I just wanted to share what happened to me so others be in the lookout for any signs of stress on the drop down collars for the rear Bilstein HD's.

I had mine installed about 3-4 weeks ago. Originally, I wanted the ride height at 25" at the rear and 25.5" on the front. However, when I got my car back from the installer, it was about 1/4 to 1/2 inch off so I was having some rubbing on the front fenders as it was sitiing too low at 25" on the front and at 24.5" or so at the rear.

I took the car back to them to get the heights adjusted and when they losen the pinch bolt to unscrew the collar, they found that the collar was fractured and snapped off. The other side was still ok, but it also showed a developing crack were the pinch bolt goes thru.

Thank god for Austin and Scott at Devek!! They came to the rescue and sent me new collars next day! Their level of customer service is something you rarely see nowadays!

Interestingly, the new collars are designed differently. The pinch bolt is now 6mm instead of 8mm which makes for more "beefy" area around the bolt to minimize these fractures. Also, the hole were the drop down link for the sway bar is now centered on the collar's ear, before was off center towards the bottom of the ear.

The bad part of this is that to replace the collars, both shocks had to be unmounted, springs removed, remove collar and spring ring, screw new collars, ring and spring from the top of the shock and remount the shock on the car. Then balance and re-align all over again!

So, check your collar often and check for cracks. I believe all newer Bilsteins are coming out with the "improved" collar. Mine were about 2 months old.

Here are pics of the Bilstein collar before monuting them so you can see what the original collar looks like. The other 3 pics are of the actual aluminum metal crack and eventual failure.

I don't want to start a scare or especulate that all of them will have the same problem. I may have just had a bad batch or the casting was faulty on that batch..who knows....Just keep an eye on it.

 

Wow! Thanks for sharing that. Do you have any pics of the new parts?

 

AFAIK, that pinch bolt and relief slit portion of the drop link mount is a modification that DEVEK does to the mount after receiving the shocks from Bilstein. It does not come from the factory with that arrangement.

Good for you it was caught and it was replaced quickly.

 

One thing that each installer has to keep in mind, is NOT to overtighten these pinch bolts. Not much clamping force is required to secure that mount. Also, over tightening can and will distort the damper bore.

 

I sure am glad that I can and will be driving my car from socal to norcal this weekend so that I can leave my ride with the Viper man himself. Thanks for the update.
Michael

 

Michael,

What are you having done at DEVEK?

 

He will be installing my RUF aux oil cooler, an alignement/suspention check, and then doing a pre-tracquest service. I also want to check out the shop. The trip coincides with an event that I will be attending in SF. Im excited to check out his shop and meet VB and staff.

 

Thanks for the tip. Hopefully it is an isolated incident, I have the same set up.

 

Something else to worry about....ugh. Changing oil in the next couple of days will have a look at mine. Thanks for the update.

Jamie

 

Ouch! Do you think that the bolts were overtightened? That is a scary-looking failure.

 

cabrio993 -
What height will you go with once you get the new parts?

 

I got it now at 25" at rear and 25.25" in front. I am not rubbing at the front, but I may raise her .25" more on the front so it will sit at 25 1/2" at the front.

Tom,
I don't know if they were overtighten, but still, how much can you "over" tighten these? It actually broke when they loosen they pinch bolt so they could raise the collars. The second picture shows already the metal fracture before the bolt was unscrew. Yes...very scary indeed.

 

I had the same thing happen to me on one of my collars on install, broke right at the bolt where DEVEK modified it. The struts had to be removed and replaced with non-modified collars.

 

SO, "Viper Bob" is Devek?? Some friends of mine had this discussion a few weekends ago, one believed he was not affiliated with Devek, one did - just curious.

FWIW, and NOT to begin a negative campaign here...but Devek needs to cease the "modification" of said mounts. Chris, it's not the over-tightening that breaks them, look at one that has snapped in two, observe the lack of support that remains in the mounts...they have been seriously COMPROMISED once that hole is drilled. Bilstein would certainly not approve of this "modification" and Devek is opening themselves up for a liability suit.

I have personally witnessed the failure of one of these mounts and it was all too obvious that the "modification" of the mount was the culprit. I've changed out several suspension systems in Porsches, Acuras, Harleys...old and new - the list goes on and have NEVER seen a failure similar to this one.

The other issue is the length of the droplinks sent out with these systems, plain and simple the swaybar needs to be mounted via very short ones ABOVE the trailing arm or LONG ones below the trailing arm...and it would be nice if ONE of them was adjustable!!

Adjusting preload would be a P.I.T.A. on the rear shocks due to the fact that they have to be REMOVED to turn the collars in question.

Bilstein could come up with a better design, or the businesses that are dealing the PSS9 kits should send out a pair of droplinks and either advise the customer that the collars will have to ride high or low, depending on the length...and one of them should be adjustable - for reasons directly related to sanity!

 

Maybe I am being misunderstood. I didnt mean overtightening this pinch bolt was the reason why these are failing, just a reminder that not much clamping force is needed to secure this mount.

And, yes, from the pics, it does appear a lot of material was removed. A smaller bolt is needed.