Finally got my Bilsteins installed! It was a headache but the ride is well worth it. Since these shocks have a lifetime guarantee, I now wish I would have got them a few years ago. Stop by my "handling" pages for the write up and pics.

 

Excellent write-up, hehe you are as anal as I am. Nice details.

I though it interesting to torque the top back shock to 14 pounds. How do you get a torque wrench on it?

Pete

 

The factory rear shock is torqued to 14 ft/lbs. But the Bilstein with its M10 nut (17mm) gets torqued to 19ft/lbs. I wondered also, how to apply the proper torque. So I interupted the mechanic once again, perhaps one too many times by the look on his face :mad: , and mentioned that it looked like he was torquing it too much. I said I dont want the bushing to compress too far. So he says that the way the upper shaft is designed, he should keep wrenching till enough of the threaded portion is exposed up top and that the nut will stop turning eventually. He went on to say that with out enough compression the bushing would wear faster. I thought just the opposite.

You can look at some of my pics to see the compressed top bushing out back. I think there is one there. It is compressed a bit but looks to be okay.

What I am wondering now is that lets say my Bilsteins actually need replacement one day. How the hell am i going to remove the rears for warranty replacement with out distroying them by cutting the shaft (i know the top of the shaft accepts a hex wrench to hold it but getting one on it and spinning the nut with an open wrench looks difficult at best)). If I destroy them Bilstein prolly wont take them under warranty. If I pay for removal, I will have large downtime and will be out as much as new shocks cost. Good thing is that the shocks should last over 100,000 miles. The top rear bushing life is a question though.

 

Very nice write up Jala. It makes it seem almost simple. LOL. No, for real, nice job and I am glad to hear that it was well worth your time. :beaver:

-Ryan

 

Yeah, they make a nice difference. You will notice the difference even on a 1 year old rig. It depends what you want out of your rig right now. If you want to control the springs from giving you that floating boat like feeling get the bils. If you are looking for great cornering performance get the Addcos. The addcos give a more drastic ride difference. The combonation of both is great.