How to buy revalved Bilstein sturts for your 3g
Ok, first thing I now need to clear up, come about because Bilstein is now offering another strut system for the 3rd gen accord. They are offering "Touring class" struts for our cars. DO NOT buy them for revalving or to use on a lowered car. Only use the H.D's for revalving. Don't us the H.D.'s either, unless you have them revalved.
Here are the steps.
1. If you purchase the struts from www.shox.com , ask to speak to Darrell. Tell him you want Bilstein H.D. struts for the 86-89 accord part numbers are B36-1135, B36-1136, and for the rears you'll need 2 B36-1089. Tell Darrell that you want them revalved by Bilstiein and that you have the specs that Jack French at Bilstein needs. Use 300 for compression and 100 for rebound.
(*I spoke to Jack today and asked him what specs he would recommend for someone that wanted the struts a smidge tighter than the above specs provide. His answer was to go up about 10% or 330 compression and 110 on rebound, that's what I'd use for springs over 340lbs.)
If for some reason anyone want's to talk to Jack French at Bilstein he can be reached at 1-800-537-1085
Price will be the cost of the struts, still $370 I believe, plus I'm sure the shipping to Bilstein(maybe not if not sure), the revalve fee is $65 per strut and then you will have return shipping charges from Bilstein to you.
If anyone already has the struts or if they buy them off say eshocks.com you can send them to Bilstein yourself and your revalve fee is a little less at $55 per strut. Send them to:
Krupp Bilstein of America
14102 Stowe Dr.
Poway, Ca 92064
Attn: Jack French
They will only work of your struts if you pay the revalve fee in advance or use a credit card.
Eibach Pro-Kits / Bilstein HD
A few months ago, before I realized this site existed, I put Eibach Pro-Kit springs and Bilstein HD struts/shocks on my '89 Se-i. Defiinitely not enough damping with the Bilsteins, especially on rebound. This was a painful discovery, because the cost of the springs/struts-shocks/installation was around $1,000. Also, because I cannot have the car sitting at the shop for two or three weeks while the struts are revalved, I must buy another set of fronts, have them sent to Bilstein, then pay to have the two front corners of the car torn apart again for the install. Sigh.
I did read the thread(s) here about revalving, etc., but since each try on this costs $200 in labor + materials, I wanted to make every attempt to get it right the 2nd time. So I figured I'd call Eibach, get the spring rate, then have a conversation with Jack French at Bilstein about my alternative. Wrong! Eibach did not return 2 phone calls to tech support, so I called Jack at Bilstein to see what he had to say. He said Eibach will not release the spring rates of their product..like this is rocket science!? Anyone so inclined could measure the damn things if they wanted to go to the trouble. Jerks. Anyway, Jack was very nice, and said that his experience with those springs would dictate a 300# rebound, and 100# compression revalve on the struts. He said that the rebound figure is always more than the compression figure, and so it appears that the numbers on the original post in this thread are reversed. He said if the struts are ordered from shox.com, one should ask for Chris. This is a different name from the original post...maybe the other fellow has left or maybe the shox.com salesperson doesn't matter.
Does anyone out there have the Eibach Pro-Kits (not the Sportline, which is a bigger drop) along with the Bilstein revalved struts? I'd sure love to hear what their experience has been before I pull the trigger again.
Also, if all goes according to plan, I will have a pair of perfectly good, 3 month old front struts that are surplus to my needs. Anyone here wants them, I'll sell them for 1/3 of what I paid.
Thanks and happy holidays to everyone. This is a great site.
Hal
Eibach Pro-Kit / Bilstein revalved: the definitive setup
OK, after 3 tries I've got it right. I originally ordered a set of Eibach Pro-Kit springs (1 inch drop), and a full set of Bilstein shocks. I didn't know the front Bilsteins had to be revalved (the rears are fine). Upon installation, the front of the car pogo-sticked badly, so I ordered another set of front Bilsteins, and on the advice of Jack French there, had them revalved to 100 compression, 300 rebound (the original specs for them are 46/195). This +almost+ solved the bouncing, but not quite. After the original deflection, the car wouldn't come back as quickly as I liked, but it was very close. So I sent off the original pair and had them revalved to 110/340 (about a 10% increase over try #2)). Just got them on today, and this IS the setup for Eibach/Bilsteins. Any firmer on the shocks, and the ride would be too harsh with no gain.
To me, the extra 10% was worth spending the $65 per shock revalve charge + about $28 shipping + $100 to install. But others could probably live with the 100/300 shocks. I now have them as surplus. they're practically new, as they were on my car about 2 months. Anyone interested let me know.
ps: This has been a real educational experience for me. I had no idea about how important it was for the springs and the shocks to be matched correctly. I have had cars that others had modified in this way, and in retrospect, I think that most of my shocks were too firm, unnecessarily so. What you want is the initial deflection to come back and stop evenly, no more, no less. The problem is, without adjustable shocks, the process of getting to the optimal setup is expensive and time-consuming. I personally think the site here should come up with a list of shock/spring combos that have been tried and shown to be perfectly matched. That way the next guy down the line won't have to reinvent the wheel.
