[sagarpadaki]

We have a 2010 i20, whose rear shock absorbers were due for replacement in early 2020. The existing shocks had run for 60K kms and were showing signs of wear. As many know, the ride quality of i20 is nothing great and the suspension is tuned soft by the manufacturer . The rear bounces over bad roads causing discomfort for the rear passengers. I wanted to improve the ride quality and hence started looking for better options. Unfortunately, there are no stiffer options available in the aftermarket. While searching, I came across shock absorbers manufactured by Indian company ARC industries, based out of Ichalkaranji, Maharashtra.

https://www.arcindustries.co.in/

They have shock absorbers for a wide range of cars including the i20.

Their YouTube channel has quite a number videos of cars with their shock absorbers showing reduced body roll and a number of customer reviews as well! Honestly, this is what made me to consider them as an option.

https://www.youtube.com/user/ARCINDUSTRIES7777

I had a chat with the one of their representative, whose contact is provided on the website. He said the body roll and bounciness reduces by a good margin and the high speed stability also improves. Will last for at least 1 lakh kms. A pair of rear shock absorbers for i20 are priced at a princely sum of Rs.15360 . Quite a premium and cost almost 5 times of the OEM pair.

I ordered them on 30th May 2020 and received them a week later. The shock absorbers were heavy and finished well. All metal construction.

Went to a FNG to get them fit and had the first shock. The top mount of the shock would not fit into the chassis slot. The top mount of the shock was a tad too wide compared to OEM. Checked this with a Vernier scale and compared with the OEM shock absorbers. Contacted the representative and he insisted that the mechanic is not fitting it properly. He had a talk with the mechanic and agreed to send a replacement set matching the OEM mount dimensions. Later, I realized that they had sent the set for Verna and not i20. Even the invoice that I got mentioned shock absorber for Verna and not i20. They shipped a replacement set for i20 which I received a week later and this set fit correctly. Installed them in the first week of June 2020.





Initial impressions were good. The shock absorber was definitely stiffer than stock and there was an improvement in ride quality by a good margin over the stock. Not a huge improvement. But yes, noticeable. The car felt planted and did not lose its rear sideways, during moderate speed fast lane switch, which used to happen with OEM. The shocks were installed when the ODO was around 1,32,xxx kms. There was a mild metallic sound from the rear left unit when going over sharp bumps, but not bad enough to bother . A week after, I was contacted by one another representative who asked me about the feedback. I said I was happy and the ride quality and handling has improved. But the happiness was short lived.

Due to lockdown, the driving was minimal. In August 2020, after around 500 kms of driving since install, I started noticing that the mild metallic noise from the rear left side had increased quite a bit. It was a 'kad kad' metal to metal kind of noise that came every time the car went over a bump or a broken road. I called their representative again and told him this observation. He said, this father, Mr. Deepak Pawar, the owner of ARC industries will contact me to discuss on this. Soon, I received a call from Mr. Deepak. I described the problem in detail with the timelines. He was initially not willing to accept the noise but later on my insistence, we decided to swap the left and rear shocks and see if the noise persisted.

Somewhere towards the end of September 2020 I decided to get the shock absorbers swapped. I visited Hyundai service center, where I visit for the car service for the past decade or so and requested to take a test drive with their senior technician to identify the source of the noise. The technician confirmed that the noise is indeed from the rear shock absorber. They checked the rear axle bushings which when cut will also create a noise. However, the bushings were found to be in good condition. The senior technician observed that the bottom mount of the ARC shock absorber was different shape and hence mounted differently on the rear axle compared to the OEM one .I had not observed this during the initial install .There was another i20 of same type as mine which was already hoisted up for service for a clutch replacement and we checked and compared the mounts. And it was indeed different. I requested them if we can fit the OEM shock absorber from other i20 on my car and go for a short drive. Usually, the authorized service centers do not entertain such ad hoc requests for a noise issue from an aftermarket unit. That too removing a working component from another car for test. But, due to me being an old customer and rapport that I have with them, they obliged. The noise was not present during the short drive. I asked them to swap the left and right ARC shock absorbers when refitting them.

