Bouncy Suspension With Re-Valved Bilsteins

Ok long story short, I bought a members old accord. I was told that it had Re valved Bilsteins and that it was very "stiff" Well on the drive back (A horrid one lol) I noted 2 things, One the rear bushing for the strut (Upper part) was shot to all hell and Two The rear struts were toast.


Well about a month later I found some koni yellows for the rear of my car (ish 4gee) So I took out the old and.....There are not blown in the slightest, also very stiff. So new bushings go in, old struts back in. Yup the car still bounces and floats over bumps. I am running H&R springs with these struts which are
F: 1.26, 265 lb/in; R: 1.41, 170 lb/in According to the faq.

The struts were re-valved to these specs 305 Compression, 110 Rebound from this link https://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=47707


I am trying to figure out what to do with it, the ride is super annoy and it's my DD. I mean it's stiff in all the wrong places.

Now at Auto-x the car is flat and handles great (Giving a good chunk of bushings need to be replaced) and is very flat and really doesn't bounce at all.

So I was think that maybe the progressive springs were causing it to act this way and maybe I needed a linear spring of a higher rate. Really idk, I am still pretty new when it comes to running normal Suspension that is suppose to do things right lol. Also does it matter which way the spring is installed?
And is there any type of upper strut bushings that are poly?

Oh alignment is also bang on (Sweet lifetime firestone alignments!)


Thanks for any help!


Fake edit: after going through his old threads looks like these are 7 years old lol. But that still doesn't change the fact that they do not feel blown outside the car.

When you hit a bump, can you describe what happens at the front and at the rear? Is one "floaty" and one harsh? When the front hits a bump, are you saying that it deflects, comes back and doesn't settle ("pogo-sticking"). Is the rear hurt-your-neck hard?

Did the P.O. say that all 4 Bilsteins were revalved? Or only the fronts?

I've been through it with Bilstein/Eibach. It took a few tries, but now it's perfect, so there is hope.
https://www.3geez.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18586

it is really any bump, tho harsh ones are much worse. It feels like very stiff springs with very blown shock. I know this because my other accord had slip on coilovers with super toasted struts lol. It feels like only the rear is doing it and the feel about the same in the back. Yes He did say they were all re-valved and I did see that very same thread of yours lol.

I'm not familiar with the differences between your rear springs and the Eibachs that I run. I do know that the Eibachs are actually softer than the stock springs, although they are progressive. The Bilsteins as supplied by the factory are plenty stiff, and if they were revalved, at least on my car, I know the rear would be a jarring bump experience.

It's hard to get a grip on your description of "floaty" and "hard" though.

What about doing the bounce test with the car at rest? Since you're autocrossing, I'd get some ebay coilover sleeves, toss the springs out, and buy a set of springs from Ground Control. Or pay a little more for Ground Controls.

You may very well have a bad set of dampers. Our GRM Miata was underdamped by about 15% and it still handled well, cornered very flat, and worked very well on the track. It felt like garbage on the street for the 3 blocks I was in it.

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Originally Posted by w261w261

I'm not familiar with the differences between your rear springs and the Eibachs that I run. I do know that the Eibachs are actually softer than the stock springs, although they are progressive. The Bilsteins as supplied by the factory are plenty stiff, and if they were revalved, at least on my car, I know the rear would be a jarring bump experience.

It's hard to get a grip on your description of "floaty" and "hard" though.

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Well floaty as in if I go over rough pavement(Not like dirt just like crappy ca roads) at speed of 50 or higher the rear of the car acts like it has a very bad toe problem(Kinda like it dances around or is floating), but the toe is in spec. also when the car has extra weight in it (Full car of people) the ride is much much better and does NOT do that. I believe the H&R's are progressive as well and I thought the weaker spring rate with the stiff shocks would cause the strut to be doing more work and make the spring kinda bounce if that makes sense (Like I said still new to this lol)


Also To Vanilla Sky I was thinking about getting some GC for it but I am trying to decide on a good spring rate, I was thinking like 350 in the front and 250-275 in the back. But once I do that I was going to send the bilsteins back in and get them rebuilt/Re-valved but I don't know to what lol.

Your best bet would be to give them a call. If you can get corner weighed, they can put you in exactly what you need.