RPL

Title.

I plan on installing the B16s this weekend on my .1 C2S. Car has 110,000 miles. No suspension part has been replaced in its service history (which is 100% documented).

I'm not too familiar with suspension but I'm an adept mechanic. I've done some suspension work in my past but it was mostly replacing warn OEM parts. I've never gone from springs to coil overs.

I have the B16s sitting in my garage. Before I put the car on jack stands I am oping someone can help me prepare the job with all the necessary supporting components I should use or replace while doing the job. I want to avoid having my car sit there in the garage as I wait for a small part to be delivered.

I know I'll need new top hats. Should I also get new washers? Which top hats should I get?

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

krazykarl

I just went thru something similar in preparation for replacing my OEM shocks with B4s. In the front, the upper mount and bearing may need to be replaced. Options for the mount include OEM, Elephant Racing and Tarret. Lemforder also makes OEM style mounts for $25 each, but I'm not sure about the quality at that price. I believe the B16s come with some of the washers, and given they are metal I probably would just reuse the factory items from the current suspension.

It's the same story in the rear for upper mounts, though there is no Lemforder version. There is also a rubber upper spring seat that can wear out, but could also be re-usable. It's surprising how all the little things that could be replaced add up in price. I went with OEM parts since I wasn't looking for maximum performance.

RPL

Thank you for the replay, Krazykarl.

Are the upper mount and bearing different items? And is that what they are referred to. I keep seeing "top hat." From your experience, is that something different?

And I'll need them for front and rear. But in addition to the rear I need a rubber upper spring seat.

So:

Front: Upper Mount, Bearing
Rear: Upper Mount, Bearing, Rubber Upper Sprint Seat

Is my understanding correct?

krazykarl

Up front there is both the strut mount that bolts to the body, and a bearing that the shock rotates on when turning. 996-343-515-05 is the bearing and 997-343-018-01 is the mount. In the rear there is a rubber seat for the top of the spring 997-333-504-00, along with the mount 997-333-061-01. There is no bearing in the rear like there is in the front, likely because the rear suspension doesn't turn. You may not need any of these parts depending on the mileage and condition of the factory parts, but it's hard to know for sure until after the shock assemblies are removed and disassembled.

EDIT: When the rear mounts are in really bad shape the foam/rubber in the center falls apart and the rear suspension makes noise when the shock shaft moves around in the mount.

RPL

Fantastic! Thank you.

krazykarl

One thing I forgot about is that the B16 likely doesn't need the upper spring seat in the rear. The springs are different than OEM, and based on the rear shock diagram at the end of this PDF you use a Bilstein supplied item instead.

https://productdeskapi.cart.bilstein...M4-Y554A00.pdf

ATX_Native

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