So the swap was done but the noise persisted. I communicated the same to Mr. Deepak Pawar and also brought to his notice the difference in the bottom mount design compared to OEM. He brushed it aside saying that they have sold more than 1000 units and I am the first customer who is facing this issue. He added that the noise could be because the shocks are stiffer compared to OEM. I did not agree to his rationale. He assured me that my problems will be addressed and for him the customer is the highest priority and customer satisfaction is most important. And a customer is like family to him. He said he will get back to me with a solution.

In the meantime, I drove for around 1000 odd kms over a month with short trips around the city enduring the noise. The noise started to bother me quite a bit unless I was listening to some music. Mr. Deepak Pawar did not come back with any resolution. I talked with my service advisor in HASS again on if the noise can be from some other source. They coincidentally had a pair of used i20 shock absorbers from another i20 which had its rear shocks replaced. I asked if they can fit those on my car and see if the noise goes away. The SA reluctantly agreed on my pleading and off I went again to the HASS to swap the ARC shocks to the old shocks. The old shocks were shot and there was hardly any rebound. Still we fit the old shocks and went for a short drive. No sound! Again, another technician who did the swap this time, observed the bottom mount design of the ARC shocks which makes the bottom mount sit at an angle on the axle compared to the OEM. By this time it was pretty clear that, the source of the noise is due to the different mount design of ARC shocks. I communicated this finding to Mr.Pawar. It was agreed that he will fabricate a new pair of shocks with the bottom mounts matched that of OEM and send them across. All this happened during the month of October end/November timeframe. Again, there was no further response from him with the solution.

Meanwhile, my family started to get irritated with the 'kad kad' noise when travelling over bumps and bad/broken roads and were literally fed up with travelling in the car. We did a couple of hundred kms round trip with the sound and had a grumpy family at the end of each drive. My father asked me to get it sorted out ASAP. On December 1st I had to travel to my native with my mother. After around 100 kms into the drive, the rear right shock absorber started making loud metallic noises when driven over bad patch of road. This noise was much louder than the muted kad kad noise that I was experiencing till now from the rear left shock and the new noise from the rear right shadowed the noise from the rear left. It was that loud and bad. I actually got scared if the shock absorber was broken or something else broke. After reaching the destination, I inspected the rear underside and everything looked fine to my eyes visually.

On December 2nd,tired and frustrated, I talked with Mr. Deepak Pawar explaining him the new noise from the right shock absorber and how unhappy and frustrated I am with this whole noise saga. He again reassured me that my problems will be resolved and he will take care of the customer like his family. He will make a new set shock absorber with OEM kind of mounts once he gets the bushings. He requested me to provide me 2 weeks time. I also placed my phone in the boot and recorded a sound clip and sent it across to him over whatsapp.

Another frustrating aspect during the course of time was, all the follow-up was done by me. I never got any call to either update me on the progress or discuss solutions. I even measured all the dimensions of the OEM shock absorber mounts to help him fabricate the new mount. I guess, no customer would go to this extent in helping the manufacturer in resolving the problem caused due to a design difference from OEM. When called, he gave reasons like he is in some family emergency/was driving/ personal emergency/out of station etc and would call later. But he would not call back. Only on those instances where I called but he did not answer did he call back after a while, reactively not proactively with the typical canned response of "I need more time/ I am not able to find the bushings in the market".

Around December mid, well past the promised 2 week period, I contacted him again for follow up. Wanted to know the status of the replacement shocks with OEM mounts. I had a trip to my native planned on Dec 21st and my family said they will not travel in the car with so much of racket inside the cabin. Hence wanted a replacement ASAP. He again said he is driving and is out of station and will call back later. And like you might have guessed, the callback never happened. My family travelled in a taxi for the planned trip since they were not willing to do a 1000 kms round trip with the noise from the shocks. The improvement in ride quality be dammed. I had enough of this saga. After paying 15000 rupees, getting a product which gave so much trouble is unacceptable by any means. Not to mention the repeated false reassurances and poor customer support from the company. I purchased a pair of new OEM shocks from spare store(Cost around 3100/pair) and got them installed at a nearby FNG on December 23rd 2020. The technician where over there informed me that there have been many customer cars with ARC shocks which had this noise complaint. Do not know the veracity of his statement, so I will take it with a pinch of salt. With OEM shocks installed, it was back to old kind of ride quality, bit improved, perhaps due to the fact that the shocks were new. Best part, No noise . The drive back home was so calm and peaceful and I realized how much was the noise bothering me for the past months. The ODO was 1,35,xxx kms. The ARC shocks were used for less than 4,000 kms when the claimed life is more than a lakh kms! That too, noisy 4000 kms!

