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MG MGF Technical - In praise of Bilstein shocks

Last week I completed the fitment of a set of Bilstein shocks to my F. What a difference! I have not yet had it out on the track but for road use they are much better than the standard Rover fitments. The ride is now much smoother. Bumps and holes that would have previously compressed my spine are now longer an issue.

The standard Rover shocks (actually made by Munro) have next to no resistance to compression. In fact you can compress them down with one finger on each hand. Whereas to compress the Bilsteins by about an inch I had to secure the top fitting and use a trolley jack to compress them to the right position to allow me to pass the bottom bolt through. The standard Rover shocks did however, have resistance to elongation. Even so with a bit of effort it was possible to elongate them by hand. This is just not possible with the Bilsteins.

What were the details I hear you ask:
The "Front" ones are stamped at the base 725-2528. The "Rear" ones with 725-2530.
They all have a Bilsteins label but only the front ones are readable as F4-BE5-2528-M000. Typically they are referred to as front (BE5-2528) & rear (BE5-2530).

They were relatively easy to fit - but I would strongly recommend the use of a 17mm ratchet spanner and a trolley jack for fitting. A deep (14 or 15mm) socket and an strap type oil filter wrench for removal of the old ones.

Steve
Steve Ratledge

Hi Steve,

Adding shock resistance in both directions was the best mod I ever made for track use, brings much better feel on the road too. The OE dampers were only warranted by Monroe for 2 years IIRC, the ones I removed were utterly kaput.

So, which circuit will be your testing ground then..?

Mike Hankin

Surely shock absorbers should compress and elongate - what they should do is take the 'bounce' out going over bumps etc!

The Hydrogas suspension of the *F* is what should iron out the bumps and to that end I have no complaints with the way our *F* behaves - which is still on its original shocks BTW - however I do agree that Bilstein have an extremeley good reputation.
Ted Newman

To be fair the spine compressing ride I experienced could be a result of having it lowered (properly with knuckles), running on 16" rims and fitting Polybushes. My F is 8 years old.
Steve Ratledge

Steve - I think you have hit the nail on the head! LOL
Ted Newman

Only thing that could bring dark clouds in the sky is that the damper turrets are made for the non-existent compression force of the original dampers ;O)
Monitor for some time that the welds doesn´t split in the rear area ! Have adjustable Koni´s myself and they are a vaste improvement over the original ones.
Unfortunatly any re-inforcement on the rear towers are a bit complicated and costly.... / Carl.
Carl Blom

Bilsteins are the stuff of legend :o)

Had them on my car for 5(?) years now, and they are indeed absolutely brilliant. I've not had any problems with the suspension turrets either - but what Carl says is indeed spot on; very stiff dampers can indeed rip through the weak standard mountings that weren't designed to take the loads...

See Andrew's pictures to see the full potential horror of it all: http://www.mgf.ultimatemg.com/group2/common_problems/CoH/suspension_failure.htm
Rob Bell

Do you know what shocks Andrew had fitted? Knowing how conservative TechSpeed are I can't believe they would fit Bilsteins if they was even the outside chance of an issue.
Steve Ratledge

These were adjustables Steve. The Bilsteins tend not to cause this damage. Dave Livingstone's car is the only one that I've heard of that has gone back for mount supports - although there may be a hand full of others I don't know about. Fact is, build quality in this area appears to be rather variable: some cars seem to never have problems with very stiff damper settings, whereas others fail very quickly.

I doubt that you'll have problems Steve, but if you hear any odd creeks - you will know where to start investigating.
Rob Bell

Hey steve,

Unfortunatlly mine cracked.

Oh what fun with a mig welder that was getting into all those akward spaces. However it was worth it as the billy's are fantatsic. I tried avo and koni adjustables but the bilstiens have it for me. As Rob say's just keep your ear out for the clicking!

Chris Glen

Steve - They were AVO's but set medium hard.When the turrets welds were taken off they almost fell off. The doner car took almost ten times as long to remove. With the extra reinforcement I think the rest of the car would disintergrate before I have the same problem again. Of the cars that have had changes to the shocks and all cars are of the same vintage none have had a problem like mine. One is an early car built by TechSpeed for the Japanese F racing, one runs Bilsteins and another Spax.
Andrew Regens

>>Fact is, build quality in this area appears to be rather variable...<<

Not only in this area in fact ;o)
Fabrice

<chuckle> What ever do you mean Fabrice ? ;o) LOL
Rob Bell

This thread was discussed between 13/07/2006 and 17/07/2006

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