Bilstein Review

[aiboart]

Review; Bilstein Sport (Yellow-Blue) Dampers

Ford 2005 BAII XR6T A4 (50K km)

Factory springs,

Factory Premium Brakes (with DBA5000 alloy hat discs)

Factory 17” rims (14kg),

Standard size Dunlop Sports Maxx Tyres

Factory Engine Software (std. power)

On the advice of a couple of forum members, I recently replaced the XR6T's 50K km shocks with Bilstein Sports shocks.

Unexpectedly the Bilsteins created big changes over a broad spectrum of the car’s character.

For as much of the cars dynamic range as I am able to access currently, NVH seems to have dropped through the floor. The impression is of another platform of another marque. This is brilliant.

I get to ride around and or drive some interesting cars from time to time: AMG E55, 996TT, M3, A6, Atom, and this is like the best of the best passenger cars.

The anticipated tradeoff for installing the Bilsteins, low speed ride comfort for body agility, simply did not eventuate.

Ride Height and First Impressions

As expected, the car sits higher with high-pressure gas shocks mounted on standard springs. I forgot to measure the ride height before fitting the Bilsteins however, it is apparent that the car is sitting higher. It has the slightly elevated posture of an Audi.

The car starts in a smooth flat manner, the body moves differently and gives the impression of being far more substantial and solid.

Crawling out of the garage in reverse there is a stunning quietness and near perfect smoothness as the car traverses the downhill break in the slope between concrete slaps of the garage and the driveway.

The body does not move in response to the wheel tracking the ground. There is no pitching, noise, vibration, or body impulse - nothing. You have to try really, really try hard to determine when the rear wheel crosses the break in the slab/slope.

When reversing out of the crossover onto the road, the slope breaks steeply up. In the past, the car would clear the driveway by about 4mm accompanied with by various thuds and swooshing noises - whcih actually normal.

Now there is perfect smoothness, no noise nor harshness and no vibration or body shaking impulses. The quiet is staggering.

When crawling over driveways crossing and joints between slabs the car now feels like two well oiled precision machine parts sliding over each other. It is uncanny.

On Road NVH

The car is just vastly quieter and smoother.

Road speed long wavelength bumps feels like they are about to commence… and then just go away… The faster the car goes, the more refined and smoother everything rapidly gets. Wow.

In respect to short wavelength road irregularities, I made a point of deliberately driving the car over fractured concrete and bitumen surfaces several times just to convince myself that I had actually run over them. I can just detect the sensation…One does not glide over surface irregularities as seem to fly over them at some altitude.

On Road - Body Control, Control Response, Mechanical Grip.

It always seemed possible to corner the standard XRT at road speed in a completely flat attitude if the corner would allow for the appropriate setup and there was enough torque available. It took a little effort but it could be done for most road speeds or at lest so it seemed, and it was fun to do.

Things were a bit different where speed and line were fixed and did not allow for the control inputs required to create the flat cornering attitude, such as when following a lane of traffic. In such circumstances the XRT would demonstrate a degree of body roll as lateral force built up, accompanied by a steady buildup of under steer. Whilst a body roll may or may not be significant to efficient cornering, it is not necessarily desirable in a passenger car.

I had hoped the Bilsteins could improve the chassis response of the XRT in these circumstances without too much of a trade off in ride comfort. It was a mostly a curiosity prompted by Ford’s development of the digressive R-Spec suspension tune.

Instead, I have a car that I cannot recognize in nearly all aspects of refinement at all speeds from engine startup to whatever velocity, under all combinations of accelerations.

My wife and kids love it.

Body control… well, the last time I experienced something like this, though not as effective, I was in a fully active suspension car with a specialist computer driving hydraulic rams. (Toyota UZZ32 Soarer) How a passive system does this I do not know… and the Bilstein system is just worlds more refined.

Control Response, it seems just straight out linear, linear, linear. I cannot take it to track speed of course but to date it is all-good. Steering, brakes, throttle… just soooo linear.

Mechanical Grip – I do not know as there is no opportunity. If however the wheels are being looked after in the same way that the body is, then one may expect that mechanical grip may well improve despite the increased potential for weight transfer.

The recent rain has provided an opportunity to test the Bilsteins in wet conditons, so I did. Testing was confined to the norms of road traffic. Nevertheless it seems at this early stage that there are no negatives to the Bilsteins on launch, braking or cornering when compared to the previous setup in these conditions. If, if, the potential theoretical loss of adhesion is realized, in whatever form, due do the increased weight transfer of this setup, then it seems that the loss of adhesion will be more than offset by the increase in controlability afforded by the extreme linear nature of the chassis response that this setup provides. It is also possible that the superior operation of the Bilstein setup simply generates better mechanical grip in the wet as well as in the dry, in addition to the aforementioned linear chassis response.

Regards,

aa

[Guest newl]

Nice write up there aa. Did you get the electronic adjustment computer with the setup as well?

[Guest EGOXRT]

What part # Bilsteins are these please??

[XF Falcon]

Nice write up. Unfortunately my reviewing/writing skills are not as great as yours, but I have a set of Bilstein shocks in my car too. Front sits 50mm lower on adjustable height coilovers with Eibach springs, and rear sits 60mm lower on king springs. For how low the car is, it handles GREAT. I can take bends in the road at much high speeds and its way more stable. Bumps are a lot more comfortable compared to standard suspension and I cannot fault it at all. Money well spent.

Here is a dodgy phone photo of the front setup:

[Superoo]

How much approximately are a set of Bilstein shocks fitted?

[TURBO4LT]

They would have to be one of the best shocks around

[dingah2]

A good choice by my judgement - see my comments on that set up and a little more

New suspension - form and smooth

[ZAP]

Great review John,

I have the Koni's and experienced the same transformation.

You will notice the car will settle back to normal ride height in a few days of driving.

If you are impressed by the shocks, I suggest you get F27mm/R22mm antiroll bars. This will again transform the car, make it much more pointy and more precice.

[dingah2]

Go for the even larger front sway bar (32mm??) and leave the rear one alone so that the rear suspension can flex and work as designed in order to keep the power down is my advice.

Dingah

[aiboart]

What part # Bilsteins are these please??

Bilstein Part Numbers (as per previous forum member posts)

B46 1255BA

BE 5 62670

Ride Height Bilsteins BAII XR6T 50K km

- factory springs

- factory 17"wheels

- << 0.25 tank fuel

- no payload

- level ground

- car unused for 24 hours

Approximate! ride heights measured from wheel centre to wheel arch using a tape measure - no plump line used.

FP 375mm

FD 365mm

RP 375mm

RD 375mm

Regards,

aa