[benjaminj]

Today I had a brand new 2008 888 RCV blow up on me while riding at Northstar. This was the only the 3rd full day in last 2 weeks on the fork.... Then "while riding along" at the end of the day I lost my front brake and after a scary stop I looked down and noticed why: the bottom of the lowers on the 888 were gushing oil like a Texas well out of both the Rebound and compression nobs. Oil ended up everywhere, the front brake is drenched in oil, the rotor is slipery as KY and even my goggles started to get spattered by the oil. That 325 cc of oil in each leg is now all over my bike and the Northstar dust.

I had just heard last week of bad things from 2008 Marzochi forks because they now made with a deal from SR Suntour to have all their forks manufactured in Taiwan by them.... made me worry, and yeah then it went to crap.

So has anyone else had this issue? And how should I fix it? Last thing I want to do is send it in for repairs and be out of a front fork for a couple months (that's the whole summer)...

 

[Defenestrated]

that is really ****ty bro

 

[funkendrenchman]

Warranty it. Buy a 2006 RC2X on ebay for $600. Sell your warrantied fork on ebay. Make a profit and get a better fork.

 

[kidwoo]

Well at least that's all that happened.


Thank god nothing else broke today.........oh wait......


I'm with the drunknfrench though. Go back in time to the wonderful place when zoke forks worked. 2008 ain't it.

 

[1453]

that's why all my marzocchis are 2004 or older

 

[caputo1989]

Looks like another JRA thread. Any how your oil height should have been checked, Oh and i seen many 40's do that so dont feel bad,

 

[dhrookie]

325cc seems like alot of oil. zocchi says you only need 310cc of oil. not sure if its a big deal but i love my 08' rc3 wc.

 

[SuboptimusPrime]

That's a bummer to hear. I'm glad you didn't get hurt or anything... Guess I'll hold onto my 05 888 w/ the sleeve. Love that thing.

 

[Racerx7734]

my 08' 888 works flawless, and I have not seen this problem yet on any 08' 888 around Northstar...........doesnt mean it hasnt happened, I just havent seen it.

My 08 888 is FAR better then the clacking, FOX like 07' RC2X in my opinion.

I would send it in and get another......overall the Marzocchis are great forks and I can honestly say that I see 10 times more dripping Boxxers and Fox 40's then I ever have a Marzocchi.

I'm sure I'll get slammed............but, I dont really care..........I see on TON of forks at Northstar and go there 2 to 3 times a week.....and thats what I am making my remarks on.

 

[Uncle Cliffy]

That's a bum deal man...

I've got a story about that very model. Came on my new Rocky Flatline 3. I got the bike and did a few local rides on the bike, then went to Whistler. On the first day, second run, my fork suddenly felt like someone traded it out with a jackhammer. It wasn't hard to figure out that I had 2 inches of travel and something wasn't right in there.

I took the bike to Summit as they were the Rocky guys and hooked my boss up with a rental Flatline. They took one look at it and said the bushing had come loose and slid into the bottom of the lowers causing the stantions to hit. When they took it apart they showed it to me. Well, as you can guess I ponyed up for a new set of lowers as that was the only way to repair it. I wasn't about to sit around for 3 days and not ride. They did deal me in a bit which was still cheaper than riding a rental but I was bummed. I still have to sort this out with Marz.

 

[benjaminj]

Well at least that's all that happened.
Thank god nothing else broke today.........oh wait......
I'm with the drunknfrench though. Go back in time to the wonderful place when zoke forks worked. 2008 ain't it.

That's ture, it would have been a really bad day if I had a pedal spindle snap earlier in day...wait, yeah that did happened too. On a side note I'll be riding toad's a lot more - come on down...

 

[benjaminj]

not sure if its a big deal but i love my 08' rc3 wc.

Thanks that's hlepful... anyone that loves there '08 Marzocchi should read this and be leary of your fork also:
http://www.azfreeride.com/?q=node/1422

And seriously if there's any ideas or experience please post. Right now I will be bringing it to my local shop (Sports LTD) and having it warrantied and finding a new fork to ride in meantime while I'm out the 888 for a couple months.

 

[davep]

To the N* guy....just wait until the % of 08 forks start going up I am pretty sure you will 'see' something more representative of what many are experiencing with new Marz forks...

