[s-cars] Bad Bilstein

[Ron Kirkham]

Hello all,

On Friday, I was cruising on my commute home at a moderate 80mph. clip and
hit a small bump.  I hear a loud and very disturbing WHACK coming from the
left rear.  No change in handling, and no loss of control. I pulled over to
check things out, and upon first look could not see/find anything loose
or broken in the rear.  So I drive on home with a definate wrong noise
coming from the left rear upon hitting any and all bumps or larger expansion
joints in the road.  On Saturday, I jackstand the body, not the suspension,
I pulled the rear wheels and see that in the left rear (where the noise was
coming from), the shock is not extended into the upper mount/connection.  It
really doesn't look like the shock shaft has broken as the top of the shaft
is fairly smooth and not jagged like I would expect from a shear of hard
metal like this.  But there is no threaded end on the shaft for the
retaining nut, so it must have broken at the bottom of the nut?  I jack the
suspension into it's loaded position and the shaft seats into the cup as you
would think it would, and no other parts seem to be working incorrectly.  I
have not had this suspension apart before as the shocks were done by the PO,
but if it is similar to others I have R&R'd there should be a threaded end
on the shock shaft right?  The right rear looks as it should with the shaft
extending to the upper shock/spring mount.

My questions are:

1)  I know my shocks are Bilsteins and my springs are stock so I am looking
at Bilstein HD's right?
2)  Is this a common "break" for a Bilstein HD with ~60k miles?
3)  Is this "break" an indication that there are other suspension bits
assisting in this problem, or am I simply looking at a bad shock?
4)  Who's got a good price on these?  I've tried Shox.com and they don't
have an ETA on any of these.  Rod @ TPC can get them for $105 ea. but
admitted since he is not a big Bilstein supplier that he may not have the
best price.  Blau's price is $119 ea., any other suggestions?
5)  I am planning and assuming that I should replace BOTH rears right?

I have another car to drive until I fix this as I don't think it's a good
idea to drive it this way.  Best thing I ever did, as it turns out, was to
buy another vehicle when I bought my S4!

I know that this would be an excellent time to do the whole suspension with
new springs and shox, but my wallet can't handle that right now.  I just
dropped $1000 on other misc. problems with the car and now this!

Igor did a nice write-up on the shocks and springs on s-cars.org, anything
else I should know before goin in?

TIA

Ron Kirkham
93 S$  (very intentional shift slip)