Destroyed my R1T front strut. Suspension airbag exploded. Common or rare? (PICS)

INTRO
Hello, I'd like to start off with a few positive notes. The Rivian customer service has been exceptional. More specifically the call center and the service center in Costa Mesa, California. The R1T suspension failed in Lake Havasu, AZ and was towed 280 miles to the service center. After 7 days the entire front strut assembly has been replaced. All under warranty. I love this R1T more than I ever thought I would. It is an amazingly capable all around vehicle.

BACKGROUND
I took delivery of my R1T on March, 30, 2023 and immediately went on a 1,000 mile trip the next day with a lot of off roading. As of today (May 4) I have 2,679 miles on the R1T. I have been off roading for over a decade all with Toyotas. 1st, 3rd, 4th gen 4runners. 2nd gen Tacoma. My last vehicle was a 2022 Tundra TRD Offroad. Admittedly I drive the R1T harder than most owners. However, I have not abused it nearly as hard as my previous Toyotas. I have yet to even bottom out the suspension on the R1T during off road as I am easing into its capabilities.

FAILURE
We did about 2 miles of light off roading in Havasu in order to get a good view of the lake/river. Ambient temperature was 100° F. I drove back 15 miles on road and when I got back into town I heard a clunking noise in the front left driver suspension. I pulled over and noticed the lower boot had come loose. I was also getting airbag overheat warnings.



I could not slip it back on by hand on the side of the road so I decided to drive into a parking lot for a better look. The clunking noise stopped and the suspension became extremely stiff. When I put the vehicle in park, kneel mode activated but the vehicle would not lower. There is another rubber boot that holds the metal cylinder up top but the metal cylinder completely dislodged and wedged itself into the upper control arm!



I called Rivian (Friday around 4:30pm) and as I was outside of the car speaking with them there was a loud POP! and the front end dropped like a rock. The representative heard the pop and asked if I was ok. I told them the suspension airbags exploded. There was a loud hissing sound as the remaining air was escaping and they sent the tow truck as soon as they could.



CONCLUSION
Rivian replaced the entire front driver strut assembly under warranty. I have the R1T back and it feels good as new. The on road and off road capabilities of this vehicle are outstanding. The all around features of this vehicle are more than I could ask for. Even coming from a 2022 Tundra, I don't see why I would buy another Toyota. The big question is how reliable will this be in the long run? Reliability is the only thing that can kill my love for this vehicle.

Does kinda look like the boot just wasn't slid on far enough. Hard to tell afterwards.

Dark-Fx said:

Does kinda look like the boot just wasn't slid on far enough. Hard to tell afterwards.

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There is a clamp on the bottom boot. However there is no clamp on the top boot. I have confirmed this with other Rivian owners. If you look up in your suspension there is no clamp on the top rubber boot above the cylinder. There has be some other internal structure holding the metal cylinder? I couldn't imagine they would rely on only 1 clamp to hold the metal sleeve.

My guess is 100° weather and over extension and over travel of the suspension pulled it apart. HOPEFULLY I just had a defective strut assembly, time will tell....

Dirtcom_AJ said:

There is a clamp on the bottom boot. However there is no clamp on the top boot. I have confirmed this with other Rivian owners. If you look up in your suspension there is no clamp on the top rubber boot above the cylinder. There has be some other internal structure holding the metal cylinder? I couldn't imagine they would rely on only 1 clamp to hold the metal sleeve.

My guess is 100° weather and over extension and over travel of the suspension pulled it apart. HOPEFULLY I just had a defective strut assembly, time will tell....

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Rivian replaced my driver front after I was getting some popping noises when doing stationary turns. No issues with it since then.

how much was the tow?

Count Orlok said:

how much was the tow?

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Tow and rental car was free under warranty! Otherwise the tow company quoted $2000 hahaha.

Glad to hear about the Rivian support. I'd echo the same comments about the people in customer service as well as the service techs who have supported me out of the Sacramento service center.

Please share the repaired photos. Curious to see what the repair solution is.

Yeah this is the problem with air suspension. If you want a truck that goes street rod style then off road style and back again it’s pretty much the only way to do it but a Jack of all trades is typically the master of none.

With that said Rivian is a great Jack of all trades.

eRacer said:

Please share the repaired photos. Curious to see what the repair solution is.

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They replaced the entire front left Air Suspension Strut Assembly OEM part# C100002751

Donald Stanfield said:

Yeah this is the problem with air suspension. If you want a truck that goes street rod style then off road style and back again it’s pretty much the only way to do it but a Jack of all trades is typically the master of none.

With that said Rivian is a great Jack of all trades.

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Let's not forget the end of that quote, “a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

Dirtcom_AJ said:

Let's not forget the end of that quote, “a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

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Thank you! This saying us long used & abused by being truncated by EVERYONE!

Great to hear your truck was promptly repaired with a very long courtesy tow.

Bummer, but good to hear about the customer service experience. One of my big fears is that any sort of failure or accident will leave me without a vehicle for a long time. Nice to hear that may not be the case. Totally off topic, but what color is your R1t? The daytime parking lot pic looks light blue. The pic on the trailer looks army green/tan. I assume the night pic the color is distorted. Is the blue color custom?

Mtbaddict said:

Totally off topic, but what color is your R1t? The daytime parking lot pic looks light blue. The pic on the trailer looks army green/tan. I assume the night pic the color is distorted. Is the blue color custom?

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That is Limestone. Many of the Rivian colors have the effect of presenting as different colors in different lighting. And camera white balance and monitor have a great deal of impact on perceived color.

Between the various forums, this is the first one I've seen.

I'm glad to hear that Rivian took care of you but I'm frankly stunned that they did. In another thread, someone with 800 miles on their R1T and who never went off roading was being quoted ~4,500 to replace all 4 22" wheels the service center claims HE bent.

You basically acknowledge you abused your truck - even if it was less than you did with your ICE vehicles and Rivian replaced this under warranty. Not sure I understand that.

Again, I'm very glad they took care of you, but as a company they are bleeding money. They are going to have to figure out what is within the parameters of warranty vs. non-warranty and it is very tricky because they advertise their trucks as adventure vehicles so they can't fault you for pushing your truck to see what it is capable of.