I have had the Amps for 7 years now. No issues at all. I have a mild climate and no nasty road salt or dirt roads or anything, so it just lots of extend and retract cycles with use. The motors seem fine but about a month ago I started noticing a bit more noise coming from the drivers side in particular when they extended down. A clunk at the bottom when fully extended.
I got under there and looked around and at first did not see the OEM bump stops, so tried a small amount of stick on neoprene rubber, but that did little to help.
I did some searching and was not coming up with anything much really. Climbed under there again and this time I closed the door and stopped the steps from retracting mid way and then looked and saw the bump stops they have in each arm. And they were shot.
I removed a couple to take a closer look. These plastic "cups" held a bumper that should protrude to soften and eliminate the impact of the two arms on the steps and some were nearly flat and doing nothing.
After looking for parts, and not finding anything I considered making my own. I reached out to Amp Research and asked about spare parts and they connected me to a supplier that sells them. But oddly they are drop shipped from Amp. Maybe it is a sister company or something. Either way, I decided to get the whole kit, so I had all new parts. Here is the link for them. Amp Research Bumper Housing / Driving Wedge Kit, 4 Sets
Odd thing is that this is for only one step, so you need two of these "kits" to do both sides. And they don't just sell the little bumpers by themselves. I decided to go ahead and order them since it also had the driving wedge thing below and I was not sure what that was and if I needed it. Total of $76.16 with shipping. But if this lasts another 7 years I guess that is fine.
They told me it could take 60 days for some reason. I reached out and it seemed to be a backlog due to lots of orders and slow getting supplies...etc. They ended up showing up yesterday so no where near 60 days thankfully. I was surprised and a bit annoyed that they came not assembled. It was a bit tricky to get the bumper shoved into the cap piece. It is basically a friction fit with a smaller inner diameter ring in side the cup that holds the bumper. I just did enough for the drivers side yesterday and will do the others today. I didn't yet swap or inspect the driving wedges either. I will pull one today also and see if they need to be replaced. I suspect they may wear if that is what is pushed on for operating the step motion.
New bumpers in.
In the kits I received, they give you 4 caps, and 8 bumpers, so as long as your old caps are still ok, you can get by with just one kit and do both steps which require 8 total. I now have 16 with the two kits so enough to replace them all again at a later date if needed.
Honestly though, if you get some material that is around 3/4" thick and have a plug cutter at about 1/2" you can make your own. Here are the actual dimension on the new bumpers. I am not sure what the durometer of these are, but they are fairly stiff. I would say somewhere between 50 and 60 Shore A.
After installing the new bumpers on the drivers side. Back to normal again.
Repairing Amp Research power steps that clunk when deployed
I have had the Amps for 7 years now. No issues at all. I have a mild climate and no nasty road salt or dirt roads or anything, so it just lots of extend and retract cycles with use. The motors seem fine but about a month ago I started noticing a bit more noise coming from the drivers side in particular when they extended down. A clunk at the bottom when fully extended.
I got under there and looked around and at first did not see the OEM bump stops, so tried a small amount of stick on neoprene rubber, but that did little to help.
I did some searching and was not coming up with anything much really. Climbed under there again and this time I closed the door and stopped the steps from retracting mid way and then looked and saw the bump stops they have in each arm. And they were shot.
I removed a couple to take a closer look. These plastic "cups" held a bumper that should protrude to soften and eliminate the impact of the two arms on the steps and some were nearly flat and doing nothing.
After looking for parts, and not finding anything I considered making my own. I reached out to Amp Research and asked about spare parts and they connected me to a supplier that sells them. But oddly they are drop shipped from Amp. Maybe it is a sister company or something. Either way, I decided to get the whole kit, so I had all new parts. Here is the link for them. Amp Research Bumper Housing / Driving Wedge Kit, 4 Sets
Odd thing is that this is for only one step, so you need two of these "kits" to do both sides. And they don't just sell the little bumpers by themselves. I decided to go ahead and order them since it also had the driving wedge thing below and I was not sure what that was and if I needed it. Total of $76.16 with shipping. But if this lasts another 7 years I guess that is fine.
They told me it could take 60 days for some reason. I reached out and it seemed to be a backlog due to lots of orders and slow getting supplies...etc. They ended up showing up yesterday so no where near 60 days thankfully. I was surprised and a bit annoyed that they came not assembled. It was a bit tricky to get the bumper shoved into the cap piece. It is basically a friction fit with a smaller inner diameter ring in side the cup that holds the bumper. I just did enough for the drivers side yesterday and will do the others today. I didn't yet swap or inspect the driving wedges either. I will pull one today also and see if they need to be replaced. I suspect they may wear if that is what is pushed on for operating the step motion.
New bumpers in.
In the kits I received, they give you 4 caps, and 8 bumpers, so as long as your old caps are still ok, you can get by with just one kit and do both steps which require 8 total. I now have 16 with the two kits so enough to replace them all again at a later date if needed.
Honestly though, if you get some material that is around 3/4" thick and have a plug cutter at about 1/2" you can make your own. Here are the actual dimension on the new bumpers. I am not sure what the durometer of these are, but they are fairly stiff. I would say somewhere between 50 and 60 Shore A.
After installing the new bumpers on the drivers side. Back to normal again.
So weird that they dont just offer the replacement part as a standard part. Seems they made them to be replaceable.
Nice work and good write-up as usual. I've missed these kinds of quality posts. As much as this doesnt even pertain to me (not having these steps), it makes me want to actually research, rebuild, and fix things as opposed to just passin the buck like most do. hah. Nice work man.
Thank you so much for this post. How ridiculous it’s been to identify the same issue. Even calling amp research was unhelpful. And why in the world would their support not know about this? Secondly, why is there only one dealer for this product? I even replaced the module thinking it was faulty. That was $130 waste. Thanks again! I was on my way to replace the motors. I love my steps. Regular running boards can not compare.
Another source of noise I have found with my amp steps was some hardware came loose. Used an allen wrench to tighten up and issue solved. Definitely enjoy my Amp steps over any factory setup.
I had that happen as well, and I found out it was a semi common issue. It was suggested to use blue loctite on the bolts to snug them up. I did that a few years ago and they have been perfect since.
This is the only place on the internet I found this out . Thanks
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As much as this doesnt even pertain to me (not having these steps), it makes me want to actually research, rebuild, and fix things as opposed to just passin the buck like most do. hah. Nice work man.