[sagarpadaki]

Like I mentioned earlier, the design difference in the bottom mount of the ARC shock absorber was the primary cause of the noise. Although the top mount of the ARC shocks is also different size ,ie, much bigger, compared to OEM, the technicians did not see that as being the problem because it did not foul with anything at the top.

The below pictures show the difference between the ARC and OEM shocks mounts. Focus on the bottom mount

ARC Bottom mount:



How it mounts on the chassis:


OEM Bottom Mount:





How it mounts on the chassis:



If you observe the pics, the bottom mount of OEM shocks has a wider opening/protrusion on one end. The rear axle on the car has a flange on which this protrusion rests on. The bolt holds the shock absorber on the flange. Now, in case of ARC, the bottom mount does not have this wider protrusion at one end of the bottom mount. Due to this the bottom mount cannot sit on the flange on the chassis but aligns with the flange on the chassis. This alignment is not straight, meaning the bottom mount is not completely parallel to the flange, rather, it is at an angle with the vertical. Due to this two things happen -

One, the bottom bolt goes in at a slight angle .

Two, All the load is taken by the bolt. Also when the car is lowered and the load transfers to the axle, the bolt also experiences bending forces


The bolt is not designed to be a load bearing structure. It is designed to just hold the shock absorber over the flange on the axle. All the load is transferred to the axle via the flange. Below pic shows the the flange on the rear axle marked with round red circle.






The above picture shows the how the OEM and ARC shocks mount to the axle . The red part is the flange on the axle, the green part is the bottom mount and the grey part is the bolt.

These two factors together are cause, I think, are the reason for the sound. Maybe the bolt even when fully tightened with impact gun was not holding the shock absorber properly in place especially when the car is on the ground and the whole load was on the bolt. One more thing you can observe with ARC shock is that the mating surface of the bottom mount are knurled on both ends, whereas in case of OEM , the surfaces are smooth. I do not know if this was also a contributor to the overall problem in some manner. I believe the OEM designed the rear shock absorber setup like how it is based on some research and thought. Infact, I googled for aftermarket shock absorbers from Monroe, KYB, Sachs, Minda, TRW. All of them had the same mount design as OEM. Surely, there should be some reason why all aftermarket manufacturers follow the OEM design?!

OEM and ARC side by side:



The overall width of the top and bottom mount of OEM and ARC is same. However, the top mount is much bigger overall. But does not foul with the chassis mount point at the top.


PS- The Hyundai Verna also has the same kind of bottom mount design as the i20.

[sagarpadaki]

I wrote a mail to the ARC industries end of December 2020, explaining the whole problem again. Said I will ship the shock absorbers back and asked for a refund of the full amount. Got a reply asking me to send the shocks back and they will refund only 70% of the ex-GST amount. I replied back asking for 90% of ex-GST since the whole experience was riddled with problems and I spent a good amount of my time, money and energy in diagnosing the problem. Not to mention, the mental agony and frustration that my family experienced the whole time! Not to mention the shock absorbers were not even used for 5% of the claimed life of 1 lakh kms. There was no response to the mail. I got a message from the owner that he will send me updated version of the shocks. I wonder why he did not propose this solution when I was literally tearing my hair apart and calling him multiple times for solution. I was in no mood to deal with this circus again since I had already installed new OEM shocks.

I packed the shock absorbers and shipped them back at my own cost. It reached them in the first week of Jan 2021. Again, no communication that they have received the product. After a few days, I messaged the owner and told him that he has received the item and to process the refund. Got a reply that they had fit the shocks on their i20 and run for 125 kms and there is no sound. I replied, that is good but it does not mean anything to me if there is no sound on your i20. I had the sound and that is what matters. And I did not get a solution for my problem. He then goes on to tell me that the sound comes if the bolt holding the bottom mount is bent causing a clearance between the mount and the bolt. Again, why was this not accepted earlier when I kept telling that the bolt could get bent because of the load directly falling on it due to the design of the bottom mount?! If the shock absorber design has a probability to bend the OEM bolt then they have to ship an appropriate high strength bolt along with the shock and not tell this when the customer has undergone all the trouble. He claimed that the product is perfect and there is no problem whatsoever.

