hi all
getting a moderate amount of creaking and groaning from under car when passing over bumps and the like, I think the suspension is original, and due for replacement..was considering upgrading over stock with Bilstein Heavy Duty suspension parts, don't want to lower my car, would just like to firm up the suspension a bit..anybody with experience with this sort of setup??..Is it just shocks in the rear, or is there a replaceable shock mount, like with the struts up front...just as an aside, if the little "door" in the ignition switch, the one that "bongs" when you open the door with the key in the ignition, if this door sticks open in any way when key is removed, your key fob won't activate the central locking feature..mines' probably original as well, have to give it a little extra effort ot make sure it is fully closed...

I have the Bilstein HD struts and shocks all around on my 98 T-5 and like them. It does not lower the car at all. The ride is somewhat firmer. On the rear there is a sort of shock mount that does fail at times, but only with time. Mine are still good. Son's 94 855 went out but he overloaded and is on some bad roads too.

Believe you will like the Bilstein setup, especially if you like a firmer ride.

dick

thankyou dick, I do appreciate the input

Your car never rode as horridly as mine did, so YMMV...

I've replaced my car's original SS dampers (and SS springs) with HD blisteins (and std springs), and when that improvement finally also became intolerable, I replaced the HD bilsteins with the touring bilsteins.

The car can still, when empty, hurt me on a bad bump, but it's no longer like every single hole has a very hard bottom to it.

With the HD bilsteins the car was still tuned for "track day", now it's closer to being optimized for std civilian use, but still a long way from a plush/compliant ride.

Sadly, the car's sense of straight-ahead is diminished with the switch from HD bilsteins to touring bilsteins, without explanation. But it takes less steering effort to turn the wheel off-center (while driving) now, and the car can "chase its tail" at low speed in a parking lot (steering can stay full-lock w/o any steering input, iow, hands off the wheel), which it never did before.

MAKE SURE YOU DRIVE THE CAR A LITTLE BIT between the time you install new front struts and do the wheel alignment or the alignment may prove to not be valid.