As far as seals weeping...99% of the time that is a simple issue of lack of maintainance....clean and grease the seals and no more leak (althought I will give you that the marz seals are superior...nice thing you can put them (or other high quality aftermarket seals) in the boxxer .in a couple of minutes...

Used to really like Marz for their simplicity and functionality . Thye were the diffinition of utilitarian. Now they are....ummm....not.

So for the leaking 888888888....really hard to help without knowing where the oil is coming from. Did the casting crack....are the footnuts loose....a torn o-ring..could be lots of things and many of they are super cheap and simple to fix.

Can you tell if the oil came from between the casting (lowers) and the nut? or from between the nut and adjuster???

 

[Icy]

Yeah 2008 is not a good year for marzocchi, my friends 888 blew up on him after 2 weeks.. I've never seen anything like it, the lowers got a crack on the inside and all the oil blew out all over the bike. I would understand if that happens when you hit a rock but there were no scratches and it was on the inside of the leg so it can't have gotten hit by anything.

He's got new lowers now so hopefully the fork will hold up, fingers crossed.

 

[benjaminj]

Yeah 2008 is not a good year for marzocchi, my friends 888 blew up on him after 2 weeks.. I've never seen anything like it, the lowers got a crack on the inside and all the oil blew out all over the bike. I would understand if that happens when you hit a rock but there were no scratches and it was on the inside of the leg so it can't have gotten hit by anything.

He's got new lowers now so hopefully the fork will hold up, fingers crossed.

Sounds like exactly what happend on mine... It was certainly not an oil leak, more like a gush all of the sudden out of the bottom of the lowers. How did warrenty work for your friend?
And for davep - the oil came out between the nut on the bottom of the lowers and the lowers themselves... I can't remove that nut with a common socket wrench or box wrench either.

 

[sriracha]

for the record, i have an 08 888RC3 that has worked flawlessly...i am very happy with the performance of this fork.

that's not to say i haven't heard of issues out there....from what i've been told, there was a batch of forks where the oil seals were installed upside down!...this is most likely your problem. as i've never heard of a marzocci oil seal failing so quickly.

the other problem i've heard about, is loose bushings...most likely a tolerance issue with the new stanchion design.

marzocchi is just having some teething issues with an entirely revamped fork line and the relocation of their manufacturing....the basic mechanics of the 888's are still up to par, just some manufacturing errors.

 

[Cant Climb]

Marz forks have sucked for the last 3-4 years....they break more often, harder to setup, even the valving is questionable....

I wish they'd they go back and just lighten up some of the older models......

 

[sriracha]

Marz forks have sucked for the last 3-4 years....they break more often, harder to setup, even the valving is questionable....

I wish they'd they go back and just lighten up some of the older models......

i completely dissagree. having owned an '05 888, an '07 66slata and an '08 888RC3 and ridden the '07 888rc2x....the forks feel better and better each year.
i'm not going to deny that there have been "issues", but they are easily resolved...i mean, c'mon, everybody out there has some kind of issue that people flame about on the internets:

weaksauce fox 40's snapping at the arch.
totems are still having issues.
intense m6's rub on the frame.
V10's have distribution issues.

seriously, if you buy a product on it's first year of release, expect to deal with issues. it's the trade-off you get, living in a world of buy-now! and percieved absolesence with rabbid customers frothing at the mouth for the latest and greatest and manufacturers scrambling to stay ahead of the pack.

 

[Icy]

Sounds like exactly what happend on mine... It was certainly not an oil leak, more like a gush all of the sudden out of the bottom of the lowers. How did warrenty work for your friend?

He took the fork back to the shop he bought the bike from and they contacted Marzocchi, I think it was shipped to Germany for a re-build, anyway 1.5 weeks later he got it back free of charge with new lowers and now it's working like a charm..Let's just hope that it'll hold up.

 

[Racerx7734]

To the N* guy....just wait until the % of 08 forks start going up I am pretty sure you will 'see' something more representative of what many are experiencing with new Marz forks...

As far as seals weeping...99% of the time that is a simple issue of lack of maintainance....clean and grease the seals and no more leak (althought I will give you that the marz seals are superior...nice thing you can put them (or other high quality aftermarket seals) in the boxxer .in a couple of minutes...

Used to really like Marz for their simplicity and functionality . Thye were the diffinition of utilitarian. Now they are....ummm....not.

So for the leaking 888888888....really hard to help without knowing where the oil is coming from. Did the casting crack....are the footnuts loose....a torn o-ring..could be lots of things and many of they are super cheap and simple to fix.

