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Bilstein B14 coilovers - review

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Once you've popper your uprated Damper cherry there is no going back. Went out in my friends IS250 today after he fitted Koni Sport Dampers and Tein lowering springs. It rides so much better that the stock setup. Firmer but much better damping and not jiggly at all. 

I've got a W204 C Class. I used to think it was good (It was compared to stock GT86 setup) but since putting coilovers on my GT86 its really highlighted the lack of damping quality from the standard OE bilstein shocks. The Koni damper and spring combo is £550 too! talk about bargain.

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Gonna bump this. Any more B14 owners who can share their experiences? I have been tempted by Tein Flex A as everybody raves about them but i can get hold of the bilsteins for £700. I'm on tein springs and stock sachs dampers at the moment the ride quality is pretty good, what will these be like in comparison? I fancy blowing a load of cash on my car lol.

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47 minutes ago, Varelco said:

Gonna bump this. Any more B14 owners who can share their experiences? I have been tempted by Tein Flex A as everybody raves about them but i can get hold of the bilsteins for £700. I'm on tein springs and stock sachs dampers at the moment the ride quality is pretty good, what will these be like in comparison? I fancy blowing a load of cash on my car lol.

for an extra £100 (price might've changed by now though) you can get the Flex A's from @James@Amber

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Thats a very good price for the bilstein b14. Another option if you can get a similar discount is go with the bilstein b6 and keep the teins springs if you are happy with how it sits now.

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Yeah I did consider that Ade but I can only source B8's which personally I'm not sure on as I understand they are harsher and sacrifice droop travel, not to mention they aren't much cheaper (Near enough on par if I sold my Tein springs) 

 

Whilst the Bilsteins are hardly feature rich compared to the Teins, they are monotube, the stock top mounts are more appealing to me than the pillow mounts and the fact height is determined by the spring perch means the damper is longer. I have no intention of slamming the car (30mm max) as I value driving on less than perfect roads and I need the ground clearance on my trip to work, so an extra short damper offers no real benefit. 

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1 hour ago, Varelco said:

Oh really? I was on Ambers website earlier and they were nudging £1k with VAT...

They offer a 10% club discount (might be for the other forum) which helps.

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1 hour ago, Varelco said:

Oh really? I was on Ambers website earlier and they were nudging £1k with VAT...

just contact them and tell them you're from the club and they'll sort you out with a cheaper price

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Varelco: B6 are meant for stock replacement. So should be not much different height/travel wise and designed to work with stock springs. Mostly meant for similar use (mostly daily driving) too. Think of a bit more capable, more comfortable .. OEM+.

B8 should be almost 1:1 as B6 except they are for mild lowering. Imho Koni yellows should be not much different of B6 or B8.

B14 .. no clue about their daily driving fitting, but at very least they should give drop, much more capability on track and adjustability.

BTW, lower hight != worse comfort. For example among budget offerings often mentioned tein flex Zs are both lower then stock & with higher spring rates. And they are spoken of as more comfortable then stock. Quality damper + well matched rates-wise springs = more compliant ride. Sometimes even if spring rate is doubled. Haven't ever tried myself, but was funny reading about Tein SRC (not budget offering) being well spoken off by passengers driven in with reviewer and whom were surprised by actual very-stiff springrates it had. OEM are not the worst i've seen among all the cars, but they are far from ideal. After all, one of main priority if not THE main one for them was getting mass-produce parts down.

P.S.

From coilovers above basic budget ones one may also consider KW V1 & V3 offerings or even more expensive Ohlins R&T, if you mentioned that they should work with stock rubber top mounts.

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Ade: i did say - quality word for damper for coilovers w. stiffer springs. Imho it's more common at low budget offerings, where one usually needs to choose, daily driving comfort OR stiff track setup. Something like penskes imho can do both rather well :)

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1 hour ago, Church said:

Ade: i did say - quality word for damper for coilovers w. stiffer springs. Imho it's more common at low budget offerings, where one usually needs to choose, daily driving comfort OR stiff track setup. Something like penskes imho can do both rather well :)

In your honest opinion of reading the ft86club.... 

If you dont have the correct damping for a given spring rate, you end up with under damped and bobbly ride. Better to have a softer spring and closer to critical damping. People in the USA like very firm springs, here most prefer a bit softer for a daily drive. Most people running tein SRC take their car to the track on a tailor....

 

 

 

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4 hours ago, Ade said:

B6 and B8 are valved exactly the same. The only difference is the b8 has a short stroke length.

This confuses me because from what I've read the ride is more compliant on the B6's in comparison to B8's despite them having the same valving. I can only base that on owners reviews on this chassis.

Anyway without digressing further. I have no difficulty understanding that altering your suspension is a matter of compromise, sacrifices are made between ride comfort, handling, longetivity and cost primarily. I simply want further opinions on the B14s as they are potientially a very good value option from a company with a good reputation. I have owned 4 sets of coilovers on previous cars so have a good idea of what to expect, however they have never been Bilsteins, monotube or fitted with progressive springs (which to me is not a normal configuration on coilovers)

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Just to bump this back up, ive been looking at various options to replace the Tein on my car and these keep coming up, im most likely going Ohlins but for the money these sound ideal for road use, to the OP i dropped you a PM to pick your brains a bit more ;)

 

 

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Bumping this as it's time to think about some more mods for the 86. For those running the B14's, how have they been? I've run Bilstein dampers for years with no issue but never on a RWD 

Starting to build a shopping list of bits my brother wants to change and get them all fitted at the same time. So far he's thinking suspension, uprated brake pads and replace disks and the manifold from tuning developments with a map.

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11 minutes ago, KobayashiMaru said:

Bumping this as the mods are happening next month so we'll be buying soon. I take it it's worth getting camber bolts from Fensport too?

If you're going for a setup utilising stock top mounts then yes, for the small extra cost as it'll give you a chance at getting some negative camber on. 

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Just now, Lauren said:

If you're going for a setup utilising stock top mounts then yes, for the small extra cost as it'll give you a chance at getting some negative camber on. 

Cool. Thinking of changing stock top mounts for TRD ones while the suspension is off as I've read they are stiffer than stock. Unless there is something better we could go with? 

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13 hours ago, Lauren said:

I'd be tempted to go for pillowball mounts for camber adjustment. Not sure how much of a benefit the TRD top mounts are. 

I'm guessing a bit but like most of their stuff you paying 3x the price just for the name 

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