[s-cars] Bad Bilstein

[Mark Strangways]

Sounds to me like the shock is bust.
I don't know if there is anything worn that would contribute to the cause of
the break, but this would be the time to check.
FWIW, I would call bilstein and suggest that even though you are not the
original owner it should be a warranty claim due to poor manufacturing. It
may not work , but I would think it's worth the try.

I just recently had Bilstein send me a warranty replacement for a sport
front, which unfortunately did NOT fix my 100 MPH shake. So I think I will
see if I can keep my existing one as a spare, since I left a deposit with
them for the price of the shock (1/2 the price actually) should they not
find anything wrong with that shock. If you just replace the shock I would
think it would be ok to replace just the one, as that was what Bilstien has
done for my case.

Best of luck.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Kirkham" <ronk at oparch.com>
To: "S-Cars Web Ring (E-mail)" <s-car-list at audifans.com>
Sent: Monday, June 02, 2003 5:03 PM
Subject: [s-cars] Bad Bilstein


> 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)
>
>
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