I personally have really enjoyed my Damptronics and they have been handled spirited driving and hard track driving without issues, creaking or noise. I have stock sways, but run Hoosier R6/A6 at the track. The Hoosiers have enough grip that I have worn out the passenger front ball joint from the driving stress of a 100+mph left hand turn at the track. I have not experienced any sway link failures of any sort.

For the sake of maintaining some peace here I am going to temporarily suspend this thread until the issue is resolved. dk can ask me to reopen it when he has an update.

 

Thread being re-opened to allow OP to update situation. Please keep this thread constructive as it is pertinent to many of us as owners and enthusiasts

 

Now, this is starting to get interesting. My take is that bilsteins don't mate well with AM sways, which is a huge problem. I think if Gene had stiff sways on his car, he might have had different experience. Personally, I would never buy another set, but that's just me.
Torsion Bars Baby!

 

Does anyone know if aftermarket Bilstein adjustable coil overs for other vehicles (i.e. GT-R) encounter the same types of problems that members here have posted?

 

Thanks Gene for opening up the thread again. I'd like to keep the installer and reseller out of this since they really aren't part of the problem

TTsurgeon-I'm not sure if the sway bar was the problem, but ultimately it was the cause for warranty denial. see below

Hi David,

Below is a link to the warranty section of our website, along with the statement regarding vehicle modifications.


http://www.bilsteinus.com/products/s.../warranty.html


"Use on modified vehicle" constitutes an exemption from warranty; i.e. use of other than original equipment sway bar(s).


One of the reasons I asked to have the thread reopened is so that everyone can be educated. There is no ambiguity here, any aftermarket modifications, whether it be a swaybar, droplinks, etc will immediately cause a voiding of the warranty. if nothing else, this was a convenient way to void the warranty claim. And if the warranty is voided, expect to be treated like crap by Bilstein. Here is the the total damage

16 days of the car being in the shop

Rental car- 500
new coilover at full MSRP 950
"expedited shipping" 75
installation and realignment costs

so I was out about 2,000 not to mention all the wasted time on the phone with the reseller, Bilstein, and the installer.

If you have a problem with Bilstein, be prepared to take it in the shorts by Bilstein because customer service is not the priority. To address a couple previous questions

1. the installer informed me that the alignment performed by another shop did not contribute to the failure.

2. the problem is due to an inherent weakness' in the design, which is exacerbated by aftermarket droplinks or sway bars. BTW, I understand that other brands of coilovers are not experiencing this type of failure with droplinks or sways.

3. Bilstein "resolved" this problem by redesigning the droplinks with a bend, even though they had previously stated that there was nothing wrong with the prior droplink design.

4. installer and myself tried to get a discounted price on the coilover but Bilstein said take it or leave it.

Although I am glad that this is finally over, I can't believe that Bilstein would treat their customers like this. If Bilstein had just said on day 1, aftermarket sways=voided warranty but since you're a valued customer you're going to get one at a discount, I would have said fine, this is fair and went on. But to drag it out for 2 weeks and then have them say here's one at full price, and by the way pay us extra to Fed Ex it, we'll keep it an extra day and you'll get it 2 days later, well you get the point...

 

Hello everybody,
another quick update and I think that this post will be not only constructive but very informative. I am happy to say that Bilstein and I have resolved the issue my problem will be covered under warranty I will be reimbursed for my coilover, installation costs, and rental car. More importantly, the root cause of the terminal failure has been determined.

Since I was unable to get a satisfactory response from the West Coast office, I contacted Scott MacDonald and he has graciously asked me to include his contact info in this update so that other 6speeders may contact him directly if they have problems with their coilovers.