Can you tell if the oil came from between the casting (lowers) and the nut? or from between the nut and adjuster???

The whole rental fleet of DH/FR bikes have 08 66 and 888's what more could you ask for in % of visibility?.

 

[benjaminj]

He took the fork back to the shop he bought the bike from and they contacted Marzocchi, I think it was shipped to Germany for a re-build, anyway 1.5 weeks later he got it back free of charge with new lowers and now it's working like a charm..Let's just hope that it'll hold up.

Good to hear, mine is at the shop now so I'll see how long the warrenty will take. In the meantime I'm out a dh fork which is not ideal for the middle of the summer...

 

[bent_steel]

First weekend on my brand new 888 WC ATA, first run fork stuck down, won't come up, completely hydro locked according to the shop tech here. Lot's of problems with the air forks this year. Had to cough up the cash for a new boxxer or waste 6 days in the mountains.

Damn thing is getting returned.

 

[Rip]

Man I remember the days where the marzocchi's were rock solid and it was the boxxers experiencing problems.

Sucks to hear, hope it gets resolved quickly.

 

[Summit]

First weekend on my brand new 888 WC ATA, first run fork stuck down, won't come up, completely hydro locked according to the shop tech here. Lot's of problems with the air forks this year. Had to cough up the cash for a new boxxer or waste 6 days in the mountains.

Damn thing is getting returned.

Hey me too! Only it was this past weekend, the second weekend on the fork, and also a race weekend. Sucked. Marz is taking care of it though, good on the CS guys.

I've been so impressed with how well it rides that I'm not throwing in the towel yet, I'll give it another chance after the warranty repair.

 

[bpatterson6]

I must have like 40-50 DH Runs for a total of 4 or 5 weekends of solid riding on my '08 888 ATA WC. It's been good and I haven't had any issues. although, it's been good thus far. (Way better than my '07 888 that I had alot of trouble with when I first got it.) I have decided that I want to sell my '08 888 and get a Boxxer WC. I just can't get a Boxxer WC right now. Everyone is out of stock. '09's should be in before too long I hope.

 

[kidwoo]

First weekend on my brand new 888 WC ATA, first run fork stuck down, won't come up, completely hydro locked according to the shop tech here. Lot's of problems with the air forks this year. Had to cough up the cash for a new boxxer or waste 6 days in the mountains.

Damn thing is getting returned.

It's not 'hydro' locked, you've got too much air in your negative chamber from a seal breach. Take apart the cartridge, put the rod and piston where they would be at top out and reassemble it.

 

[big-ted]

Man I remember the days where the marzocchi's were rock solid and it was the boxxers experiencing problems.

Have to say, in the last two weeks I've seen:

two broken boxxers (snapped stanchions where the circlip retains the rebound cartridge)
one broken 40 (ruptured bladder)
zero broken Marzocchis

 

[schwinnstr8]

I have to vouch how great Marzocchi forks are. I have had an 04 888 RC, 06 888, and 06 and 05 66 RC and now an owner of a 08 888 ATA WC. They have all been great forks and i've had no problems. Also the CS or marzocchi is great! Just my 2 cents.

 

[sanjuro]

I have to vouch how great Marzocchi forks are. I have had an 04 888 RC, 06 888, and 06 and 05 66 RC and now an owner of a 08 888 ATA WC. They have all been great forks and i've had no problems. Also the CS or marzocchi is great! Just my 2 cents.

Cool. Trade.

 

[William42]

right off the bat my fork had the two known problems with the 66rc3 - faulty casting in the lowers, QR wouldn't tighten, and there was enough play to significantly "pinch" my fingers. Fork functioned just fine, just felt a bit wiggly - annoying, but I got to send it back on my terms and wasn't put out of riding because it suddenly kerploded. I'm happy enough with it that i've decided to run it for another year or two at the least, and I'd recommend it.

 

[benjaminj]

Turns out the casting in the lowers cracked which spilled out all the oil, manufacturers error. Warranty was fast and easy - I got the fork back in a week and a half with brand new lowers and internals rebuilt. After riding this weekend on it the 888 feels so much better than before the failure....

 

[Summit]

Glad to hear they took care of you.

Mine had a less than 2-week turnaround and will be back in my hands on Wednesday. I'm stoked with their warranty service for sure.