I broke a rear Bilstein, Does this happen?

[Clyde's Keeper]

l am the proud owner of a broken Bilstein shock. Left rear on an IRS car with 14k miles on it. The shaft broke where it threads into the mounting eye. Typical spot. All four of my shocks where modified with the larger 14 mm shafts by Bilstein and the aforementioned mounting eye was installed and "torqued" correctly by them.
Not sure exactly what to do, other than the obvious, replace it! Can't afford to replace all four. Not sure if Bilstein will or can fix my old one. Am pretty sure FFR does not have any more of these. I have a loaner available but it is unmodified 12 mm shaft.
These things always happen on Friday afternoon, no one is open to make calls to. Had plans to go places in the beast today.

Thanks.

Robert41314130

[Dave Smith]

Sunday morning and checking in after a GREAT Tasca show yesterday (btw: it was very cool seeing Bob Tasca leave the car show in his FFR 33 to go and pick up John Force at the airport! Seeing them drive in was even better). Still I saw your post and have followed any reports of breakage for a long time as we've done a TON over the years with Bilstein. Anyway, seeing a 14 mm shock break is very unusual. I will have the guys call you Monday for specifics as right off I don't recognize the spring as ours and we want to make sure we understand what happened and why. Ive got a stock of older Bilsteins that I sent to the company to have them upgraded as well as Konis. Talk to you Monday. Dave Smith

[Clyde's Keeper]

Not sure what to think about the President of the company responding to my inquiry on a Sunday morning. Just another of the many, many reasons why I drive a Factory Five. The springs in question are Hyperco replacements. The 450# springs supplied with the car where way too soft. Car bottomed out all of the time. All of the rub marks on the threaded tube are from the old springs when they would compress, they would collapse and rub. The replacement springs are 500# in the front, 600# in the rear. There was no problem with fit. They made a world of difference in the way the car performed. I did find while inspecting the broken shock, one of the zip ties holding the seat to the spring is missing/broke off and I suspect this allowed the seat to move side to side ever so slightly until the metal fatigued and broke. I look forward to hearing from "the guys" on Monday.

Thanks Dave for building such a great line of products and more importantly, standing behind them. It's better to stand behind than in front.


Thanks,

Robert

[riptide motorsport]

Thats service!

[Bigguy]

Robert, I believe that I was the first to break a rear Bilstein, but mine was before the upgrade. All I can tell you is the Factory Five stepped up to the plate. I had absolutely no complaints with how my issue was handled. In fact it was handled in a fashion that all corporations/companies should strive to emulate. As you can tell, I am not at all surprised that Dave answered you on Sunday.

[DOHCCOBRA]

Robert,

Any update on this. Was any reason found out to why this might have happened. I only ask because I am running the same shocks and would like to be aware of any problems that might be out there. I can't say I have the most confidence in the shocks, so I would like to know if I need to start saving up for better replacements.

Thanks

[Jeff Kleiner]

Front Bilsteins as well as the rears on IRS cars have had reported breakages. To my knowledge none of the Bils on the rear of live axle cars have. Spring bind due to improper coli count was cited as a possible cause but there have been reported issues even with the proper springs. Bilstein was doing low cost rebuilds/upgrades. It's been a few years now so you should probably call FFR and speak with one of the tech guys for the details.

Jeff

[DOHCCOBRA]

Jeff,

I already know all that, I have followed the problem closely. Mine have already been upgraded as well as Roberts. This is the first and only instance of the upgrades shocks breaking that I have heard about and I wanted to know if a root cause has been found for it. This is a safety issue for me and myself, so I do take this very seriously. I have talked to Factory Five about this, but this is a new issue, with new implications. It has been over a month since the original post and I was hoping a little more information could be learned for all that are involved with this issue.

not to be blunt, but before you spout out random information, it is better if you fully read the thread and see if you are actually giving valid information to what is being asked.

[Jeff Kleiner]

Jeff,

not to be blunt, but before you spout out random information, it is better if you fully read the thread and see if you are actually giving valid information to what is being asked.

Oh, I must have missed the part in your post (#6) where you told us that yours were upgraded. I guess I was so caught up in spouting random information I overlooked that detail. Please point it out for me. Here, I'll include the post to make it easy for you:


Robert,

Any update on this. Was any reason found out to why this might have happened. I only ask because I am running the same shocks and would like to be aware of any problems that might be out there. I can't say I have the most confidence in the shocks, so I would like to know if I need to start saving up for better replacements.

Thanks

Jeff

[FritoBandito]

Jeff,

I already know all that, I have followed the problem closely. Mine have already been upgraded as well as Roberts. This is the first and only instance of the upgrades shocks breaking that I have heard about and I wanted to know if a root cause has been found for it. This is a safety issue for me and myself, so I do take this very seriously. I have talked to Factory Five about this, but this is a new issue, with new implications. It has been over a month since the original post and I was hoping a little more information could be learned for all that are involved with this issue.

not to be blunt, but before you spout out random information, it is better if you fully read the thread and see if you are actually giving valid information to what is being asked.

Woa. Somebody needs a nap.

[DOHCCOBRA]

No I do not need a nap, I see a large problem of people reading a little bit of a thread and answering questions for someone else. I didn't ask a general question, I asked the original poster about an update on his situation.

Jeff to answer your question:

From Clyde's Keeper:
"All four of my shocks where modified with the larger 14 mm shafts by Bilstein and the aforementioned mounting eye was installed and "torqued" correctly by them."

From My post:
"I only ask because I am running the same shocks and would like to be aware of any problems that might be out there."

While I may not have stated explicitly that my shocks have been modified, it was inferred. Sorry if you didn't catch that.

I am not trying to cause a problem, but it is frustrating to post a specific question to someone and have random information to the entire discussion at hand be thrown in.

If need be I will now bow out and if there is more information that Robert wants to post I will be happy to read it, but I will refrain from adding anything further to the discussion about potential safety problems.

[Indy14]

To DOHCCOBRA
It may be "frustrating to post a specific question to someone and have random information to the entire discussion at hand be thrown in", but IMHO its the norm in forums. I suggest if you have a specific question and only want an answer from a particular person, you PM them.