Stiff Struts

[chope97]

I noticed in my 73 this past weekend while driving that when I hit a bump in the road it sounded like someone was hitting the car with a sledge hammer on the drivers side. I checked the components on that side and found no loose parts. When I pushed down on the strut on that side I could not get it to move. I think it is a Bilstein in there but not quite sure. The passenger side moved more freely. Looks like I will be replacing the left side strut with my Al Taylor Bilstein spare that I have which I can move up and down. My 71 has KYB gas adjust struts which to me are too stiff especially in the rear. It makes the car a little bouncy. There are some regular KYB's on sale on the internet I would like to see what regular struts feel like on both my cars. My daily driver is a 2005 530i 6 speed with Bilstein 4 on it and it is a nice driver that handles well. not stiff. When I had my first Bavaria back in the 80's my shop recommend stiffer shocks in the front and less stiff in the back for best all around handling and a comfortable ride. Back then the Polaris e3 was our family car.

 

[Bert Poliakoff]

I am running Koni oil filled on the front and Koni gas on the rear on my 6. So far it rides like a dream The fronts were re built by Jeff Lablond who uses parts desined by him. I found them in a junk yard and the struts were very rusted out so he put new tubes on them. The store I got the rears from was a place a guy bought out and I bought them right. Google Jeff and get an idea of what he does FJB shocks LLC. He also rebuilds Ferrari and Lambo shocks