[s-cars] Elibach Springs with Bilstein sport shocks

[Charlie Smith]

Earlier, Djdawson2 at aol.com wrote:
>
> Paul,
> I just bought a set of Eibachs from shox.com.  They do not appear as if they
> will require a spacer.  I believe the spacer issue arose when Eibach decided
> to do a limited run of these springs, and they botched it.  To correct the
> error (in the rear springs) it sounds like they elected to provide a spacer
> rather than replace the rear springs with ones wound correctly for the
> application.

Be careful of buying new Eibach springs for the UrS4/S6 cars.

The reason I say this, is that -

A.  Eibach isn't making them any more.  Before the Group Purchase a year
or two ago, there supposedly were not any around to be found.

B.  When the Group Purchase (GP) dealt directly with Eibach, they agreed
to produce one last batch of S-Car springs.  They produced 20 or 30 sets
(or whatever) as were ordered.  There was a mixup of European and North
American part numbers - and what they produced and shipped was really
springs for (I think) a 2WD Avant.  Most of these springs got into the
hands of the GP buyers.

C.  It turned out that the 1st type Eibach springs were too long to fit
correctly on the Bilstein Sport Shocks.  Now, I gotta talk about them for
a moment.

D.  Bilstein was making their Sport Shocks for different springs than the
Eibach Pro ???? springs.  The nomenclature "Sport Shock" is talking about
a different part in the US than in Europe - so watch confusion here too.

E.  Some people, including me, installed the 1st batch Eibach GP springs
wtih the US Bilstein Sport shocks.  I had to machine another groove 'below'
the standard spring-seat snap ring groove, thus to lower the spring seat on
the shock body.  The Euro produced Eibach GP 1st batch springs had a different
part number than what we thought we were aiming for.

F.  After the smoke cleared in the air, it was figured that use of the
Eibach Pro springs with the US Bilstein Sport shocks required a spacer
about 1cm thick between the spring perch and the snap ring on the
shock body.  When Eibach produced another group of GP springs to the
US part number spec for the UrS4/S6 cars, they also produced and shipped
the required spacers.

As far as I know, Eibach has never made springs for use with Bilstein
Sport shocks without spacers.

As I said up in the beginning, if someone is selling you new Eibach
springs for UrS4/S6 cars - they may be an early set of wrong-spec
springs or they may be a later set of correct spec springs.  In either
case, they will not fit with the correct ride heigth on the rear of
UrS4/S6 cars without fiddling with the spring perch location.

    - Charlie


  Charlie Smith   charlie at elektro.cmhnet.org  614-471-1418
  http://www.elektro.com/~charlie      Columbus Ohio   USA
  http://www.elektro.com/~audi     photos & technical info

  95 S6 Quattro  -  24 PSI, RS2 6 speed, and other features
  97 Dodge Ram   -  35 PSI, 4x4 w/Cummins turbo diesel