Hi


I want to get a set of Bilstein shocks. I only have a question:

Is the Bilstein SP shock made for working with factory springs or lowering springs?

Will it works best with factory or lowering springs?

I have Eibach springs and wonder if this is a good combo

Hope anyone can help me

 

From Bilstein website:


Looks like I cant use these with Eibach lowering springs (lowered 30mm)

 

do you want bilsteins sp's? we just put these on a friends cars last molnth, with m7 springs (bad combo to begin with, imho) and he hated it-the short soft springs coupled with the stiffer shocks produced and unbearable ride. if you are tracking your car regualarly, you are going to get good results with these. if you only street drive, even fast, look into the koni fsd shocks. a much better choice for street driving with stock springs (no extra expense). Im sure a bunch of people will jump in and disagree with me here, but i just went through this, so be honest with yourself on what you really need and will do with the car, and spend your money wisely.

 

Strong dampers matched with weak springs = unresponsive bound and reboound control - the car will not return to mean ride height quickly...the car will feel very sluggish.

Strong springs matched with weak dampers = uncontrolled bound and rebound - oscillation cycling between front and rear will be quite unbalanced...the car will feel overly repsonsive or nervous.

These two are opposites. Matching springs from one company with dampers from another is nearly impossible...unless you've got a huge racing and R&D budget.

The SPs will more than likely work well with the stock springs...

 

Meb is totally right, the above quoted situation happens with all lowering springs on stock dampers. I know lots of people say it works, so do the vendors, but physics dictate that for lowering springs (shorter, thus it has to be stiffer/stronger) you need dampers with increased damping rates. Yes, even lowering springs with progressively wound coils need matched dampers, unless you happen to drive the car so slow you never compress the springs beyond the softer portion.

If you don't care about the car's handling too much and just want it to look lower, go right ahead and buy springs and leave the stock dampers on the car, otherwise you're compromising the suspension setup and get less grip than before. The thing you have to realize is that, the dampers will wear out quicker, that is the reason why many people feel their rides are nice and stable the first couple of months they install lowering springs, but what they don't realize is the ride will get progressively worse in a fairly short time.

 

I heard Bilstein work good with Eibach. Let hope so I ordered the Bilstein

 

And to bring back an old thread... how is that working for ya?? heh heh

I've got Eibach spring and it's really time for new shocks...

 

Bilstein's are mono tube shocks where as Koni's are twin tube. Mono tube shocks have a piston stack that is more tuneable and are mainly used for racing. But Bilstein is one of the few manufactures to build them for use on the street. The good news is that they can revalve them to be softer, stiffer, what ever you want. Check their website for pricing on having them revalved.

But if you only want to drive car on the street, you'll like the new Koni FSD's better as they will ride better. I believe this is because they have designed a digressive valved shock. Digressive is a special piston stack that has a lot of dampening for great transistion control in the curves (low speed dampening), but the piston stack "blows off" when you hit a big bump (high speed dampening).

Don't listen to the people that say that you can't run good shocks with factory (soft) springs. They are wrong. Shocks affect both rebound and compression. You can have the shocks revalved so that the compression is so stiff the car behaves like it has stiffer springs. You can do a lot with just shocks.

It is true that you should try to "match" your shocks and springs. The main reason is that stiffer springs require more dampening to keep the car from bouncing too much.

Bilstein shocks have stiffer valving than the Koni FSD's. If you plan to autocross the car, stiffer valving is what you want. But if you're only going to drive on the street, then the softer (digressive valving) of the FSD's would be the way to go.

When you lower a car, you reduce the amount of travel, so the spring manufactures will increase the stiffness of the springs to reduce the chance that you'll be hitting the bump stops. Stiffer springs mean a rougher ride. Shocks can't soften stiffer springs they can only control them. For example, when you accelerate or hit the brakes hard, does the front or rear end rise and fall quite a bit? Stiff springs with soft shocks make the car hard to drive. Sounds like you want springs that lower the car but aren't much stiffer. You should find out the factory MINI spring rates you have and compare them to the springs you are looking to purchase.

One last option if you want to spend more money is adjustable shocks. They can be the best of both worlds. Adjust them to be stiffer for autocross/track days. Adjust them to full soft for daily driving on rough roads. If you're purchasing them with lowering springs, you could then adjust them to give you just enough dampening to control the springs without going so stiff that the car rides too rough. We plan to buy a set of Leda adjustable shocks for our dual purpose MCS (dual driver/autocross car).

 

We bought the Promini H&R sport spring and Bilstein strut combo. I think they have a proprietary spring rate as they said because it has a promini logo painted on it. It works very well together. We have alot of suspension experience so we can tell you this matched set is good. We are wary of purchasing untuned/unmatched sets from experience.

 

Thanks for all your explanation, especially Mitchman's because it's so detailed!

I'm already running my Eibach springs for the past 6 months, and I love the height that it is giving me. However, I'm not happy about the ride and feel that the stock shocks are not working well with it, much less "matched". The suspension is twitchy/bouncy due to stiffer springs and soft shocks. Therefore, i definitely need stiffer shocks.

Revalving is not an option because I'm in Asia at the moment, and that is not available for me. Coil-overs, height or fully adjustables, are too expensive for me, so that option is out too. Although, I might just get it due to frustration!

I have been toying with the idea of bilstein SP for a while until i heard about the FSDs. The other thing is, SP are cheaper than FSDs. Furthermore, I heard that the Koni yellows, even when on the softest setting, can be quite jarring for the streets.

My driving style is, quite extreme on the aggressive side, and yet, when I'm on a relaxed mode, really relaxed! (I change my gears before 2k rpm when I'm relaxed)

I want a set of shocks to match my Eibach. If not, i guess I'd have to live with it, till I change to bilstein coilovers. I have a friend using them, on setting 7, and it's so much more composed and comfortable.

P/s: After this write up, I think i just convinced myself to get the Bilstein! I'm not out to make the Mini comfortable neither do I want it extremely hard. I just want it composed.

 

bilstein sp's are a digressive shock as well. just stiffer overall.