HERP-A-DERP Bilstein Coilovers VS Eibach Springs?

[TERAWR]

Hey folks, I got a set of coilovers over the winter from another member and installed them.
I think they're the Bilstein for the ST, can't confirm as I don't have the part numbers from either kit but the drop appears to be about 1.5" front (on highest).
The ride quality has been nothing but stellar but the random scraping over expansion joints, roadwork, potholes, etc, it getting on my last nerve and I'm looking to change it up.

What I've come up with so far is get the Bilstein kit for the regular Fiesta which will allow me to adjust the ride height higher and tune out the scraping, about <$750 and sell the current setup.

OR

Get the Eibach springs and use the stock dampers, <$250 and still sell the Eibach setup.

My only concern is the stock suspension was feeling really rough to me and the rear always seemed to "scallop" or kind of rock fore and aft on certain stretches of road, I'd like to avoid that and do it right the second time.

If anyone has any experience with either I guess I would like to know your opinions, if you have experience with both then I am more than interest in what you have to add.

Thoughts?

[EDIT]
6/15 Called Bilstein, the part number I have is for the base Fiesta. There is no way to get the suspension to do what I want so now I'm looking into coilovers, KW, MeisterR, or Ksport fall within my budget. I'm kind of saddened by the turn of events because I really like the B14 kit, I'd like to find something comparable though if anyone has ideas?

 

[Xaendeau]

Hey folks, I got a set of coilovers over the winter from another member and installed them.
I think they're the Bilstein for the ST, can't confirm as I don't have the part numbers from either kit but the drop appears to be about 1.5" front (on highest).
The ride quality has been nothing but stellar but the random scraping over expansion joints, roadwork, potholes, etc, it getting on my last nerve and I'm looking to change it up.

What I've come up with so far is get the Bilstein kit for the regular Fiesta which will allow me to adjust the ride height higher and tune out the scraping, about <$750 and sell the current setup.

OR

Get the Eibach springs and use the stock dampers, <$250 and still sell the Eibach setup.

My only concern is the stock suspension was feeling really rough to me and the rear always seemed to "scallop" or kind of rock fore and aft on certain stretches of road, I'd like to avoid that and do it right the second time.

If anyone has any experience with either I guess I would like to know your opinions, if you have experience with both then I am more than interest in what you have to add.

Thoughts?

Generally speaking, I would recommend coilovers over anything with the stock dampeners. I didn't like them that much. I initially opted to put on Koni Yellows, and I love them over the stock dampeners. The adjustability allows for a lot of tuning in comfort and handling. Still spring shopping.

 

[TERAWR]

Generally speaking, I would recommend coilovers over anything with the stock dampeners. I didn't like them that much. I initially opted to put on Koni Yellows, and I love them over the stock dampeners. The adjustability allows for a lot of tuning in comfort and handling. Still spring shopping.

I'd considered this route as well, however once you add all the parts together it's kind of a wash between dampers and separate springs and coilovers at that point. The Bilstein coilovers are only height adjustable though so I guess it would depend on how you planned on running the car.

 

[M-Sport fan]

IF you get springs for the Bilstein B14 kit, you have to (at least be in the 'ball park') match their rates to whichever coil over springs you get for them to replace what's already on there (I don't know their actual spring rate ranges, but I DO know that they are progressive rate, and NOT linear rate, one of the reasons I eliminated that kit from my list), in order to be close to matching them for that damper's given valving.

I would also call Bilstein Tech in Cali, or Carolina, and ask them WHAT is the actual RANGE in height adjustability of that B14 kit vs. the factory ride height.
You may not be able to get them high enough to suit your needs, no matter how you adjust the collars, nor what spring you install on them.
(You can also ask them the spring rate range which will work with these dampers, as per their valving. )

 

[TERAWR]

I would also call Bilstein Tech in Cali, or Carolina, and ask them WHAT is the actual RANGE in height adjustability of that B14 kit vs. the factory ride height.
(You can also ask them the spring rate range which will work with these dampers, as per their valving. )

I'm all the way up already and I "could" 3d print and anneal some perch spacers for the front... But I do enjoy living.

Thanks for the info, I'm all read up on progressive vs linear now.

I hadn't considered calling them up, it's worth a shot though.

 

[M-Sport fan]

I'm all the way up already and I "could" 3d print and anneal some perch spacers for the front... But I do enjoy living.

Thanks for the info, I'm all read up on progressive vs linear now.

I hadn't considered calling them up, it's worth a shot though.

The one thing that their tech dept. did tell me is that they ARE valved for a PROGRESSIVE rate spring, so you may have to look for that in a coil over spring size/diameter, but they are NOT very common, since most who go coil over WANT a linear rate spring.
(This, since I wanted to use a linear rate spring, and the fact that they would not sell them sans springs, are the other reasons I am not considering them.)

