Thread: D3 aftermarket shocks

Had a new set of OEM struts installed instead of the Konis. So now I have OEM front and Bilstein rear. And a full set of Konis in a box.

Good news is that I got my 20K old front airsprings back. So hopefully when Koni sort out their stuff I can make up some struts and install them.

Bad news is that the OEM dampers don't have anywhere near the control of the bilsteins when they are working.

I just couldn't afford the hassle of having another set of dampers/dampeners fail, so far the car has been off the road a total of 5 days with all the changing out of them.

Heasmans told me the OEM struts where more expensive than the Bilstein dampers so I'm guessing they were around the $1000 mark at trade prices.

Originally Posted by Geedublya

Bad news is that the OEM dampers don't have anywhere near the control of the bilsteins when they are working.

I was going to ask what is wrong with OEM in view of the issues that aftermarket shocks have but I just saw your post.

I have now covered 60,000km in my RRS and have absolutely no issues with them at all.

So what are the other issues with OEM that would make you use short lived expensive aftermarket shocks. I know D2s are also having with Bilsteins - in fact some have physically broken in the spring tower and caused damage to the rest of the suspension.

Garry

Unless you have driven a D3/4 etc with Koni's fitted when they are working well then you don't really know how good your Disco can handle and ride the bumps. The old saying of 'ignorance is bliss' springs to mind when it comes to standard OEM shocks.

Are the Koni's expensive? No not really. Should they be short lived? No not at all and that is what needs to be sorted with the supplier.

If it can be sorted and it comes down to us having a bad batch and they can supply with confidence a longer lasting set with the same suspension specs then I will be first in line to get another set.

When they are behaving like they should they are truly that good. ...

cheers,
Terry

Originally Posted by garrycol

So what are the other issues with OEM that would make you use short lived expensive aftermarket shocks. I know D2s are also having with Bilsteins - in fact some have physically broken in the spring tower and caused damage to the rest of the suspension.

Garry

When I first bought my Bilsteins I was unaware of any issues with longevity. I decided on the Bilsteins as they have a great reputation for building quality dampers and they are a gas charged monotube. I have some experience with suspension due to my off road motorcycle background and think the monotube design is superior for this application.
My previous experience with dampers is that OEM is usually built to a price and since I drive my vehicle every day I wanted the best suspension I could get.
If Bilstein could resolve the problem with the front dampers I would much prefer to have them as the ride and control is much better than OEM.

I seriously considered the Koni FSD's & Bilsteins, especially after reading Terry's reviews when they were first installed. Having read all the failures of Billies etc from about 2 years ago, reasoning that they must've been fixed by now I was prepared to give them a go. My car's covered 72,000 miles (116k) and the rears were certainly shot to bits so the fronts can't have been that far behind. I wanted all this done before shipping it out here and I think reading this thread I made the right choice now.

Weighed up the costs of each option and eventually plumped for a complete new OEM set, as these can be bought fully built with new springs for not much more than the dampers alone, thus saving the labour costs for swapping the airbags over. Given that I'd read of a few failures of front Bilsteins we (my service chap & me) didn't want the hassle of potential warranty claims if they did fail and he wasn't getting good vibes from Bilstein anyway when he mentioned the failures we'd read about.

For reference, Koni FSD's were £600 a set, Bilstein B6's a little over £700 and OEM were £750 (dampers only, not airbags as well). To build them of course entails stripping down the old struts, reusing the bags and buying the new seal kits, which from memory were about 11 quid each. The time and labour costs to strip down & rebuild the new struts was 4-6hrs, as against just bolting up a new strut, so that cost was also factored in when the decisions were being made.

Service agent shopped around and got the complete struts, rears from Andy @ P38 Spares for £197 each, the fronts came from his local main dealer, Sturgess Land Rover at £257 each. Of course I had to pay VAT on them as well, so add another 20% onto that. Buying the dampers & springs separately costs more than just buying a complete ready built strut....

There's the saving in labour for not stripping down the old struts, along with replacing anything else found to be knackered. I believe the front top mounts were found to be U/S on mine, as well as a couple of the bags showing signs of cracking / splitting from mud, so going for complete new struts was definitely the best way forward. The old struts have been kept in the UK.

For interest only, Rimmers have just started selling the complete units, aftermarket but cheaper still and moreso at the moment as they're on offer. Wouldn't surprise me if they're made by Delphi anyway.

Much as I'd loved to have tried the Billies or Konis (having had great success with them on various cars in the past) it doesn't really matter how much better than OEM they are if they fail in short order. It's easy to swap dampers when normal springs are involved, but bring in the airsprings and it's a whole new kettle of fish, not one I can be bothered with every 5 or 10k, the costs are too high. OEM may be compromised, but they seem to work.....

I've also only paid a labour rate of £35 an hour for my Landie specialist, I'd hazard a guess I'd be paying a tad more than that over here...

It took me less than 15 minutes each to swap the airsprings from one shock to another which included cleaning off the dirt. The OEM shock packages also included new top seals.

I've had the Konis on for about 4,000 miles, 6,000km. No worries yet. Purchased in the US. Hope the issues were just a bad batch.

Please let us know what you find on the shocks and or what Koni is willing to do. PM me if you like.

BTW replaced them myself, took a day. Not complicated but it is fairly heavy wrentch work. I posted a thread earlier re the fix. here http://www.aulro.com/afvb/d3-d4-rrs/...k-install.html
Cheers

Originally Posted by Graeme

It took me less than 15 minutes each to swap the airsprings from one shock to another which included cleaning off the dirt. The OEM shock packages also included new top seals.

Mine were completely seized up, stripping them down will be a challenge...