Porsche Enthusiasts Club Forum

I've just been through the process of converting the OEM front struts on my 944S2 to Bilsteins. It's been proved that buying OEM struts is not really viable due to the fact that the newest stock is from December 2003, so converting the struts to take either Koni or Bilstein inserts are both options. The issue with Bilsteins is that the strut has to be cut, then a collar welded on, so that the cover supplied with the insert can be screwed onto the collar, holding the insert in place. The three problems there are the cutting, supply of the collar and the welding.

For the collar, you can get these from http://www.sportwagenparts.de/shop_content.php?coID=47 Look for "Einschweiss-Hülse; Version für z.B. B6-Dämpfer vorne auch an Fahrzeugen nach 1986" on that page. I composed an email in English, used google translate to German and sent it to them. The cost was €99.5 for a pair with €15 postage to the UK. I know you can use a strut from an old Golf to provide the collar too, but those might be hard to come by.

For the cutting and welding, I used http://www.warren-engineering.co.uk Tel 01684 298 000. Ask for Steve Warren. Note that he won't dress the weld, but as he makes a pretty neat job and it's hidden from view anyway, that doesn't bother me. He also won't powder coat the struts, nor will he offer an exchange service. It's just the cutting and welding. He will fit the inserts into the struts, which is important as the collar should be torqued correctly. He'll probably charge around £100, but you'll have to negotiate that with him yourself. I paid him differently as he had to make a jig in order to hold the strut in place on his saw.

Anyway, I hope this helps!

Cheers,
Bryan

I got mine back from powder coating today and I'm really happy with them, £40 for a pair of Golf struts and £25 to shot blast and powder coat yellow. With DIY welding it's only cost me £65.

I'd post pics but Photobucket is having issues tonight.

Yes, sorry, I should have said that my posting was aimed at people who have neither the skills, nor the equipment to do the work themselves. It's as close to an off the shelf solution that seems to be abailable, so I thought I would share it.

Cheers,
Bryan

I'm in the process of having some converted by a friend and am itching to get them back and fit them ....

How do they ride when on the car?

As an alternative, I did my own a good few years ago now, I went the Koni route, no welding required for them so people may find these easier to do themselves....you do need to be handy with tools, though, and a steady hand with a drill, I high coated mine in yellow paint, still look good so the whole process was an in-house affair which may benefit some..quick too if you don't count the time involved removing and refitting the structs...


regards

Pete

Yes, the Koni's are a simpler fit. However I had a problem with one of my rears going soft at about 18 months old and mine are now leaking, at just over 7 years (approx 50,000 miles) old. While they are easy and quite good value, I'm not convinced about the quality of the Koni's.

I'm hoping that the Bilsteins will do rather better; they certainly feel like more substantial products.


Oli.

hi Oli

7 years isn't too bad... the problem we have is the state of the roads, far too many potholes some so big as to completely wreck any setup. Add to that the growing number of speed ramps and we are all going to suffer...lower ball joints being hit particularly bad by speed ramps due to speed negotiated...I have slowed down to a complete crawl now due to recently having to fit a new ball joint drivers side after sustaining damage. I have no problems with the rear, I have slight play on the driver insert which I suspect is due to the same incident that broke the ball joint, the good thing is all the hard work was done last time, it should be a relatively easy job, this time around, to fit new inserts..

cheers

Pete

Agreed on all fronts; the state of the roads is something that will get worse before it gets better, for sure.

And yes, once you have a conversion done then fitting new struts of the same design (be they Koni's or Bilsteins) will be a doddle.


Oli.