 

[BRGT350]

I haven't fully consumed my coffee yet, so sorry if I missed something, but do you have adjustable Bilstein coil-overs on the car now? All Fiestas have coil-overs up front, but most people associate "coil-overs" with the ones that you can adjust the ride height. I ask because if you have adjustable Bilstein coil-overs, I would adjust them to the ride height you want to avoid scraping. I assume that is scraping the tire on the inner fender as I can't imagine an expansion joint being tall enough to hit the bottom of the car. The performance and quality of the Bilstein products would have me keeping those and not going with Eibach springs and factory dampers.

 

[Speedboosted]

I haven't fully consumed my coffee yet, so sorry if I missed something, but do you have adjustable Bilstein coil-overs on the car now? All Fiestas have coil-overs up front, but most people associate "coil-overs" with the ones that you can adjust the ride height. I ask because if you have adjustable Bilstein coil-overs, I would adjust them to the ride height you want to avoid scraping. I assume that is scraping the tire on the inner fender as I can't imagine an expansion joint being tall enough to hit the bottom of the car. The performance and quality of the Bilstein products would have me keeping those and not going with Eibach springs and factory dampers.

I believe he mentioned in the first paragraph that he has already adjusted them as high as they can go. His research about buying the kit for the regular Fiesta is good, as that is something I have heard as well (that they allow a higher ride height)

 

[TERAWR]

The one thing that their tech dept. did tell me is that they ARE valved for a PROGRESSIVE rate spring...

I'm getting some conflicting information, in another post here I found that someone claimed the regular Fiesta B14 kit came with linear springs and the valving was very similar between versions.

you have adjustable Bilstein coil-overs on the car now? ... I would adjust them to the ride height you want to avoid scraping....

Yes the B14 PSS kit, again, I think it's for the ST version but I'd need to compare part numbers. All the way up, it is the inner fender liner at this point, I did have a small mishap with wheel spacers which resulted in a trip to my local PDR guy. I do like the Bilsteins, they are a fantastic ride but I don't really want to scrape the inner fender doing hard turns either.

I guess I'm not sold on anything at this point, I don't need them to be adjustable because once I get the ride height set I'm never going to touch it again. Looking for like .5" (15mm) to 3/4" (20mm) total drop. Again, once I start getting into replacing dampers it's not that much more expensive to just do the complete coilover anyway.

 

[BRGT350]

Ok, I guess I missed they were adjusted all the way up and still too low. 1.5" of lowering with the perch as high as it would go seems like a lot, so that is why I wanted some clarification. I thought the lowering range was 1"-2", but not sure if I had the right or not. I guess I would go two routes. The first being to replace the adjustables for a set of Bilstein or Koni Yellow dampers with Mountune springs. You get some lowering with the upgraded dampers. The next option would be the cheapest and that would be Mountune springs with new factory dampers. Since you don't have factory dampers to start with, I would think about going with upgraded ones.

 

[TERAWR]

Ok, I guess I missed they were adjusted all the way up and still too low. 1.5" of lowering with the perch as high as it would go seems like a lot, so that is why I wanted some clarification. I thought the lowering range was 1"-2", but not sure if I had the right or not. I guess I would go two routes. The first being to replace the adjustables for a set of Bilstein or Koni Yellow dampers with Mountune springs. You get some lowering with the upgraded dampers. The next option would be the cheapest and that would be Mountune springs with new factory dampers. Since you don't have factory dampers to start with, I would think about going with upgraded ones.

I have all the factory stuff in a box, I'm a hoarder like that. The measurements before I put them on was from the ground to the fender in the fronts was 24.5" and with them all the way up I'm looking at about 23"-23.25" which isn't an incredible difference, on progressive rate it could make the difference though.

 

[BRGT350]

I dug around the internet and saw some pics and there isn't much adjustment. I was always thinking there was less of a drop, but your numbers sure seem accurate. If you still have the stock stuff, I would really consider a set of Mountune springs and sell off the Bilsteins. I am very happy with that setup on my car and debate going with another set of factory dampers when mine are due for replacement. For the cost and benefit, that combo is tough to beat.

 

[TERAWR]

I just found a set of K-Sport Kontrol Pro coilovers that appear to be competitively priced but I'm not seeing anything on them though, my call to Bilstein has turned up fruitless at this time.

Called Bilstein and the kit I have was designed for the base Fiesta and is adjusted all the way to the up. Long story short is I'll be looking into other coilovers or spring and shock combos since they don't provide anything that is going to do what I want, which is UNFORTUNATE.

Looking into coilovers, ST, Ksport, or MeisterR, I'd like something similar if I'm to drop that much coin.

