Fox Float X fails after 1 month

[nickf]

Pleased for you.

Thanks

 

[nickf]

See this thread on why I now have a kitsuma coil instead of a float x

Fox reliability

How has everyone found fox reliability? Leaving aside the famous X2 issues, what are the rest of the range like? I’m not too impressed right now, the Float X on my Shuttle started leaking at about 500 miles and was warrantied back in April. It started leaking again after another 300 miles and...

www.emtbforums.com

Interestingly when I spoke on the phone to the UK Fox service centre, as soon as I told him about the squelching noise the guy said "I suppose it's an X2"?. When I told him it was a Float X he was surprised and said "we don't get that very often on those". My bad!

However, I have a Jade X coil on my 2022 Trek Rail and it's been great, so I may well buy another to replace the Float X on the Fuel+. Or possibly see if the RS Vivid Ultimate is as "coil like" as people say.

 

[irie]

Thanks

Don't know what the weather is like where you are in France but probably best time of year to not have a bike for a while. Where we are (near the South Downs) looks like the chalk Downs are now saturated and there's water everywhere. Mud galore too. Starting to look like early 2024 which was really horrible.

 

[nickf]

I'm down in the south but it's been pretty damp here recently too. As it happens I'm soon off to the south of Spain for a few weeks and will be taking the Rail to ride on the hills behind Alicante. Sunny and 22C at the moment . So I can live with not having the Fuel's shock for 4 weeks, but needed to kick the process off before we left.

 

[Dax]

Interestingly when I spoke on the phone to the UK Fox service centre, as soon as I told him about the squelching noise the guy said "I suppose it's an X2"?. When I told him it was a Float X he was surprised and said "we don't get that very often on those". My bad!

However, I have a Jade X coil on my 2022 Trek Rail and it's been great, so I may well buy another to replace the Float X on the Fuel+. Or possibly see if the RS Vivid Ultimate is as "coil like" as people say.

To be fair to the float X, it didn’t go squelchy. It just dumped loads of oil out the seals twice in 400km.

My biggest issue was the LBS that sent it away for warranty (great), got it back 4 days later (well don’t fox uk), didn’t call me (sigh), told me it would be another 2 weeks when I called up a couple of weeks later (wtf), broke their phone system for 2 weeks so they didn’t answer the phone, then eventually found it on the shelf when I called them up 6 weeks after I dropped it off.

 

[Pickle1970]

A float X would put me off buying a bike, everyone including my own has sh*t itself and squelching more than Bobbie Blue

 

[SGS]

That's one of the reasons why I converted to a coil shock - no more faffing about with air

 

[irie]

That's one of the reasons why I converted to a coil shock - no more faffing about with air

Ditto.

 

[MichaelT]

Had a 2024 fox x2 float. Felt that the performance was a little less than ideal and heard minor squelching. Earlier than service was told this was normal.
Had a service at 15 months and suspension centre said mixing oil / air. Fox declined accepting warranty even though this has been a known problem with this shock. Paid for upgrades to 2025 internals.
This shock came on bike but if I had a choice I would buy rockshox with 2 yrs warranty not 1 yr like fox. This means if your 12 month service happens to be at 15 months it will still be under warranty.

 

[nickf]

That's one of the reasons why I converted to a coil shock - no more faffing about with air

I have a Jade X coil shock on my Rail and it's great. But it's still possible to get air ingress into the damper oil of a coil shock, either via the IFP or the bladder.

Having said that, the greater simplicity of the coil shock damper is nice

 

[nickf]

Had a service at 15 months and suspension centre said mixing oil / air. Fox declined accepting warranty even though this has been a known problem with this shock.

In the EU the 2 year warranty is mandatory. But Fox (or any other suspension supplier) can argue that the warranty is voided if you haven't strictly adhered to their service intervals in their Ts & Cs. But not impressed with Fox's attitude given that the X2 was ubiquitous for these issues.

 

[irie]

Got my coil shock serviced in November 2024. Had done about 2,500 miles (about 300 hours?) and apparently still in pretty good condition. Took it in the morning and collected it the afternoon. Thanks Windwave who said it could easily do another 1,000 miles so will next get it serviced at >5,500 miles. Mrs irie now has same shock on her bike which will get serviced at the same time although done much less miles.

 

[edruid]

My recently purchased Trek Fuel+ has a Fox Float X factory shock. Too much bling for me personally, but that's what it came with.

After just over a month of not very aggressive riding (no jumps, big drops etc) the shock is now loudly squelching under compression and you can almost hear the oil sloshing around inside. My guess is the IFP seal has leaked and quite a lot of air has mixed in with the hydraulic fluid.

The shop has suggested I bring the shock in to confirm a diagnosis before sending it off to Fox for repair/service under warranty. But they've said I will be liable for the postage costs to and from Fox. Can this be right? Surely Fox should include the transportation costs as part of their obligations under warranty?