Scott MacDonald
Director, Sales and Product Management

ThyssenKrupp Bilstein of America, Inc.
14102 Stowe Dr.
Poway, CA 92064
Phone: 858-386-5963
Fax: 858-386-5263
Email: Scott.MacDonald@BilsteinUS.com
http://www.bilsteinUS.com
http://www.facebook.com/bilsteinUS

so here is the root cause of my problem, it was the install. And Bilstein admitted that the instructions are not clear.
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The upper image shows the old style droplink and the lower image shows the newer style droplink. For the purposes of my problem and my pictures, it is the "links/left" that you need to compare to.

 

here is a picture of my coilover that broke and a picture of the new coilover with the drops installed.
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Glad you got your coilovers covered. But yet again, this only serves to demonstrate how owners have to go above and beyond, to air their legitimate grievances on the internet, in order to get fair restitution from these aftermarket companies (I'm talking to YOU, Bilstein).

Perhaps I should have posted my problems with this horrible company as well and received compensation for time/effort/monetary loss. Apparently bad press is the only way for these guys to listen.

 

the nut that attaches the droplink to the coilover body should actually be facing the rear of the car and the nut that attaches the droplink to the sway bar should actually be closer to the wheel well. When you realize this, the schematic actually seems to make sense. Scott and his engineers actually took the time to review all the pictures in this thread and deduce the root cause of the problem. This dispels any notion that an alignment or sway bar was the cause. In my present setup, turning of the wheel causes a torsional force which can cause the mounting tab to snap. The picture of my new coilover and droplink is with the steering wheel turned completely to the right, and as you can see, there appears to be a lot of stress on the droplink. This repeated stress likely cause a crack in the mounting tab which ultimately failed when exiting my driveway.

I actually asked other members of 6 speed to send me pictures of their setups as well as scoured the forum for pictures and I can tell you that I saw many different variations which included something similar to my own, inserting washers, and the correct way. Since there was so much confusion I contacted Bilstein technical and Scott MacDonald.

Although it may have taken me longer than I wanted, I finally feel as though Bilstein has taken the appropriate steps to make me whole. I think that there is a lesson learned here and hope that people can learn from my experience.

David

 

Glad you solved your problem,
From your picture it looks like right now when your car is standing still on ground with wheels turned right your sway bar is almost touching the axle.If you would take hard right corner at speed I think the sway will actually hit the axle.
My drop links are installed like this (see pic) -top facing the front of the car lower part same as yours.No clearance issues

 

hmm
your diagram is actually more understandable than the Bilstein, however, according to Bilstein, the nut that attaches the drop to the sway should be on the inside (closer to middle) of the car.

 

I forgot to ad that the diagram shows front left side , so the drop link is attached on the inside of the sway, and that is how I have it .only deference is that the top of drop link is facing the front of a car .If you would just switch your links left to right you will have that exact position. Anyway this is how they are install on my car..
Again my congratulations to you and Bilstain on solving this problem.
This topic is great and impotent to all of us, thanks

 

wow what a great turn of events. Great work David

 

I'm glad it worked out, bad press=results. Without this thread, and this forum you would have been shist outta luck.
Installer error I suppose. The install and instructions should be a lot clearer so that a basic street tuner, like the one that did your install can do it with ease. However, the same results seem to happen even when a pro racing shop does the install. Farnbacher-Loles with the tech from the 87 car doing it in my case, I think they know what they're doing....
I think the design of their aftermarket coilovers is flawed somehow and AM /stiffer sways bring that out. No other coilover company voids a warranty with AM sways...only bilstein. Keep that fact in mind when making your purchase decisions.
If this happened with their OEM porsche supplies, porsche would find another supplier in about three seconds. Clearly a different set of standards AM vs OEM.
Glad it worked out, sometimes you gotta get down and dirty with these guys.

 

Dave, glad I could help you with Scott's information! I'll ask a return favor, can you or another member please post an actual picture of the CORRECT install?? Not a diagram, but a picture? Frankly, I'm still a bit confused! My original links are installed exactly like Dave's by the most experienced shop in the area...and now I'm to understand it's been incorrect the whole time??