What followed were a bunch of messages from me to process the refund and no response from their end! I called him, and like how he asked for more time to resolve the problem, asked for more time to refund the amount. I mean, how much time does it take to process the refund?! Did not get the refund even after the 'more time' had elapsed. Finally after a few more calls and messages, got less than 60% of the amount that I paid, towards the end of Jan 2021. And the owner talked like he is doing me a favor by returning the money partially and kept justifying that there is no problem with the product.

There might be lot of satisfied customers out there of the ARC shocks, thousands according to the owner who have not faced any issues, but I am one big dissatisfied customer after paying a premium amount and being at the receiving end of the ill designed product. The lack of support, communication and false assurances was an icing on the rotten cake. I will stick to OEM or reputed manufactures like KYB, Monroe, Sachs the next time I want to replace. Not to mention they are lot cheaper too!

[Aditya]

Thread moved out from the Assembly Line. Thanks for sharing!

[Tassem]

Sad to hear about this Sagar.

Unfortunately, experiences like these are what stands between the discerning customer and supporting local businesses. While there are a handful of great local products, the majority are like yours. Primarily because more often than not, these are people who've manufactured for the commercial aftermarket segment moving into consumer product lines.

When going with critical component upgrades such as suspension, I would always stick to a tried and tested brand or just OEM. I'm just glad that you only lost 40% of your spend and some time. A critical failure at highway speeds could've cost you a lot more.

[ariesonu]

Quite an ordeal & can understand frustration.
If you still looking for that ride improvement, you may try a buffer product that is inserted in the coils top give car a stiffer & higher ride. To best of my memory even Rush (GTO) has tried this product sometime.

ROGERAB is one known manufacture of the product.

"ROGERAB is the best Thermoplastic Urethane Buffer in India provided by Roger Motors"

Regards.

[Almoral]

Considering the point about the bolt bearing the load; I am relieved that there was no bad incident due to that. This is indeed unacceptable behavior.

I hope this post and review is read by people who are looking for shock absorbers in the market. It is one thing that the product has a fault; but not accepting or taking any step to rectify is worse.

Thanks Sagar for sharing this with us.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by Tassem

Sad to hear about this Sagar.

Unfortunately, experiences like these are what stands between the discerning customer and supporting local businesses. While there are a handful of great local products, the majority are like yours. Primarily because more often than not, these are people who've manufactured for the commercial aftermarket segment moving into consumer product lines.

When going with critical component upgrades such as suspension, I would always stick to a tried and tested brand or just OEM. I'm just glad that you only lost 40% of your spend and some time. A critical failure at highway speeds could've cost you a lot more.

Agree on your point of supporting the local business. But it is a two way street. As a customer, one should get necessary support from the company when a problem is encountered. This is where the local business lack. Like they say, it is how a company responds to the customer when they have a problem that shows the true commitment of the company.

Infact, more than 40% on the cost of the product. But on top of that I spent a good amount of money at FNG and Hyundai to replace the OEM/ARC dampers multiple times which amounts to approx 4K rupees. Not to mention, my time and energy spent over troubleshooting this issue.

Fun fact - We spent almost the same amount as that of the product on taxi when we had to travel to and from native due to the car not being usable because of the problem.

Originally Posted by ariesonu

Quite an ordeal & can understand frustration.
If you still looking for that ride improvement, you may try a buffer product that is inserted in the coils top give car a stiffer & higher ride. To best of my memory even Rush (GTO) has tried this product sometime.

ROGERAB is one known manufacture of the product.

"ROGERAB is the best Thermoplastic Urethane Buffer in India provided by Roger Motors"

Regards.

The reason why I took the shock absorber route is because I wanted to improve the handling and ride quality. From the reviews, the Rogerab is mainly improves the ride height and not much on handling. Also, the shock absorbers were due for replacement anyway at the time of making the decision.

[Kosfactor]

The ideal solution to 11 year old vehicle's loose rear end is a new set of OEM replacement - Spring , bump stop as well as damper. Maintain correct cold air pressure and see if that fixes the problem. As long as one maintains a steady clip, Mk1 i20 rides very well and the refinement is top class.

