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Bilstein suspension feedback

ChrisD.

ChrisD.

ChrisD.

Man of Honour
Joined
20 Sep 2006
Posts
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My ATR is getting to the age and mileage where the dampers may start to have issues. Ultimately, I'm looking at lowering the car however after reading a lot on the ATR forum, people who put lowering springs on Accords that are the age of mine (W 2000), albeit with a little more mileage (mine has 71k give or take), start to get issues with the OEM dampers and they then of course need replacing. Once you've put the springs on, then have to take them off again to replace the dampers, the labour costs start to ramp up.

So I'm toying with the idea of some Bilstein dampers and springs. I'm no track fiend, and I'm not looking to "slam" the car so the decent drop means lack of adjustability is a non issue and of course I won't have to worry about the adjusters seizing up.

Granted they are a little more expensive than second hand OEM dampers but then who knows how long they'd last. I wouldn't even like to look at the new price.

http://www.regals-motorsport.co.uk/bilstein-b12-suspension-kit-honda-accord-ivv-p-18297.html

Any feedback on Bilstein at all?
 
£600?! Surely for that you can get some decent adjustable struts with spring rates designed for the car from someone like Gaz?

At least that way you've got some control over the ride height and more importantly the damping characteristics.

FWIW for the MX-5 the bilsteins are not good, way too unsettled on UK roads.
 
For a decent adjustable set on a Honda you're looking the wrong side of a grand.

I could probably negotiate a deal with my tuner to get the Bilsteins fitted for sub £700.
 
Not got the tools/skills to do it yourself then? :(

If you're going to get fixed dampers I'd be doing all of the research I could, including getting in a number of cars fitted with that exact suspension setup. If they are popular you should be able to do that with no bother?
 
The b12 kit for the Fiesta ST is held with high regard so i don't think you can go wrong with Bilsteins.
 
If they have indeed been suitably valved for your application (Blistein are usually quite good at this) and you're capable of establishing which springs are suitable, I'd rather take them over some generic coil overs any day.

Quite often you'll make things worse with cheap (<£1k) coilovers, and even with decent stuff, you really need to know your stuff with spring rates and thn have the car setup properly once fitted.

It's much harder to make a car that handles well already handle better, and subsequently it's much easier to make things worse.

You just need to wary of those recommendations from people who think their car handles amazingly because they've made their suspension low and hard as ****. No roll doesn't mean better handling :p
 
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Swapping out suspension isn't too hard if you have a mate, a weekend, and the right tools. Me and Nick XX swapped out the suspension on his e36 well within the limits of a weekend with little more than a laptop for online guidance and a halfords pro socket set. I had never even swapped brake pads out on my own before, Nick was used to doing discs/pads/oil change and thats about it !

On the S2000 some people put Bilstein PSS-9's on their car. Feedback I got was it gave a nice high quality ride upgrade, but not quite hard enough for track use when really really pushing on, even with the dampers set to full hardness.

As DRZ points out, you could probably get Gaz Gold coilovers for under a grand, probably close to this £600 you speak of.

Regarding MikeHiows comment on sub1k coilovers, there is a point there, ish. Plenty of sub 1k kits are absolutely fine, but you might get a slightly firmer ride than previous. KWv1's, V2's, and depending on your car V3's will come in under a grand and are superb kits.
 
Cheers for the feedback guys.

Changing suspension at home is not going to happen, I don't have the space. Maybe when I go to visit my mate in Gloucester but that's about it. I know it's not very hard to do, just time consuming.
 
I had bilstein B12s (this is a set of bilstein b8 dampers with matched H&R springs) on my fiesta for a year and they were great, firmer than standard but much less crashy.

I have since replaced them with H&R monotube coilovers (~£900), these are made by bilstein and are essentially the same in terms of damper technology but have adjustable spring platforms front and rear. I only changed to these as I wanted to go lower, having fitted smaller lightweight wheels.

Would heartily recommend bilstein kit, its not cheap but the quality is better than the likes of AP, entry level KW (variant 1), spax and Weitec.

For the chap recommending Gaz, Gaz gold coilovers will set you back about grand, considerably more than a set of bilstein b8 dampers or the b12 kit, and the cheaper Gaz option which runs to ~£600 (gaz gha range, rather than the 'gold') is an inferior twin tube damper rather than the monotube design of the bilstein.

I reckon the bilstein B12s would be better for road use too, being more reliable from everything I have read, would definitely corrode more slowly than the non-gold gaz coilovers, and come with springs more suited to the road (Gaz stuff as default tends to be more track biased, although you can get custom spring rates if you order via corby motorsport or go direct to gaz).
 
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I use Bilstein Group Ns on my Saxo and find them perfect for the driving I do. With them being inverted, they feel a little stiffer than other dampers I've tried, but paired with something like Eibach springs (usually a similar spring rate to standard items?), you should find they offer good ride quality.

I've used adjustable dampers in the past, but found them to be pretty pointless - once I found a setting I liked, I left them at that.

Can't really comment on their life span, but they've been on the car ~2.5 years and as far as I can tell, they're in good working order. The Group Ns seem to be geared towards competition use, so I imagine they will need to be revalved at some point.
 
Bilsteins are one of the best out there. They do several variants so you'd need to pick which one is best for your needs.

Billies must be good - came as standard on my Saab :D
 
Std on Range Rover Sport and XKRs with adaptive damping control aswell.

Like anything there is a range of products though and the quality will correlate with their pricing.
 
MilanoChris said:
Cheers for the feedback guys.

Changing suspension at home is not going to happen, I don't have the space. Maybe when I go to visit my mate in Gloucester but that's about it. I know it's not very hard to do, just time consuming.
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Don't even think about asking me for help to change to coilovers!! :)

Unless you're buying the tools ;)
 
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