New Suspension - Bilstein vs OEM/Sachs

I just ordered a full set of Bilstein HD from eshock.com. They were the best value for the price. Now I just need to order new bearing plates and I should be all set for installation.

Originally Posted by x3brian

I just ordered a full set of Bilstein HD from eshock.com. They were the best value for the price. Now I just need to order new bearing plates and I should be all set for installation.

Great! How much did you pay?

And don't forget to make a DIY

They were $656.20 with free shipping. I will use the DIY in the sticky.

Originally Posted by x3brian

I just ordered a full set of Bilstein HD from eshock.com. They were the best value for the price. Now I just need to order new bearing plates and I should be all set for installation.

Dont forget the rear shock mounts as well.

Originally Posted by x3brian

They were $656.20 with free shipping. I will use the DIY in the sticky.

Do you have the part numbers? I want to compare the ones for 3.0(s)i and 2.0d...

Originally Posted by kenza

Do you have the part numbers? I want to compare the ones for 3.0(s)i and 2.0d...

Great timing! The parts arrived at my house while I was in frigid Minnesota yesterday.

Rears 24-114585
Front - 35-114567

Strut bearing plates - 31336769582 (they shipped lemförder which is fine with me)

Rear shock plate (has bushings) 33503450542

I'm leaving for Chicago tomorrow and then taking the kids skiing in Tahoe next weekend so I will tackle this as soon as I get time before I have to hit LA on 2/18.

Parts waiting for installation

Nice! You won't regret it!

Originally Posted by x3brian

Great timing! The parts arrived at my house while I was in frigid Minnesota yesterday.

Rears 24-114585
Front - 35-114567

Strut bearing plates - 31336769582 (they shipped lemförder which is fine with me)

Rear shock plate (has bushings) 33503450542

I'm leaving for Chicago tomorrow and then taking the kids skiing in Tahoe next weekend so I will tackle this as soon as I get time before I have to hit LA on 2/18.

Great, thanks a lot!

They are all installed...and I am quite happy with the ride. They are a bit firmer than OEM, but still much smoother on the freeway. I do notice expansion joints and pot holes, but it is night and day compared to the completely worn out OEM ones.

It was a pretty straight forward install..no real issues. I have an alignment scheduled for Thursday.

Originally Posted by x3brian

They are all installed...and I am quite happy with the ride. They are a bit firmer than OEM, but still much smoother on the freeway. I do notice expansion joints and pot holes, but it is night and day compared to the completely worn out OEM ones.

It was a pretty straight forward install..no real issues. I have an alignment scheduled for Thursday.

That is great news. I guess I will purchase a set come spring if a sale pops up. If they are like the B4 shocks I used on my e90, they will soften up over the next couple weeks/months.

Enjoy your new setup.

I am going with the Bilstein HD set. My shocks and misc parts on order. Will let share the experience as well.

awesome brian, question. I might have missed it but are you still just running OEM springs with the bilsteins?

I am and it works fine....however if I did a redo I probably would have switched out the springs too.

I didn't have a reason at the time but hindsight is 20/20. there is a lot of front wheel well gap showing off the yellow and blue struts. No biggie and I don't mind it, but it does stand out.

Hmm, any ideas on what the future may hold spring-wise? Eibach? H&R? OEM?

Nothing in my near future but Eibach would be my first choice.

Well I had the X3 lifted this afternoon to fix a cooling system leak (hose into the radiator), noticed my front right strut was leaking

I guess I should just replace all of them?

You don't have to do front and rear at the same time. Just as long as you replace both sides on the same axel at the same time your fine.

Well replacing the front two will obviously be more than the rears. I'll have to do some research on front struts I guess

Originally Posted by x3brian

You don't have to do front and rear at the same time. Just as long as you replace both sides on the same axel at the same time your fine.

x3brian,
Did you toss out the front OEM dust boot and bump stop? Looks like the Bilstein HDs come with a dust boot and internal bump stop.

I used the new bilstein dust boots and bump stops that they came with. For the struts I used new lemförder bearing plates.

I just got the Bilstein HD installed. Installed rears myself, and had an indy install fronts. Love the ride now. Much more compliant. My biggest complaint with the worn factory shocks was the rebound was too much (bouncy). Rebound is now under control and I hardly think the compression rate (firmness) changed all that much. Roll during corning has improved greatly.

Overall, great experience with the Bilstein HD. Its a plus knowing they are a higher quality monotube design so hopefully they give me longer consistent performance vs the factory twin tubes. I do wish these shocks were black or something. Yellow is downright ugly with this wheel gap.

I came to the same conclusions and I agree...black would have been a better color choice!


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