tbennett017

I have a set of Bilsteins on my car.. I can see the brand on them, but I am otherwise unsure of what they are. Is there a way to tell? I eventually want to get the H R greens.. but I want to ensure i have the HD's..

Is there a mark/serial no/something that I should be looking for?

The springs on the car right now are black.. and the ride height is stock/high...C4.

wf758

bump

hawk911

possibly by pulling one off the car, and investigating. I don't remember when I replaced mine what they had for markings.

Geoffrey

The shock should have a part number stamped in the body and Bilstein can tell you what it is.

BLK964

I'm pretty sure the part numbers for mine were on labels. But, they are probably stamped, as well.

The Bilstein HD part numbers are VE3-5277 (front left), VE3-5278 (front right) and for the early models B46-1735 (rear - same both sides). So you should be looking for similar numbers to these.

Oracle

I can almost swear I saw the HD sticker on the front struts. Blue letters..
When I take the wheels off I can confirm...

But yesterday while underneath the car I couldn't see any sticker in the rears..

-J

1990-964

Hello,

I did much checking when I originally put Bilstein's on my car. I was informed from several sources that the only model that was produced for our cars was the HD. I also came to learn that they supposedly have valving that is very similar to what a sport model would be if they had been labeled so. My suspicions are that you must have HDs.

tbennett017

Thanks for the bump and info! I was under the car yesterday (that always makes for a good weekend.. :-) ) doing brake lines.. and I didn't see part numbers on the rears either. The fronts have a label, but they are around the back. I will grab a mirror and see what I can get from them.

J richard

My experience is that if you have a factory bilstein unit it will be painted, usually green, sometimes black but then it will be stamped with "bilstein" on the tube, if it's an aftermarket HD or Sport it will be a cad plated tube. Unfortunately the easiest way to tell is the sticker, but most fall off, from everything I've found they don't make the Sport for the 964 so if you have cad tubes you probably have HD's. If you vary the spring rates significantly you will want to have them revalved for the proper rate, as they are not adjustable.

You can check the rate of the springs, if they are factory they will be black with a series of paint dots on the outside of the spring, different color, different rate. I don't have the list in front of me, but do a search here and you will find it, or if you have the PET disk it lists the color/models.

I really like the h&r reds on a c2, don't know about a c4...