Who did you buy the new shocks from?

 

Bavarian Autosport. Even at a non-sale price, they were way below everyone else I contacted, including the places I typically buy from that usually blow the rest away on price.

DOC

 

Hey everyone, I am assuming that I don't need the rear shock bushings that BSH and Way Motor Works sells.

http://www.waymotorworks.com/bsh-rea...k-spacers.html

Can someone confirm this.

Thanks!
TREX

 

You are correct, received my bilsteins a few days ago and you don't need anything else. Also verified this with Way before shocks arrived....

 

Thanks Wait.

How long did it take for your bilsteins to arrive? Did you order from bavauto?

 

SEE POST 198

 

Thanks Wait, although I see you ordered the Bilstein Sports, I ordered the HD's on the 26th. I think mine will take longer :OP

Doc, I don't think I am going to get the camber plates. Too expensive.

Might get some springs though, if I can be convinced of the right ones.
Stock/TSW/NM/Eibachs. Maybe a very minor drop will be offset by the Bilsteins added ride height and will end up right where I am out now.

Progressive sound like they should give a little better initial compliance, but like the idea of the super mild drop the TSW's have. Decisions are tough.

 

Trex,

The lower your ride height, the less you will need the camber plates to obtain at least one degree negative camber. I have a Justa with higher than stock front ride height due to the Bilstein HDs. Initially, I was able to get .9 degrees of negative in front just by removing the plastic pins and sliding to the end of the slots on the inboard side without elongating the slots. Installation of the Bilsteins resulted in losing .5 degrees of negative.

A NAM member (TVR) posted that elongating the slots inboard on his MCS 3/8ths of an inch only gained maybe close to half a degree of negative camber, so I'm going with the IE plates to get me to 1.6 degrees.

I think about 1.5 degrees negative in front and one degree in the rear is about right for an enthusiastically driven, street-only, Justa.

DOC

 

A little backround, 2010 R56S, ( I should add this stuff to my sig ) I have Bilstein HD's And NM springs. I just went out and measured front camber, .09 degrees, same as Doc 4444. I pulled the plastic pins and pushed them all the way inboard.
If I remember right, I think stock camber on MC or MCS is about .05.
A little extra would be nice but I don't want to grind the holes or get camber plates at this time either, as I don't have any plans to track the car.
Anyway it seems to handle pretty good for my abilities, ( read, car still handles beyond what I'm capable of ) And I haven't noticed any abnormal wear on the tires yet.

 

Maugre,

Do you have a Justa or a turbo car?

DOC

 

Maugre, hows the ride quality. Does it soak up the little bumps? I am counting on the bilsteins to stop the crashing on the moderate bumps, but would really like it to smooth out a bit on the little stuff like expansion joints and manhole cover type hits. Wondering how the NM's work on that?
Thanks,
TREX

 

Hi Doc, It's a turbo MCS.Trex, The ride is really decent. When I had stock dampers and springs, whenever I hit an expansion joint, it was quite exciting the first time, felt like it wanted to swap lanes, I'm sure you know what I mean by asking.
With the Bilsteins and springs, the expansion joints no longer exist and as an added bonus, torque steer is also gone. I'm running Michlin 17" Sports non run flats, and I'm sure that helps as well.
Again I'm pretty happy with the setup. Good luck.

 

I'm thinking about getting these to replace my OEM struts which are clearly at the end of their life. I have 65,000 miles on them, and that's 65,000 miles of southeast Michigan roads. I want something with a bit more sportiness to them since I like to have some fun on the back twisty roads, but nothing as extreme as coil overs.

I figured I'd put some springs on these too since I'm reading they can take about a 1.5" drop without too much of an issue. I'm thinking maybe the NM springs. Seems like it would solve the lift the HD's are causing and give it a nice and small drop to make it look better.

Any word on how long these struts last? I do 20,000+ miles a year and I don't want to be putting struts on and then having to replace them every year...that would get expensive. I have a 5" front and 7" rear dropped Blazer before the Cooper and I had to put drop shocks on every 15,000 miles or so.

Oh and I have a 07 Justa.

 

Bilsteins always used to come with a lifetime warranty to the original owner. I have taken advantage of it several times over 35 years. Never had a problem with the company honoring it. I understand the policy has changed a bit. I would check with Bavarian Autosport for the latest Bilstein warranty terms.

