caraddict

Hi memebers,

I just closed on an S4 Avant equipped with Bilstein coilovers and plan to mount wheels w/ snow tires tonight, for those of you who have this system, can you answer a couple of questions:

1. I would like to raise the car a bit for winter driving, how do you adjust ride height on these shocks? I looked on the Blistein site and could find no instructions for doing this.

2. How about damping adjustment? What kind o settings are you running for best performance/ride trade-off?

Thanks to all for you input!

Eddie Man

the rears are very difficult...
I'm assumming you have the PSS9 Bilstein Coilovers as I am commenting based on that.

Once you get your wheels off, you'll be able to see how to adjust the nut-collars.
The lower collar is the lock-collar and the upper is the setting collar.
So backing off the lock-collar first should be done.
You will need the Bilstein wrenches to do this cleanly and really the only way.
Other wrenches will probably chew up the body threads and/or the nut itself, so make sure you have the wrenches.
Another suggestion is to keep count difference (# of revolutions) of final & initial settings of set-collars, so that you can replicate that on all four corners and also be able to set it back when you want to.

The rears are very difficult to adjust.
The easiest way is to drop your sub frame, pull the spring and adjust accordingly.
Problem is that you'll have to have a realignment.
Another way is to use a spring compressor to remove the spring and then adjust.
No realignment needed.
Lastly is to just adjust little by little w/little or no access.
It's possible but damn time consuming, knuckle busting and frustrating.

Now, I truthfully just leave my COs at their lower height and I'm just fine, even in deep snow.
Do I prefer and 2"-3" gap in the winter? Yes.
But it's really okay being low.
Clearance for snow/salt chunks is just something I deal with.

As for damper/rebound settings, I adjust all 4 corners to the softest setting of "9", to aid in rough roads and the winter mess.

I hope this input helps.
Good luck.

caraddict

Wow, thanks for the detailed response. Not liking the sound of how difficult the height adjustment task is, and you need special Bilstein wrenches, huh? Looks like I will just be running this suspension at the height it is now until I can order these wrenches.

OK, couple of more questions. Where are you located and how rough are your local roads? Where is the adjustment for damping vs height, and do I need Blistein wrenches to adjust damping?

You mention that you drop the damping rebound to lowest settings, is this just for winter or do you keep it there year round? If you change it, what do you change it to in the summer?

Eddie Man

No wrenches are needed for rebound/damping adjustments.
There is a Nickel Diameter sized **** w/numbers on the face. This **** is located at the base of each shock towers.
Very-very simple to twist and adjust. So simple that you can adjust them at will for your taste in agressiveness/smoothness.
So don't feel as if you need to set it and live w/it.
Don't like, just adjust.
Wheels don't even have to come off.
Lay towel down, lay down and reach for the *****. Done.

Again, I hope this help

OBTW, I'm in the Northern Detroit Suburbs.
Roads are so-so to sh!tty.

s4wood

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caraddict

Great info, thanks for the link! Looks like I might have to get a suspension shop involved to really adjust it right. Do any of you members have a suggestion for a competent shop in North Jersey?

thanks for the help!

caraddict

Thanks for the additional info. So in the Winter, I guess you run damp/rebound on 1, then higher in summer? I was hoping that the ride height would be easier to set, that's what I think would be nice for deeper snow on ski trips to Vermont!

I used to live out Ann Arbor ways, know how bad the roads are, and a long winter season...!

ohecht

Sorry for reviving an ancient thread, but I'm putting this here in case it helps someone like me in the future. I definitely didn't want to drop my subframe and/or deal with realignment each time I adjusted the rear springs on my B14 setup (same as the B16s for spring adjustment). I was shocked that Bilstein didn't build in a hex-style fitting to the threaded adjustment sleeve so that you could use a ratchet to adjust it while holding the collar still with the spanner wrench...seems like a major design oversight.

What I ended up doing follows a similar approach...I oriented the spring for access and then drilled some small holes around the perimeter of the threaded sleeve...see picture below. I can't see any way this would weaken the structure, and it allows me to use a small punch to rotate the sleeve while holding the collar still with the spanner wrench. It's a slow process, but definitely better than lowering the subframe or compressing the springs each time I want to make an adjustment, IMHO.

Olivier
new-to-me 2005 A4 B6 Avant

imabigdipper

Reviving a dead thread again to ask about this, since I'm planning on getting Bilsteins but want to be able to adjust them easily as well.

I assume you used the oem spring perch on the bottom? What about the top?