B12 Suspension

[Mike68]

Well, after 40K miles and over 20 years my Zed's suspension is starting to show its age. Looks fine, but my wife's 10 year old Honda Civic handles better. After trawling the forum I've ordered a Bilstein/Eibach B12 kit to improve things. This would seem to offer the best compromise between, cost, performance and "comfort". My question is, should I be replacing the bushings, pads etc at the same time? I don't want to spend more than necessary and everything looks OK, but as I said, she is now 20 years old.

Also, I was thinking of ordering some 10mm or maybe 15mm spacers for the rear wheels as the increased camber will tuck them in even further than stock, but I've seen a lot online suggesting this would be a bad idea for various reasons. Anyone any experience of running spacers on the rear, good or bad, and how do insurance companies view them? Not sure if it makes any difference but my Zed is a 3.0 with type 78 wheels.

Roads are pretty rough in my neck of the woods (Highlands), should I be getting thicker spring pads for the rear too, or is a B12 kit in standard form ok on poorer roads.?

 

[andyglym]

Well, after 40K miles and over 20 years my Zed's suspension is starting to show its age. Looks fine, but my wife's 10 year old Honda Civic handles better. After trawling the forum I've ordered a Bilstein/Eibach B12 kit to improve things. This would seem to offer the best compromise between, cost, performance and "comfort". My question is, should I be replacing the bushings, pads etc at the same time? I don't want to spend more than necessary and everything looks OK, but as I said, she is now 20 years old.

Also, I was thinking of ordering some 10mm or maybe 15mm spacers for the rear wheels as the increased camber will tuck them in even further than stock, but I've seen a lot online suggesting this would be a bad idea for various reasons. Anyone any experience of running spacers on the rear, good or bad, and how do insurance companies view them? Not sure if it makes any difference but my Zed is a 3.0 with type 78 wheels.

Roads are pretty rough in my neck of the woods (Highlands), should I be getting thicker spring pads for the rear too, or is a B12 kit in standard form ok on poorer roads.?

I've had the B12 kit on mine for a few years now, works just great on any road

 

[Mike68]

That's the sort of answer I like

 

[andyglym]

That's the sort of answer I like

I live in the Lakes where most roads are worse than a teenagers face mate so it's a good test.

 

[Mike68]

Just arrived in Norway for work. Looking forward to getting home in a few weeks, getting the new suspension on and going for a run around the West Coast before the North Coast 500 fills up with campervans for the summer .

 

[Althulas]

Meyle HD oem bushings and drop links are cheap enough if you wanted to tighten the front end up. Rear ends a lot more work with dropping the rear beam that’s if you wanted to go that far. There’s enough builds and photos in the Zedshed section to view. Yours is only a low miler but after 20years the rubber does degrade.

 

[Mike68]

Had a look in Zedshed section at dropping the rear end. As I've endless other unfinished projects around my place I'm not going to get into this this time. Guess I'll just install the kit and see how she is after that. When I first got her she was all over the road, swapped out the aftermarket 18" split rims for some 78's with Avon rubber and put purple poly bushes in the "lollypops" and it transformed the handling. I suspect fresh springs and shocks alone will make a big difference and keep me happy for a while. New bushes in another couple of years when I've completed my current ***t list.

 

[Nodzed]

B12 kit is superb, fitted it to the e89 and it transformed the handling and ride.

 

[Mike Fishwick]

I have used them for about 70,000 miles, and am very pleased, but reverted to the OE rear springs to maintain a useful amount of ground clearance from the Strong-Strut Butt and Body braces. There was very little difference in handling.

The Bilstien dampers are excellent - here in France our biannual MoT measures damper performance, which is still within 1% of each side front and rear - the first time the man thought there was something wrong with his measuring equipment!

 

[Mike68]

At my age, with the milage I do in it 70k should see me out.

 

[Mike Fishwick]

Our Golf TDI has covered almost 240,000 miles on its Koni Sports dampers, and still has only a !% difference. I wonder if they still give the lifetime warranty . . .