Little bit of an odd thread to take my virginity but I've yet to muster up the will to start a build thread.

So I just recently installed a diy bilstein setup on my car. My old setup consisted of the koni str.t (orange) shocks, FM springs, FM bump stops, and extended top hats in the rear. The setup is no more than 10k miles old. I've had extended lower ball joints and the super miata dual duty alignment for less than 1k miles. The damage happened on a front shock so it used a stock NA shock mount.

As I was cleaning up the shocks to post pics for resale and noticed a circlip was bent and out of it's groove. I've yet to figure out what caused it. Picture posted below.


Just posting to maybe find a cause and to inform anyone else that may consider a setup like this.

 

It seems to me it would be really obvious if the circlip were so loose (defective) as to not stay in the groove when putting the shock assemblies together. I propose the circlip was never completely in the groove at install. I ran Koni Sports on my HPDE car for several years. While I have had a circlip break, I've never seen one able to escape from its groove if fully seated.

 

It doesn't look like this walked out, looks like the part that is out was bent

 

Self trash feature. Saves you time.