Thread: Bilstein steering damper - I'm sick of it.

Originally Posted by rovercare

Even if that was the case, he'd merely be driveing off the road instead of into oncoming traffic, the better option? maybe, depends on how many trees/power poles/houses/nice grassy knowles on the side of the road

From experience i had a new bilstein damper fitted to a RRC by someone that was fiited the wrong way around , and no it didnt want to go bush

The damper is simply there to stop the steering going mad when something hits the wheel. Most basic ones do the job fine. If it is causing handling problems I would think that the obvious solution is to get rid of it and buy one that does not want to extend under its own power.

I fitted a new Bilstein damper to my 1990 rangie classic and had the same problem - it was a right pain. I removed it after one trip. Took it off replaced it with an older one and no problems. M R Automotive said that they can get the amount of gas in them reduced - which should fix this problem. And all my steering etc is good so definately the dampner was the issue.

I believe Camo had the same problem with his rangie and bilstein dampner

Wonder how a "battery" of boot and bonnet struts would go, all welded into one convenient little package???
Have an equal amount opposing each other until it is neutral in load.......?? hmmmmmmm
.. or do mathmatics prevail and negate the neutralisation into nothing..... 0....... neutral in fact.. which brings me back to the start........??????? hmmmmmmmmm

I fitted a billie steering damper to the defender before our Madigan trip, in my opinion it made the vehicle much more pleasant to drive.

What I can say though, is when I got the steering box reco'd a few years ago the guy gave me very specific instructions on how to set it up (centre ?), when I put it back in saying 'very few are set up correctly from the factory' I wonder if this would make a difference.



Martyn

I have the Bilstein damper and havent notices any issues with it. Could it be that some of the are valved differently?

Angus

As r.over says, the damper is there for extreme steering impacts. If it is needed to make the car more driveable on the road, then something else needs fixing (although a RTC damper may be the cheapest fix for handling that has been upset by a lift or wide tyres). And similarly, if it has a significant adverse effect on driving on the road, then it has a problem, although usually it should drive slightly better without the damper.

John

I hear ya Wally, I recently fitted one to my 90 and what a pain. It's still there out of spite of how much they cost! I'll be buggered if I'm spending any more money on it either.
It certainly is tighter than the munro job though.