Stagea Group Buy Whiteline & Bilstein

[DaveB]

It seems that the rear shocks that I purchased have been supplied with skyline spring seats #E4-FT2-Z007A00..........

Has anyone else experienced this?

and

What are my chances of having them exchanged for stagea spring seats?

richard

What was the outcome of this?

Can the stock spring seats be used on the front and rear with the billsteins, or are different ones required?

[wolverine]

Stock springs work fine with the Bilsteins on my Stagea.

[DaveB]

Thanks wolfie Did you need to change top or bottom spring seat?

[wolverine]

Pretty sure the factory shock was pulled out and the Bilsteins put back in to replace it. The bottom spring seat comes with the Bilsteins. That was it as far as i know.

[DaveB]

Cool. That's what I was hoping, thanks.

[mattye]

Is this Group Buy still going Sydneykid or have I missed out? Planing some suspension upgrades soon.

[KiwiRS4T]

Is this Group Buy still going Sydneykid or have I missed out? Planing some suspension upgrades soon.

You might be a little late -its dated August 2005.

[stagman]

You might be a little late -its dated August 2005.

No harm in trying haha. i wouldnt mind some either!

[DaveB]

Yes if you want to join a possibly long queue, you could PM SydneyKid about it; some of us have got lucky It does take patience though.

[Mr_RS4]

You never know. I mean I ordered my kit from him back in early '08 so that was still about 3 years after the group buy started. I know it wasn't hard for him to get the bilsteins and bushes and sway bars but had to wait a while for whiteline to make the springs. I think from memory I waited about 6 weeks. Key is to be paitent. He's a very popular person on SAU and inbox is quite often full so may take more than a few attempts to get your PM through, and if he can still get the kits together your probably still up for a bit of a wait unless everything is in stock. But if he can still do it I would say go for it, worth the wait and there's many people here that are happy with the kit, me one of them. Very easy to install, infact I think I can have everything removed in about 45mins now (had adjusted it a few times now). I would personally recomend keeping and using your factory bump stops (you'll have to cut them down though) and dust covers if they're still ok or get OEM replacments as the generic whitleline ones I got I wasn't to impressed with, but that's nothing against SK or the kit though.

[mattye]

Yeh was just taking the chance.

might just go through pedders or something

[KiwiRS4T]

Yeh was just taking the chance.

might just go through pedders or something

get the Bilsteins from a Bistein specialist. Sway bars are now made by Selby and quite expensive. See if you can get one off one of the people returning their Stageas to stock.

[mattye]

already got full adjustable cailovers. i was mainly after the castor bushes and rear swaybar.

im booked into get a safety check and quote from peders on monday so will see how they go and pedders use whiteline gear.

[wolverine]

mattye, did you read my post about the size of the RS4S rear swaybar?

[mattye]

yeah mate thanks BTW. still gona get a quote for one then will decide. do you know if the rear is a solid or hollow bar

[wolverine]

you have a 24mm hollow bar on the RS4S hence the upgrade isn't a big a jump.

[mattye]

kk mate thanks. so obviously the main gain is from going from a hollow to a solid. i would also expect there be a good gain from the adjustability of it right. one of the main reasons i want to put one in is if i can stiffen the roll up i can soften the suspension a bit as at the moment its quite stif. which means it handles well but obviously a wrough ride.

[DaveB]

Well I finally finished installing stagea-spec' bilsteins all 'round. I had to solve the problem of finding dustcovers and bump stops to fit. I ordered 4 bilstein bump stops and dust covers back in December '09 but thus far they haven't turned up save for two extras which SK sent me, which did. But I wasn't sure about the quality & fittment of the bilstein covers and the bump stops feel like soft, spongy foam... ~2 tonne wagon...

So I found that the Monroe brand "strut mates" universal dust covers fit perfectly; there are about 4 types but the dust cover is the same size in each and just has a different sized ring & bump stop (which doesn't fit, in any of the 4 types, so I just threw that away). They clip onto the metal cup jobbie above the "pre-tensioned" rebound damper thing. They're made from high-quality feeling rubber, not plastic, and will seal to the shock body with a couple of cable ties (the bilsteins are apparently made to just hang there as they are about 20mm oversize compared to the diameter of the shock).

I would be interested to know, from those who have installed the bilsteins with the stock springs...

- what ride height did you set them to (more specifically, how many circlip grooves from the bottom?)

and

- what bump stops did you use and what height did you trim the bump stops to?

I found that after a fairly long test drive, the ride over bumps in the road ranges from about the same to rather harsh (like bump-stop-hitting harsh) though probably this is to be expected; however it's almost as though the shock absorbers aren't damping very well... the car seems to 'bounce' for a little bit after a bump and doesn't stay settled very well. I only hope that the shocks have got to wear in or something?

I haven't gone radically low, although I was pretty high before (about 400/395mm centre-to-guard front and rear), so I have taken a fair bit off - about 40mm - to take it down to about 360mm front and rear. Front is 3rd circlip groove from the bottom (standard springs) and the rear's are 4th circlip groove from the bottom (standard springs). Even this much is only just noticeable to look at it. 4-finger-space down to about 3, tyre to guard.

I re-used the original bump stops; I trimmed about 20mm off the front and rear.

So, anybody who's used standard springs with the bilsteins, who might know why the ride is jarring and bouncy? Two traits I'm not particularly fond of lol. I'm guessing I may have a) gone to low for the standard springs and now need stiffer ones to keep it off the stops and/or b) not trimmed enough off the bump stops / need to replace the standard bump stops with the mega soft/spongy (when compared to stock rock-hard rubber) bilstein ones ?

Edited January 24, 2010 by DaveB

[wolverine]

Hi Dave

I can check which circlip groove we have them set on when I get home. I have reset them once as the springs had sagged a whisker over the last 2 years.

I would give it a few hundred K's to settle in and see how you find the ride. I remember thinking the same thing about the new Bilsteins a few years ago but they seem to be fine with some time on them.

[DaveB]

Thanks I hope that's the case; really launches off bumps now lol. Feels like there's too much bump-stop... or not enough... or something. But I think it's better than it was yesterday after about 50ks or so... but that could just be me getting used to it. I might raise it a circlip front & back in case I didn't take enough off the bump stops (about 20mm off, lowered about 40mm).