martyp

Sorry to hear Larpy - I can feel Bob's pain. I'm working with FisterD on a PSS10 set as I write this . I hope this is an isolated occurrence and that you and Makela are made whole.

ABCar

GUILTY me. I think I started this whole mess when I saw these on Amazon I posted the ad on RL wondering if it was for real. I guess it was all too real. I called Bilstein about this set on Amazon when I was thinking of buying...they said they would only garauntee the bits if bought from an authorized Bilstein dealer and that Amazon was not such an entity.
I hope you get it worked out...now I need to get under my car and see if I too have the dreaded screw too. (Got mine from Fister D though so should be okay! )
Good luck guys...let us know what happens.

Mark in Baltimore

The first time the **** of one of my PSS-9 shocks started spinning, I knew that I was not going to have any patience with having to pay for labor costs to R&R the shock and promptly upgraded to Motons. I have not had any issues with them in over four years and who-knows-how-many track days. It's too bad that Bilstein's QC has seemingly not improved.

2Many Cars

I assume replacing them means you also need to get the corner balancing done again. Tell me again why I should do this mod?

timothymoffat

Had the PSS9s on my car for 2 1/2 years/6Kmiles with no issues. Larpy, Bob I hope Bilstein is of some help. Really surprised to hear about this.

Bob, PM sent.

David in LA

You should seriously consider the KWv3...I have the v2 and they are perfectly dialed in even for the crappy roads in Hong Kong. I would even seriously consider upgrading to the v3 if I could get a decent price for my old v2. The additional cost upfront is well worth it IMHO.

Mike J

Bob brought over his new PSS-10's, and they appeared to be "factory sealed" but the ***** were exactly as shown...with one showing the bolt right through top of the ****.

Fresh out of the box:



The ***** just unscrewed....the pins that stop the unscrewing were slightly bent and not aligned.



Hopefully he gets it corrected, and we can get the install done.

As for my PSS-9's, they have been on the car for 5+ years, no real problems, but the indents are very poor, especially on the rears. However, they do seem to firm up properly, and the ride is still good, but for the $$$$, you figure the quality control would be better.

Cheers,

Mike

goofballdeluxe

When I bought my PSS-10s, one of the shocks showed up defective with the same exact problem. I shipped it back to the company I purchased it from and they replaced it, no problem. But it is odd I had the exact same issue with one of my dampers too.

larpy

That is what mine look like when the ***** fell off.

Zuffenhausen :O)

I'd go along with that after seeing Mike J's post, I have a set waiting to be fitted to my car and these are in perfect condition supplied by a Bilstein dealer here in the UK; my suspicions would definitely be in the direction of the carriers, these boxes are heavy and who knows how they've been knocked about prior to delivery, stupid question I know but did anyone check for damage to the packaging prior to fitting?

Upon receipt of the goods the first thing I checked was the packaging for any transit damage then the adjusters on the front dampers for the same. Then if any suspected damage refuse delivery.

It's quite possible of course that there is a quality control issue, so I'll watch how this all turns out.

Sorry to hear this though guys, hopefully it'll be sorted in a way that suits all parties quickly.

boulderbobo

??

race911

Someone explain to me how Bilstein in a Bilstein box isn't Bilstein? Or is there a suspicion that second quality is entering the marketplace? I've only gotten kits from SSF or Worldpac over the years.

This really isn't any different than fiddling with Koni issues when they were the only adjustable unit out there. Honestly, the most durable/economical-in-the-long-run thing for a street/dual purpose car is to use a non-adjustable custom valved by someone who knows what the hell he's doing, tailored to the spring you'll be using. But in the glory of saving a couple hundred............

boulderbobo

Chris, we should have known something wasn't quite right upon our intial inspection. Remember the springs had dings on them. Parts of the blue plastic coating was chipped off. I thought that because you got a special deal from the Amazon that maybe these were seconds or something. I had no idea that the adjusters could fail like this. Truely amazing. Do they really think they and get away with selling this crap? I don't think this is a shipping issue.

Bob-

Augustus Davies

Fister has a winter sale on Bilsteins....$2299.00

Mike J

Did you test all the *****, setting from 1 to 9? How did the indents feel? That was our first clue, the front shots had virtually no indents when adjusted.

When Bob showed up with his box, it was as shipped from Amazon...cardboard box, slightly scuffed, certainly no dents/dings, or signs of trauma. Inside this box was the Bilstein box, and it was cushioned with the shipping air bags they use these days.

The Bilstein box is the brightly colored thin cardboard like paper box that is just a product sleeve over the real cardboard box inside. The Bilstein box was scuffed up and slightly ripped...it looked like it was abused a bit. However, the final shipping box, contained inside the Bilstein box, was untouched, and had two factory plastic straps and tape seal intact. These are the black plastic straps that are melted together, so they need to be cut to be removed.

We cut the straps, cut the seal holding the flaps, and opened the box. Each shock (and the sway bar strap) were in their own bubble wrap bags, no sign of trauma. We pulled each shock out of its bag to check to make sure all the parts were there, and to check the valve. That is were we saw the problem.

So, given the inside box was perfect, to me it does not look like a shipping problem, but that the shocks were shipped this way from the factory. Given the plastic straps, it also does not appear that anyone opened the box since the shocks were first made.

It appears that the QC at Bilstein sucks big time, and their design is not robust.

Cheers,

Mike