Bilstein PSS9's for a 2003 NB

[greenMachine]

Update time

My rear PSS9s are on their way back for a rebuild, after discovering them leaking badly (fronts all ok). $195 freight over, and another $70 back, at my cost!! Good buy is turning out not so good, at least Shox will do the rebuild at their cost even though they are (only just) out of warranty.

Bummer!

[Hjt]

Heasmens in Sydney can also rebuild the pss9, they did mine recently.

Let is know how they turn out.

[greenMachine]

Heasmens in Sydney can also rebuild the pss9, they did mine recently.

Yes, they rebuilt my old set as race shocks. But as this is a warranty job, I did not even think about using them as they have no warranty obligation on these ones.

Let is know how they turn out.

Will do. Right now they are in the air (well just about) for delivery to Shox on Thursday.

[greenMachine]

Update Number 2

The shocks have been repaired, and are now on their way back. On enquiring, I discovered that no information had been provided by Bilstein, but Shox are going to contact them to see if they can find out any more information about the failure.

In the meantime, I would encourage anybody who has bought PSS9s from Shox.com (or anybody else, for that matter) to keep an eye on them to see if they develop the same problem, in the event that there has been a faulty batch.

[Luke]

Don't know if I am blind or not, but did you bring them on the plane with you, or did you get them delivered?

I may be going to the States, on the West Coast, so would be easy for me to collect whilst over there. And I only plan to go there with 1 of the 2 23kg luggage bags and come back with 2 .

Also, does anybody know the Spring rates of these?
I think I mailed Bilstein once before, and got an answer that they are optimised and they don't tell you the rates!!! As I would be putting them in an SE which already has Bilsteins and Stiffer srpings, I wouldn't want to be going softer.

Also for those that have em, an odd question. How high can they be set? Higher than stock?
Bielstein couldn't tell me that last time either, as they said every car is different!!!

[Luke]

LOL, found the reply I originally got from Bilstein.

The kit installed at its highest setting will be 1" lower than stock
ride height... 25mm adjust down from there. Changing spring rate will
void all warranties and is not recommended. Bilstein engineers spent
months tuning the shocks and springs to work together at optimum
performance levels. Bilstein does not offer optional springs kits are
sold as complete kits only.

So stock on which model.
And what the hell are the spring rates!!!

[MiGoreng]

342lb or 6kg/mm all round

[Luke]

342lb or 6kg/mm all round

Really, wouldn't that cause an imbalance in the car, as the fronts are normally stiffer? ie lots of oversteer.
Guess it would require removal of the rear sway bar then??? Or very thick front one.

[MiGoreng]

Bilstein engineers spent months tuning the shocks and springs to work together at optimum
performance levels. Bilstein does not offer optional springs kits are
sold as complete kits only.

Though I've upgraded my front springs too a 400lb. Another recommendation is to use stiffer front swaybar as you've said.

[cooper1896]

I would be great if someone could explain why these Bilsteins have evenly weighted springs front to rear, yet almost every other shock absorber on the market for the mx5 has a significantly heavier front spring weight. Yet,
Bilstein have a great reputation for quality, and they are getting good reviews when installed on mx5's. How can this be?


Also, while on the subject what are others thoughts re the PSS9's old school lowering method (ie height not being independent of the damper stroke). At ride heights appropriate for track work (ie much lower than factory) you are loosing a lot of the dampers stroke.

[sailaholic]

The ride height being much lower then factory is a bit of a tricky comment itself.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[greenMachine]

Update time - No3!

The shocks are now back in the car, and I have had the chance to drive it for a bit and get used to them all over again. The best thing that I can say, is that the smile is now permanently back on my face!

The car feels quite different to what it did before they went away, and I suspect that based on my memory of how the car felt when they were first installed, the problem existed from day one. When they went away, they had lost a lot of oil, so that would affect their performance and the feel of the car, but I think that in comparing how it felt when they first went in, compared with how the car felt when the first set went in the car quite a few years ago, that their performance was off even then.

Thankfully, that is all ancient history now, and I am looking forward to another 200,000 km with this set - hang on, that will take me up to half a million kilometres!

[Hjt]

yes, very yes. Happy for the good result. Luke if you wish to view the pss9s still i'll be at Wakefield in December.

[RJ45]

Update time - No3!

The shocks are now back in the car, and I have had the chance to drive it for a bit and get used to them all over again. The best thing that I can say, is that the smile is now permanently back on my face!

The car feels quite different to what it did before they went away, and I suspect that based on my memory of how the car felt when they were first installed, the problem existed from day one. When they went away, they had lost a lot of oil, so that would affect their performance and the feel of the car, but I think that in comparing how it felt when they first went in, compared with how the car felt when the first set went in the car quite a few years ago, that their performance was off even then.

Thankfully, that is all ancient history now, and I am looking forward to another 200,000 km with this set - hang on, that will take me up to half a million kilometres!

When you have a moment, could you detail how the car felt (on the road) before the shocks were fixed?

I'm not 100% happy with the ride, although it seems pretty good on smooth roads, but anything rough seems nasty.
I definitely need an alignment for which I plan to visit Spinning Wheels for soon, as the back is way out.
But I'd like to know if I might have any of the same symptoms you did before I do that.

[greenMachine]

Update time - No3!

The shocks are now back in the car, and I have had the chance to drive it for a bit and get used to them all over again. The best thing that I can say, is that the smile is now permanently back on my face!

The car feels quite different to what it did before they went away, and I suspect that based on my memory of how the car felt when they were first installed, the problem existed from day one. When they went away, they had lost a lot of oil, so that would affect their performance and the feel of the car, but I think that in comparing how it felt when they first went in, compared with how the car felt when the first set went in the car quite a few years ago, that their performance was off even then.

Thankfully, that is all ancient history now, and I am looking forward to another 200,000 km with this set - hang on, that will take me up to half a million kilometres!

When you have a moment, could you detail how the car felt (on the road) before the shocks were fixed?

I'm not 100% happy with the ride, although it seems pretty good on smooth roads, but anything rough seems nasty.
I definitely need an alignment for which I plan to visit Spinning Wheels for soon, as the back is way out.
But I'd like to know if I might have any of the same symptoms you did before I do that.

The first thing to be said, is that the shock absorbers are only one part of the suspension and other parts, particularly the bushes, will affect how the car feels. If your bushes are shagged you will get a much noisier and rougher ride than if they are in good condition.

When I first installed them, I felt vaguely disappointed. My memory of a firm, but not harsh, controlled ride over bumps and undulations was not corresponding with what I was experiencing. To put that in some perspective, I had replaced a set of BC coil overs with them because I found the BC to be extremely harsh and uncomfortable, without providing good feel and good roadholding on anything but a billiard table surface. This new set of PSS 9 had a similar, but less harsh, feel to them. Unfortunately, it was a case of "set and forget", and I now regret that I didn't pull the wheels off and have a look because if I had, I suspect that I would have seen the oil escaping even at that stage. 12 months later, and they were covered in it!

At this stage, I have no reason to believe that there was a problem inside the shock absorber that was affecting its performance. I think that, effectively, the shock absorber was simply pumping its oil out, so that the valving was not doing its job. However, I have not yet heard anything about the problem although I have asked.

If I remember correctly, one of the suspension chain shops (Peddars?) used to offer a service where they would test your shock absorbers on the car (I think), it might be worth trying that even if you have to pay a few dollars for the test. The alternative is to pull them off, and then do the test, more expensive but probably a lot more reliable result too.