Bilstein Struts TOO Hard?
 

We discovered on our first outing of our 24 Hours of LeMons FD that the struts were blown. We suspect they got too hot in the previous fire. By the time the race was over, the front suspension was a bouncy, leaky mess.

I have a set of used struts - a set of Bilsteins that I got for free! However, they are HARD!!! I weigh just about 200 lbs and I can push them in about an inch if I really try. Is this too hard for track use? Are these struts blown too? I mean, most blown struts have infinite travel and all four of these have almost no travel.

It is a LOT of work and a pain in the ass to get these on the car just to find out they are going to suck.

Can struts be too hard?

Really confused here.

Attachment 662888

Oh yeah - the car has Eibach Pro Kit springs if it matters.

I highly doubt it. My front bilsteins are off a 3000GT and were very hard to push down too, but they ride great.

they're harder than what you're used to because they're nitrogen charged so the gas pressure inside the strut actually adds spring rate as the strut shaft displaces the shock oil.

The 'hardness' of a gas shock out of the car does not relate well to the hardness of the ride.

the Bilsteins and pro kits should be a great combo from what I've read. Better would cost $1-2k or so!

what engine is in that thing! LOL

i'm surprised you got it into lemons!

^^^ Half bridgeported 13B REW with a high compression rotors. Engine came from our rolled RX2 Lemon.

We put an Ebay T04B on it and it makes 330hp to the ground.

It also drinks fuel like an oil tanker. No good for endurance racing, but sure is fun.

looks like u may have more to shake down then just the struts, holy crap.

Update. Bilstein struts on Eibach Pro Kit Springs:

TOTAL FUCKING FAILBOAT!

The car bounced like Miley twerking! It was SO terrible and dangerous that we had to park the car while I left the track to get a set of stock struts. The car bounced while accelerating so couldn't lay down power - infinite wheel hop.

Stopping was even scarier since it bounced even more violently and it was all you could do to stay out of the weeds - or a wall.

Lesson learned, if you run hard struts, I guess you need much softer springs.

Anyone want to buy a set of Bilsteins? :D

I would love to buy some bilsteins but I need them for an FC.

Also that is one hell of a lemons car! kudos!

I think something is wrong with those Bilsteins or they have been revalved for some serious spring rate. If you are having trouble pushing them in that is a red flag to me. Compression valving is all about controlling the unsprung weight of the suspension, that changes very little when designing you valve stack. Rebound is where you would expect the shock to resist extension, it is supposed to damp the spring trying to push back after hitting a bump.

Using a soft spring and a stiff shock is a recipe for fail too. The car will get lower as it hits bumps without a stiff spring to expand the shock again. Couple laps and you're on the bump stops.

I would wager this being the case. Did you get the Bilsteins used? The Eibach springs (if they are the base Pro-Kit as mentioned) are not much stiffer than the stock springs on the FD. Likely something is up with the Bilsteins and you either have a problem, or they are valved for a much stiffer spring than what you were using.

I run 650 / 500 springs , and Gab shocks . and I dont have any issues with bounciness . and thats on summer tires , not R comps . I definitely think something is off with those bilstiens if you are having that much trouble.

If anything, sounds like they're under-damped for the spring and can't control it! Every Bilstein will extend - gas filled monotube, normally a bit hard to compress, but virtually impossible to get useful data by the hand shock dyno. If these are FD sourced, they weren't a particularly good shock to start with...without going inside.

Luckily I had a set of good stock struts. I got them from a 30,000 mile R1 car years ago and held onto them. Three of us managed to swap them out in under an hour.

As far as the Bilsteins, I got them free with no guarantee except they looked really nice and were better than the burned and leaking ones on the car (or so I thought). No harm except we lost about 3 hours or more track time while I went to get the stock set.

The Bilsteins are probably great struts - but not matched to the springs on our car.

Ouch!