[Vwdiesel] strut inserts

[Shawn Wright]

On 21 Dec 2005 at 8:35, Roger Brown <r.c.brown at ieee.org> wrote:
 
> I had two failures on my Bilsteins, I suspect both had been sitting on the
> dealers shelf too long (maybe the reason they were sold so inexpensively).  One
> went flat within a month of installing it and the other about a year later.  I
> was really impressed with Bilstein's warantee service compared to KYB's.  With
> KYB I had to pull the parts and bring them to their nearest distributor (the
> place of purchase had gone out of business) and if they deemed them to have
> failed, I would get new ones. With Bilstein, they shipped me replacements at no
> charge and I returned the failed insert and a copy of the receipt and they even
> reimbursed me for the return shipping.  The only hassle is getting through the
> gauntlet of telephone transfers to get to the guy who can process the return
> order.  But since getting replacement units, mine have worked great for the last
> years.
> 
> Not sure if they make them for the A1, but I heard the KYB GR2 shocks are
> supposedly pretty good. -- 

I have the GR-2 on the front of my Westy, and they are noticeably softer than the GasAJust I 
have on the rear. But on A1/A2 cars I think the GasAJust are 2-3x the price. I just put a set of 
GR-2s all round on my Jetta (new struts up front, not just cartridges), and so far they seem 
pretty decent, not performance, but a bit stiffer than stock. We'll see how they last. I plan on 
pulling the shocks on my Westy to see if they can be replaced under warranty, as I think they 
are probably flat. This is after 8 years & 80k kms, but a LOT of rough road driving. Vanagon 
shocks are easy enough to swap that I will stick with the KYB if they will honour the warranty 
every few years. 


Shawn Wright
http://members.shaw.ca/vwdiesels
'88 Westy 1.6TD 5 speed
'82 Diesel Westy 1.6NA
'85 Jetta Diesel 1.6NA