BTW, I got over 250,000 miles out of the Bilstein sports on my 1999 VW Passat. I have only seen Bilsteins fail when they bottom internally. Shocks/struts are not normally designed for this and will destroy any normal damper. I had some rear Bilsteins fail when the celastos disintegrated. I was not aware of it and the shocks were destroyed by internal bottoming. Anytime you install new shocks/struts, you should measure everything out to make sure you have enough bumpstop to guarantee no internal bottoming. I ruined a set of fronts on another car by following the instructions that came with the new Eibach springs that called for cutting the stops a specific amount for a particular car. When the first shock started leaking, I checked and found that not only should the stops NOT been cut, the full OEM length was needed PLUS another HALF! The Bilstein Mini front struts are an exception to this because the Mini HDs have internal bumpstops.

DOC

 

I was just perusing the Bilstein application guide (on the Bilstein US website), there's now part numbers for Bilstein Sport shocks listed as well ... I don't remember seeing these in the past, has anyone heard about their availability ?
The HD's (B6) are listed as PN's
Front
35-139362 (L)
35-139379 (R)
Rear
24-139380 (L)
24-139397 (R)

The Sports (B8)
Front
35-142287 (L)
35-142294 (R)
Rear
24-142304 (L)
24-142311 (R)

 

The numbers I have on my bilstein SPORT shocks on the shock itself and the order are: Rear left BE3 E230/Rear right BE3 E231. Fronts are: Left front VE3 228/Right front VE3 E229. These are for an 08 mcs.

 

Thanks for confirming that, according to Bavauto those are the old part #'s, but they still go by those.

I'm just debating whether the extra travel is worth an extra $250-300 over HD's (already have Eibach prokit springs).
The roads around where I live certainly justify the need for extra travel, but at almost $800 for the Sports, it's not much more to get Megan or BC coilovers...

Did the sports come w/ new bump stops for the rear, or did you cut and reuse your old ones ?

 

Nope, no bumpstops with the rear Bilsteins so I'll most likely have to cut the originals when I install them in a few weeks. I'm taking a day in the ole garage to do the wheels, tires, end links, control arms, shocks, springs and pads all together. Then it'll be off to the alignment shop after a few miles have gone by. Got the sway bar in a while back (19mm) but bought replacement clamps/bushings with zerk fittings so they will get changed over with the other stuff. Getting **** with this, been waxing the heck outta all the parts. LOL

 

The bump stops are internal on the Bilsteins for the rear of the R56.

 

Thought I'd read that somewhere but wasn't sure..Thanks

 

I do not believe the rears have internal bump stops, the front struts do, now I will do some further checking to confirm.
Installation instructions of Bilstein HD rear shocks P/N's VE3 D938 and D939 clearly indicate reuse of OE bumpstops.
In the case of using aftermarket lowering springs NM Engineering recommends trimming of rear bumpstop. Hope this helps, good luck.

 

I'm not sure the sports use shortened bodies, as far as I know they were physically similar to stock for the R53. Perhaps since they offer both HD and sport for the new car it is different.

 

care to compare the lengths and maybe snap a picture or two of the fronts and rears side by side w/ the stock units.

Bavauto said the sports would be ideal if the car's lowered. They also said the valving on both the Sports and the HD's were the same.

Usually on struts, the body isn't shortened (at least between the mounting point and the spring perch), it's usually the rod that's a bit shorter &/or the body above the spring perch.

 

I'm debating getting the Bilsteins for my S model with sports suspension I have on order.

I've seen several posts where people said the ride height became higher. Did it ever settle back down? I not want to be higher than stock.

 

Raises it by about .25 inch. I'm at about the same height as people dropped on NM's now, and I was dropped 1.25", now at about 1". Been about 10k miles, hasn't settled any. I don't expect it to until the shocks start wearing out.

It sounds like the NM + bilstein is a good combo... from what people say nm springs r as comfortable as stock, not sure how true it is as everything is subjective. I haven't rode in anybody's yet whos had the combo or the spring in general, but maybe you can find someone to try out first? This way you'll be down about .75" only and you'll have the added benefit of better performing struts. Good luck!