[prajakt_23]

Replacing OEM shock absorbers with third party one is always a risk. I was also considering them for my XUV but overall cost was too high and I was not confident enough to go for it. And after reading what you have suffered, looks like it really requires good contemplation before one finalizes on it. Again it may be very specific case with you but still.. Thanks for sharing!

[gkveda]

I can understand your mental agonies and your family frustration while traveling by a car that makes continuous noise.

I am also worried about Mr Deepak's family. As per his own words, If he takes care of his family like the way he took care of you(his customers), how will they be coping up with his ordeals for so long

Jokes apart, just forget the past and change the shocks to OEM. This will solve all your problems.

Sometimes, we invest expecting good returns but life will decide to teach good lessons instead of good returns.

So, Don't worry much about the bad experience.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by Kosfactor

The ideal solution to 11 year old vehicle's loose rear end is a new set of OEM replacement - Spring , bump stop as well as damper. Maintain correct cold air pressure and see if that fixes the problem. As long as one maintains a steady clip, Mk1 i20 rides very well and the refinement is top class.

What is bump stop?

Yes, I contemplated on replacing the springs as well since I could feel that they had gone soft. But I was not sure if the replacement springs I get from OEM would fix the softness since they are designed soft. The springs for the Euro spec i20 are stiffer but could not find them on Boodmo.

Like you said, it rides really well, but only on smooth roads. On bad undulating roads, the ride quality goes for a toss especially at the rear!

Stiffer springs are on the way. Hopefully they should solve the problem

Originally Posted by prajakt_23

Replacing OEM shock absorbers with third party one is always a risk. I was also considering them for my XUV but overall cost was too high and I was not confident enough to go for it. And after reading what you have suffered, looks like it really requires good contemplation before one finalizes on it. Again it may be very specific case with you but still.. Thanks for sharing!

Maybe their product is good for XUV.

It maybe very specific case because of the way the mounts are on the i20/Verna . But still the support from the company matters. Not responding to customers calls/messages and providing false assurances is a no no.

[NaXal]

It is a good read and thanks for writing it in such details.

I can definitely relate to the itch of modification on an older vehicle to fulfil those short comings bothering the owner for long.

This is a discussion often me and my friends (car guys) have. Specially when, an out of warranty job is about to happen, we start our discussion about why not after market upgraded stuff for those "wow" type performance gains but often most of us back out thinking about the unknowns associated with such job.

Your write up is an excellent example & reminder of the realities and things which can go wrong.

Most of the models sold in India are meant for commuting only. Rarely we get a platform shared between performance / rally variants. So on these products, proper aftermarket stuff is rare. There are certain models which are toned down version of their actual performance models and those vehicles will have proper tried n tested aftermarket stuff.

However, first generation i20 certainly doesn't fall in such category !!

To be honest, most of our cars use such lightly engineered steering / suspension components that even a simple tyre width / rim size upgrade ends up causing damage to those.

If you have a brand which has well established spare parts network, stick with the OEM stuff. They are way cheaper than any of these aftermarket premium stuff and they last long enough with headache free motoring !!

Last of all, I want to share an experience about a friend of mine with modified aftermarket suspension on his Lancer Cedia Sports. He had a roll over crash accident. His insurance company rejected the claim because of the aftermarket suspension setup.

Thanks.

[sagarpadaki]

Originally Posted by gkveda

I can understand your mental agonies and your family frustration while traveling by a car that makes continuous noise.

I am also worried about Mr Deepak's family. As per his own words, If he takes care of his family like the way he took care of you(his customers), how will they be coping up with his ordeals for so long

Jokes apart, just forget the past and change the shocks to OEM. This will solve all your problems.

Sometimes, we invest expecting good returns but life will decide to teach good lessons instead of good returns.

So, Don't worry much about the bad experience.

LOL

Like I mentioned in my post, I went back to OEM

[Raghu M]

I think we need to stick to OEM for the most important parts. Parts like general accessories can be procured from outside but I think parts like shocks, engine related, clutch and gear box spares should always be from the company. We look to make ride comfort better and in the meantime end up losing our peace of mind. Very sorry for the experience you went through. I think any company that has proper service station and a feedback hierarchy should be chosen for such upgrades. This guy was a pure marketing specimen when he was speaking to you.