 

[M-Sport fan]

I dug around the internet and saw some pics and there isn't much adjustment. I was always thinking there was less of a drop, but your numbers sure seem accurate. If you still have the stock stuff, I would really consider a set of Mountune springs and sell off the Bilsteins. I am very happy with that setup on my car and debate going with another set of factory dampers when mine are due for replacement. For the cost and benefit, that combo is tough to beat.

Do you have any idea who actually manufactures these factory dampers for Ford, for our cars? (i.e.; de Carbon used to make them for certain GM rides, and Bilstein for others, and other auto mfgs.)

Are our factory dampers, with the factory springs strong enough to handle (albeit NOT 'ideal') REALLY rough roads. without blowing out (like rally stage roads)?

 

[blue2turbo]

Well a set of meisterR coils just went up for sale. If you decide to go the spring/shock route, I have a set of like new Eibach Pros I’m posting up shortly. Pair those with Koni STR.T tears and you should be good to go or Bilstein B8s when the tears are finally available again.

 

[TERAWR]

Well a set of meisterR coils just went up for sale. If you decide to go the spring/shock route, I have a set of like new Eibach Pros I’m posting up shortly. Pair those with Koni STR.T tears and you should be good to go or Bilstein B8s when the tears are finally available again.

Don't know if you can get the wrenches separately? Regardless, fully adjustable might be the route to go.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I seem to remember that there was a backlog on Bilstein stuff more recently, maybe it was just the PSS kits.

 

[M-Sport fan]

Don't know if you can get the wrenches separately? Regardless, fully adjustable might be the route to go.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I seem to remember that there was a backlog on Bilstein stuff more recently, maybe it was just the PSS kits.

It was on the REAR (he mis-typed it as "tears", which some are shedding due to the backlog from Bilstein) Bilstein B8s, hence why he mentions using the Koni STR.Ts for the back on a damper/spring setup temporarily.

 

[blue2turbo]

Yes rears sorry... was on my phone at the time. The Bilstein B8 Rears have been nationally backordered since end of last year and keep getting pushed back for an availability date. However, I noticed a very positive change running the Koni STR.T in the rear with Eibach's and Mountune springs. They're pretty cheap whether it be for a temporary stop gap or perm. fix.

 

[Ptuning_Nate]

I would highly recommend staying away from anything Ksport, it is of a lower quality and tend to become noisy

 

[Xaendeau]

Do you have any idea who actually manufactures these factory dampers for Ford, for our cars? (i.e.; de Carbon used to make them for certain GM rides, and Bilstein for others, and other auto mfgs.)

Are our factory dampers, with the factory springs strong enough to handle (albeit NOT 'ideal') REALLY rough roads. without blowing out (like rally stage roads)?

For...like one stage? Yeah, sure. You'd be leaking everywhere the week afterward. These stock shocks 180 from what you want on rough roads. The springs are perfectly fine.

Our factory shocks are over-dampened from the factory, so they like to skip over rough road and gravel. Very much un-ideal for rough roads as the stocks will tear themselves apart from the valving being all wrong. The springs will hold up to abuse and the spring rate is actually pretty good for gravel and off roading. Koni Yellows or Bilstien replacement shocks would be more suitable. My fiance's old house was a few miles back in the sticks, we had a mile or so of of our own personal Rally Stage USA, deep south edition...along with a mile of broken concrete before that. Good, fun road. We occasionally have had issues with public maintenance that far out, so we would have parts of the road collapse...trucks get stuck. Had a AWD cop car get mostly stuck coming out when we complained about the truck sized piece of the road breaking off into a ravine. Good memories.

Anyway, the result of two years of that was a complete replacement of the entire suspension (springs, shocks, bearings, rubber bits) on a Mitsubishi Lancer, and I swapped out the Fiesta's shocks for Koni Yellows and vowed never to go there again on my new suspension. The shocks were not happy...front left shock started leaking after a bump one day. Alignment never changed though, so everything is still straight on the suspension geometry.

Edit: One thing though, if you let off the throttle and the wheel is anything but straight, you will get rotation on gravel/dirt/broken concrete. The only way to make the car go straight is to pin the throttle and never let off. Just let that sink in for a second. The car is very much oversteer prone on dirt/gravel/mud...more-so than others that I have driven. I would HIGHLY recommend people never fully defeat stability control on slippery surfaces like that with this car. Saw a totaled Fiesta ST a few years ago from someone turning off stability control. Softer struts/shocks help with this...which is most everything aftermarket believe it or not. You want a soft rebound, like setting an adjustable dampener to nearly full soft in the rear...and putting a higher but still soft rebound setting in the front. This is almost opposite of autocross settings (nearly full stiff rear & softer front), but it makes the car more stable on loose surfaces. (Suspension set up for autocross) + (gravel/dirt) + (Fiesta ST) = (a fun, yet supremely sketch rally car).