Bilstein Struts question..leaking oil.

[joeblow]

OK, I have a set of Bilstein housings with of course Bilstein upside-down inserts. They are not new but supposedly came of a car after only 20K miles on them.

Anyway they have some oil on the shafts, not tones but there is some there. They 'feel' fine with even damping on both for both rebound and compression.

I guess my question is this, when the inserts are installed do you fill the housings with oil to keep them cool which might enplane the oil or does oil=dead damper?

Thanks!!

[Eagledriver]

I have never put oil in the struts and I don't think it would do much good. The oil would leak out the bottom where the roll pin goes in to hold the shock rod. The oil would also be pumped out the top when the strut compressed.

If you have oil in there the shocks are probably leaking. I had a leaky one last year. You can send them to Bilstein and they will rebuild them. I think it was pretty inexpensive.

-Andy

[ischmitz]

Send them in to get the rebuilt at Bilstein if possible. Not sure how tough that is from Costa Rica. But in general Bilsteins can not be tested simply by compressing them by hand. A good working shock has so much rebound pressure that you'd have a hard time moving them at all unless you lean on them with your entire body weight. Yours are not good.

Ingo

[chris_seven]

Filling strut bodies with oil to cool the insert is an old trick and only works on a conventional telescopic damper where the cartridge doesn't move relative to the strut body.

If you try to fill a conventional inverted Bilstein with oil it will form a hydraulic lock unless the oil leaks out of the roll pin hole and it will not giv either a good ride or good handling.

Inverted Bilstiens assembled in Germany normally have a film of a red coloured assembly grease visible on the insert.

I would agree with having them rebuilt if they are leaking.

If they are an equal bump/rebound setting they may be a 160/160 rating, which I don't like too much.

I would tend to re-valve with something more like a 220/110 or even a 250/100 depending on duty.

I am sure there will be some disagreement with this.

[joeblow]

OK, thanks all. I was hoping Santa was going to tell me it was X-Mas and they were ready to bolt-on. I guess not

Is rebuilding/re-valving cheaper than buying new ones? I found new:
Rally Valving $116/each
HD Valving $131/each
Sport Valving $131/each

What do you guys think?

[johnsjmc]

Rebuilding is about 1/2 +- .You have a choice of valving to match reduced weight or stiffer torsion bars. You will need to factor in 2 way shipping to Bilstein in California and I am unsure of the warranty. Call them and speak to the race dept ,they can also tell you how long for turnaround.

[gtc]

I am going to go against everyone else and say that if they feel fine, go ahead and keep using them. It is not unheard of for Bilsteins to last a long time.

[joeblow]

Santa?

Originally Posted by gtc

I am going to go against everyone else and say that if they feel fine, go ahead and keep using them. It is not unheard of for Bilsteins to last a long time.