Bilstein B4 longevity

[Eagle 1679]

Curious what sort of k's people have on these? IIRC @Olaf and @adro are running these on family? wagons

I just replaced the rear set in my compact to try and resolve a harsh and a bit sloppy rear, big rear end improvement just driving casually down the road. Turns out ive done around 25,000km on them, speed bumps, crap road and faster than normal driving hasnt helped them either. Various posts on BMW forums ive come across state they are only good for 20,000-30,000km, which seems to be the case here. Even my tyres have easily outlasted them. Have to do the fronts now because the rear axle is showing it up, they are probably worse off.

Eating my own words here when i say you rarely really notice an obvious decrease in performance until you replace them.

[gjm 3258]

Hmm.
About 150000km on a W126 S-class Mercedes. Rides like a magic carpet - smooth as silk

.

[Eagle 1679]

That a fair bit. Assuming you bought them along time ago? maybe they were better quality back then or dont notice the loss as much in the old barges.

I had them my W140 and they were fine (compared to the original 220,000km ones) but only did 2000km.  

[adro 1084]

I have B4’s up front, Sachs in the back. Done 17,000km and apart from having to replace 1 because it ate the dust boot I think they are ok. I did want the expensive konis but was trying to work within a budget at the time, no regrets though. 

[Olaf 3342]

On 10/21/2023 at 8:47 PM, Eagle said:

Curious what sort of k's people have on these? IIRC @Olaf and @adro are running these on family? wagons

I just replaced the rear set in my compact to try and resolve a harsh and a bit sloppy rear, big rear end improvement just driving casually down the road. Turns out ive done around 25,000km on them, speed bumps, crap road and faster than normal driving hasnt helped them either. Various posts on BMW forums ive come across state they are only good for 20,000-30,000km, which seems to be the case here. Even my tyres have easily outlasted them. Have to do the fronts now because the rear axle is showing it up, they are probably worse off.

Eating my own words here when i say you rarely really notice an obvious decrease in performance until you replace them.

I've not run Bilsteins.  Given Bilstein B4 are about the same price as Sachs OEM on whatever platform, I've always run Sachs OEM as replacements on e46 and e60 to great effect with standard springs.  On my e30, it's H&R+Koni Yellow.   E46 now has about 90k kms on the setup, they're still running comfortably.  I was lucky to drive @adro's e46, found the B4+Eibach setup is comfortable, pretty supple in the bumps and mild increase in rate helped cornering, the low naturally helped poise with lower CofG that my setup lacks  If I do my e46 again it'll be Msport springs and most probably Koni Yellow, or Sachs msport spec; I'll leave the current ARBs as they are well-balanced.  Both e60 and e46 were spec'd very much for Family Wagon duty.

Back in the 90's I had an A2 Golf GTI 16V.  I replaced the shocks with KYB Gas... they lasted about a year at high altitude.  I replaced with Boge Turbo (a Sachs OE product) to great effect, and were running well another two years later. 

Also ran KYB (in NZ) on Sentra and Maxima, they were okay and offered performance advantages over the oil-filled OE setup.  Different running to the aforementioned GTi.

Conclusion:  lower-budget monotube gas shocks may have some compromises more easily encountered in more spirited running?  If you're a Bilstein fanboy maybe committing heavily and going B6 and appropriate springs is the thing to do? 

 

PS:  I ran Sachs OE and H&R sportsprings on my Volvo 855-T5, eliminating Nivomat.  It was near-perfect (IMHO) handling with an ideal mix of comfort and rate on long trips, stiff enough for fun in the twisties.  I guess the only car I've owned in the past 30 years that I haven't replaced shocks on (not an exhaustive list) is my current X3.

Edited October 30, 2023 by Olaf
volvo

[Eagle 1679]

Ah sorry must of got mixed up with Sachs.

4 hours ago, Olaf said:

If you're a Bilstein fanboy maybe committing heavily and going B6 and appropriate springs is the thing to do? 

I find B6's too harsh in general for our roads, running them and firmer springs would ruin this car i reckon. Koni are decent but a bit overpriced for what they are, suppose you can adjust dampening somewhat to compensate for wear and a plus, but rebuilding them here cost the same as new ones overseas which always annoyed me. B4's cost me $780 NZD from Spareto. Bilstein\Koni's are around $~1500 landed iirc 

The rear's have settled in nicely with ride quality and handling restored. Got new fronts coming so will see how long this set last for this time without excessive speed bumps and more open road. They are still very usable compared to what on the average NZ older car, they just out of their optimal performance range. As ive been preaching for years only replacing one axle always shows up the weaker one.  

4 hours ago, Olaf said:

I ran Sachs OE and H&R sportsprings on my Volvo 855-T5,

@hunter is running Genuine OE Sachs on his E39, i have no doubt they will outlast most offerings on the market. No doubt they have better\more consistent performance too compared to aftermarket Sachs which arent known to last long either.

[Olaf 3342]

I'm not seeing the advantage of B4 over Sachs OEM.  Example - e60 5er alloy body for Sachs (as per Original), Steel body for B4... and about the same price (at least they were a couple of years ago).  Very close pricing for the e46 Sachs vs B4.  Naturally, YMMV.  And agree - almost all new shocks are better than worn out old shocks.  Let's throw Monroes into the mix - yecchhh.  Has anyone been game enough to try Meyle shocks/struts?  They're real cheap - half the price of Sachs OEM.

Edited November 1, 2023 by Olaf

[Olaf 3342]

On 10/30/2023 at 6:44 PM, Eagle said:

 

@hunter is running Genuine OE Sachs on his E39, i have no doubt they will outlast most offerings on the market. No doubt they have better\more consistent performance too compared to aftermarket Sachs which arent known to last long either.

the OEM (as in not BMW Original Equiment) Sachs in my e60 have about 45k kms on them and are like new.  The OEM Sachs in my e46 have been there for nearly 90k kms and are nowhere near done, though are not just like new.  I can't recall how many kms of punishment the OEM Sachs in my 855-T5 took before it was written off by a hit-and-run driver during lockdown, though they always felt new.

[Eagle 1679]

4 hours ago, Olaf said:

The OEM Sachs in my e46 have been there for nearly 90k kms and are nowhere near done, though are not just like new

That's what i thought about mine and its true to certain extent, but as above. I see the 100k mark for replacements mentioned a fair bit. All the 90's-00's BMW's with <100k etc on original equipment ive driven had worn (in my opinion) dampers, so im inclined believe that for a general rule if they have never been replaced.  

Will see how big of difference it makes when the front ones go on this weekend.  

4 hours ago, Olaf said:

 Has anyone been game enough to try Meyle shocks/struts

Had the steel non msport ones on my E39 530i before i went to mspec stuff. Obviously miles ahead of the worn OE 230,000km shocks they replaced. I drove mostly expressway on them for around 60-70,000k. One was misting when i sold them but they still felt ok, certainly not as good as the replacements but with spring and swaybar changes i couldnt compare.

[hqstu 780]

Just installed B4's all round on the e83 X3, it's doing a fair few km atm so will be interesting to see how they go/last... I'm hoping they should be good for a longtime...

[Eagle 1679]

On 11/2/2023 at 9:00 PM, hqstu said:

Just installed B4's all round on the e83 X3, it's doing a fair few km atm so will be interesting to see how they go/last... I'm hoping they should be good for a longtime...

Swapped out the fronts and wallowing\slop is gone. Should be even better with new rack and alignment.

Yeah should be a good normal usage test. They going to take awhile to catch to worn OE ones so im sure they adequate for your usage. Im giving my old fronts to a mate on 100,000km OE ones.