[s-cars] Bilsteins and oil in the strut tower

[CLAG500 at aol.com]

I think the Bilsteins should be OK if you modify the strut housings for this 
type of insert. The Bilstiens are actually upside down. The fat looking rod 
you see on top is actually the outside of the shock body. The piston rod goes 
towards the bottom. The yellow housing covers the piston rod and there is a 
large air space in there that has to be vented for the struts to function 
properly. The strut housing on the car is designed for a regular strut that has the 
working (sealed) end at the bottom. The Bentley even recommends putting some oil 
in the housing. When the botom of a Bilstein insert is put in to water/oil it 
will constantly be pumping it in and out of this air space in the bottom of 
the strut. Even if it doesn't freeze you are at constant risk of hydrolocking 
the insert or pumpin fluid in to it and damaging it.
 
I haven't heard of any failures of struts where the installer drilled a drain 
hole in the bottom of the housing. It just so happens my new set of Bilstein 
Sports arrived yesterday from Shox.com. Here is a pic of the bottom of the 
strut. It's fairly apparrent why you would not want this sitting in any type of 
fluid. Drain holes in the strut are a must with these IMO.
 
_http://www.motorgeek.com/phpBB2/gallery2/d/71192-1/strutbottom.JPG_ 
(http://www.motorgeek.com/phpBB2/gallery2/d/71192-1/strutbottom.JPG) 
 
Chad
 
 
In a message dated 3/15/2008 1:16:43 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
s-car-list-request at audifans.com writes:

Message: 4
Date: Fri, 14 Mar 2008 23:15:56 -0700 (PDT)
From: Theodore Chen <tedebearp at yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [s-cars] Bilsteins and oil in the strut tower
To: Rich Assarabowski <konecc at snet.net>,    George Verbryck
<georgeverbryck at yahoo.com>, s-car-list at audifans.com
Message-ID: <563204.37615.qm at web54506.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

would you guys still recommend the bilsteins?  i have yet to replace my stock 
shocks, and they have 156k miles on them.  they're still ok, but it'd be nice 
to tighten up the handling.

-teddy





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