply oil to foam rings with syringe.

Slide on lowers a minimal amount.

Pour in any weight fork oil to hand.

Reassemble.

Thats 15mins work tops.

Slight thread Hijack, Grum shoot me an email if you need some Fox Float Fluid.

The damper service doesnt have to be done every 15 hours, its just the lowers as Solamanda describes.

Its dead easy to do but is a bit of a ball ache. Definitely do it though, I knackered the stanchions on my Talas's through lack of servicing, but looking back, they were shite forks anyway.

at 15 hours, they shouldn't really need it. As mentioned above, turn them upside down and let the foam rings soak up some oil. When it does come time to service, the (Fox) 7wt is for the sloshing around stuff. I think it's a rebadged Torco fluid but as it's not doing any damping, the weight isn't hugely critical (still slightly significant due to the hydrodymanic bearing design).

The (Fox) 10wt is rebadged Silkolene Pro RSF is memory serves. The best way to check this is to have a look at thr wiki pages by Peter Van Deron or something similar. He has a lovely long list of oil by viscosity. Match up the numbers and you know what the likes of Fox are using. By the way, the 10wt is for the cartridge damper (depending on year). There's actually quite a good guide to fettling this on the Fox site but I don't do mine any more than once a year.

All I've ever done with any of my three Fox forks is sit them upside down for a while before riding, keep the stanchions clean and change the oil once a year and they're all fine 3 years down the line; and yes, the bikes do get ridden properly and the Peaks has a reputation for being hard on kit. One pair have had the seals swapped to Enduro seals and they've been great.

OK thanks very much folks.

Fork oil weights

This will do it !

i'm with solamanda – it takes 15 mins and they're perfect every time.
i'm not sure i do it every 15 hours though………possibly every 30 hours or so…..guess my warranty is now void 😯

Do the crush washers need to be replaced or do you get away with using the ones you have taken off.

If you take them off carefully you can re-use the crush washers – I've taken the lowers of mine countless times and haven't had to resort to new crush washers yet.

Cheers I will give that a bash this week

I did my first 15hr service yesterday (after about 50 hours), everything was fine inside and it was really easy to do apart from the damper rod getting pushed back inside when screwing the nut and crush washer back on. The trick is to wind the crush washer on first before the nut without applying pressure.
Used some 7wt oil from the LBS (can't remember brand) and 80-90wt gear oil for float fluid.

Fox 7w is torco rsf medium. £12 a litre.

Taking the lowers off is very easy indeed. Doesn't stop it being a pita though!

Used some 7wt oil from the LBS (can't remember brand) and 80-90wt gear oil for float fluid.

Spot on. I get mine from my local motorbike shop and it's top quality. about 7 quid a bottle. I've got a deal with the old man on gear oil where if i take a few plastic syringes in he keeps a couple and fills one up for me and thats my fox float fluid. No way i'd pay for the fox branded fluids (apparently it's just rebranded Torco RSF medium).

15hrs…

So twice-weekly – seems a bit OTT?

I wouldnt touch anything made by fox with a 10ft barge pole. Overpriced, overmarketed tat imho. Magura all the way.

Thats helpful phoenix. Thanks

Glad to be of service.

Why do people like fox forks so much anyway? I had them and thought they were crap, my marzocchis were better.

that's that sorted then. Fox will go out of business now.

They were on the bike when I bought it.

There's a point. How do their after market sales numbers/ ratios stand up to the likes of Rock Shox etc?

It seems like the depreciation is worse… I guess people are less inclined to trust used Fox kit, just because of the (maybe unfair) rep they've developed.

No axe to grind here but the service schedule does just seem absurd- take your bike on holiday for a week and have to service them after 3 days 😐 I wonder how many hours my Revs have clocked up since they were last serviced? Hard to say since they've never been serviced at all since I got them, and as far as I know were never serviced by the last owner…

15 hrs seems a bit of a nonsense and is one of the reasons I'll not have Fox forks. I don't recall any of the Puffer soloists servicing their forks in the middle of the night…..

I didn't get my Floats from Mojo so cann't comment on what the 'little card' may say….
……however if you read the manual on the CD that comes with the forks you'll see that the '15 hour service' is "clean and inspect dust wipers".
The 100 hour service is "inspect bushes, change oil & change Fox float fluid"

So I don't see why people think you need to drop the lowers/change the oil every 15 hours when it's a five minute job with a screwdriver, bit of sticky tape and an oily rag 🙄

Fox owners manuals 🙂

>So I don't see why people think you need to drop the lowers/change the oil every 15 hours when it's a five minute job with a screwdriver, bit of sticky tape and an oily rag

Because one slip with your screwdriver and its new stanchion time. Tape on stanchions and spinning the raised seals is a poor substitute for a clean rag. And you get a chance to spot lower stanchion wear early. And change the oil more often.

The whole purpose of the fox servicing schedule is to enable them to get out of paying for warrenty on their unsuitable products

Or perhaps it's a service schedule designed to keep racing spec components in top condition ?

Lifting the seals and giving them a quick wipe every 15 hours is less hassle than cleaning/lubing a chain – if you don't want to do any maintenance that's fine, just buy lower spec kit and replace when it's totally trashed.

Because one slip with your screwdriver and its new stanchion time. Tape on stanchions and spinning the raised seals is a poor substitute for a clean rag. And you get a chance to spot lower stanchion wear early. And change the oil more often.

Fair enough, one slip and your Flooksed, just don't slip 😉

The complete oil change may be a more thorough option but it's not part of the fabled "Fox 15 hour service" that people rant on about, I'm just trying to point out that what Fox recommend isn't really that onerous….

This topic was posted 5months ago. Surely the grum would have paid out for £2,000 in servicing by now to Fox who would probably STILL invalid any warranty claim on a technicality? 😆

Even Manitou's would be classed as 'great' if they built their tolerances to 15hour service schedules along with the associated tight service schedules.

Buy Marzocchi, pay twice.

Buy Fox and pay the fork equivalent of child maintenance…

JOKE FELLAS 😀

hora – Member
Buy Fox and pay the fork equivalent of child maintenance…

Not if you're competent with basic handtools and can understand a service manual 😉

The real jokes are the hamfisted yokels who can't work out the simplest of mechanical issues themselves and end up having to slink back to the dealership with a box full of twatted up bits as result of their bodgery.

I'm glad dealerships and service agents charge high prices and treat your warranty claims with disdain – that's the price you pay for being stupid and mechanically incompetent.
ATGNI indeed 🙄

The real jokes are the hamfisted yokels who can't work out the simplest of mechanical issues themselves and end up having to slink back to the dealership with a box full of twatted up bits as result of their bodgery.

[TANNOY]hora to the forum, I repeat hora to the forum. (Thank you)[/TANNOY]

anyone know where i can get the talas ifp tool from?

or if i have 2009 talas rlc (32mm stanchions) are they talas 3 (therefore don't need it)

Any sheff people wanna go halves on a bucket of fork oil?

Also, do fox rear shocks require so much attention? Reason I ask is I just bought a bike wi fox front and back

The podge – i am just o/s sheffield and will do if its the genuine fox stuff (i need 7wt)

I have a bottle of float fluid here btw

Surely the grum would have paid out for £2,000 in servicing by now to Fox who would probably STILL invalid any warranty claim on a technicality?

Still not serviced them though I've barely used them since I posted this because I've been ill. I'm not gonna worry too much about it though – since I fixed my Pikes with nail varnish I don't see why I can't do the same if the Fox forks go the same way. Will probably do it at some point soon.

They are miles better than the Pikes anyway so nerr.. 🙂