Am I being naively extravagant in my expectations of Fox's warranty service? Can anyone else who's had to send an almost new shock back to Fox under warranty confirm who pays the postage?

I know the previous Float X2 models had reliability issues but I thought Fox had recently fixed those, and in any case they didn't apply to the Float X? Does anyone know what the reliability of the Float X models is like? After this disappointing early experience I might just ditch it and buy something else.

I just paid £130 to have my Fox Float X2 Factory, 230x60mm, High/Low Speed Rebound & Compression w/ 2-Position Lever, Kashima Coated serviced at 2 years (at Silverfish/FOX UK HQ. Everything except the contols was replaced new under warranty. i take this as a sign FOX know there are issues and are taking a grown-up approach to doing right by people.

 

[Pickle1970]

They've known there's issues with them for years, yet every year they say the same thing 'we've now updated blah blah blah and those issues are fixed'

Cue the sloshing sound within months

 

[Pickle1970]

I don't know a single person who's got/had one that hasn't shat itself. I'd say they're not fit for purpose.

 

[Dax]

They've known there's issues with them for years, yet every year they say the same thing 'we've now updated blah blah blah and those issues are fixed'

Cue the sloshing sound within months

The 2025 X2 redesign seems to be a lot more reliable. Note that the OP was asking about a Float X, not an X2, which is a totally different design of shock.

 

[nickf]

The 2025 X2 redesign seems to be a lot more reliable.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the 2025 X2 uses a mono-tube design whereas previous models were twin-tube. Seems to me that apart from keeping the name it's basically a totally different shock. And it's confusing to the unwary who may think they've snapped up a bargain if they've bought pre-2025 shock at a reduced price!

 

[irie]

I just paid £130 to have my Fox Float X2 Factory, 230x60mm, High/Low Speed Rebound & Compression w/ 2-Position Lever, Kashima Coated serviced at 2 years (at Silverfish/FOX UK HQ. Everything except the contols was replaced new under warranty. i take this as a sign FOX know there are issues and are taking a grown-up approach to doing right by people.

I take this as a sign that the shock had design failures from day one, should have been withdrawn and immediately replaced FOC with a shock without the design failures.

 

[Dax]

I take this as a sign that the shock had design failures from day one, should have been withdrawn and immediately replaced FOC with a shock without the design failures.

Fox ran multiple replacement programs when warranting x2 shocks over the lifetime of the twin tube x2, a quick search on here show’s multiple years of ‘fox just gave me a new x2 to replace my knackered one’. I think there’s a good decade of x2 issues, it was well pre-COVID when I first smashed out some laps on a x2 equipped Patrol, declared it the most fun bike with the best shock I’d ridden…and then laughed when the month old shock exploded a week later (not my bike).

The sad part is they never made the twin tube x2 reliable, because they’re great when they work. I definitely wouldn’t own one thou.

 

[Weeksy]

Hold on hold on... Float X are bombproof, X2 are dog****. Lets not get too mixed up and confused. I'd deffo not buy an X2 shock, but Float X are just easy and work really really well.

(all IMO of course... )

 

[Dax]

Hold on hold on... Float X are bombproof, X2 are dog****. Lets not get too mixed up and confused. I'd deffo not buy an X2 shock, but Float X are just easy and work really really well.

(all IMO of course... )

This thread and my thread (linked above) show that Float X are not bombproof

 

[irie]

Hold on hold on... Float X are bombproof, X2 are dog****. Lets not get too mixed up and confused. I'd deffo not buy an X2 shock, but Float X are just easy and work really really well.

(all IMO of course... )

Not if you read above, perhaps you just got lucky.

 

[Weeksy]

That really surprises me... between me and the lad we've owned 10+ of them.

 

[Paulquattro]

Not if you read above, perhaps you just got lucky.

Maybe or maybe he didnt get lucky owning 10+ faultless ones maybe its just a case as with so many other things on the net you just here the bad not the good ,
I wander what the percentage of failures is compared to units sold as there on so many bike especially oem it makes me wander
And im talking Float X here obviously as this thread does seem to be wandering a little between models .

 

[nickf]

Maybe or maybe he didnt get lucky owning 10+ faultless ones maybe its just a case as with so many other things on the net you just here the bad not the good ,
I wander what the percentage of failures is compared to units sold as there on so many bike especially oem it makes me wander
And im talking Float X here obviously as this thread does seem to be wandering a little between models .

As I said earlier, when I spoke to the UK Fox service centre the guy was surprised that I had aeration in a Float X. He said "we don't often see that". That's not to say that they don't see other issues, but it does suggest it doesn't have "known" reliability issues like the X2. That's to say, the pre-2025 X2.