After 6 years and a several issues my car finally faced a major problem bad enough to shake my confidence . Previously a faulty sensor or wire snag was annoying but repairable. In fact even adding the corrected drop links was doable and i did it almost immediately after i read a post here by Sharky .

This new hurdle however is (in my opinion ) inexcusable . I do not track my car . I have never entered a drag race event . It is a modified car and I do occasionally enjoy a lively sprint but for the most part i feel like I pamper the car .

Last Friday I drove from my house to go swimming . I had not driven the car in a few days so I had an enjoyable brief drive . While pulling into the parking garage there was a very small speed bump . I drive over it often but on this day at only 5mph I heard a crunch noise . I thought it was a few plastic containers in the trunk . After my swim I backed out of the parking space only to hear major crunching , a PSM failure light , and was barely able to limp the car the 1 mile to the dealership .

This is the result . I was given many ideas and choices but I just feel this entire system is better off in the garbage and KW's with nose lift are going on the car . The entire ordeal was not expected or cheap but my feeling is I am glad it happened in a garage at low speed with no injury or damage (other than my wallet expense) .

 

Glad to hear you are safe and uninjured. I don't even want to think about what could have happened at speed.

 

Why not send it back to Bilstein to get their take on the failure?
They might good will another set or tell you why it failed.

FYI: I don't think failures of this kind as strictly limited to Bilstein.

Walt

 

The last time i sent a part to Bilstein (for a wire issue) i did not have my car for a month but inconvenience is just one reason . The bottom line is that I simply won't feel safe with a repair on this. In order to replace it I'd have to order a new system as the 6 year old system is no longer made from what i was told . Besides .. who would want it ?That break is right in the middle of the strut . There is no damage to the car .
I don't even want to give mine away for free because I feel they don't belong on any car . They are going in the trash . I don't even care what Bilstein has to say .

I have to feel safe in my car . And yes .. anything can break but I the option of a clean slate with another manufacturer is the route I have chosen for my own piece of mind .

 

Larry, glad you are safe. This looks to be suspiciously like the area of the well known cone washer at neck of front suspension, no?

If I am correct, your installer might have forgotten to install it, or install it backwards, or use wrong leverage during installation on the neck of the suspension, etc.

BTW, what I've noticed is that for the 4-5 or whatever number people who reported problems, the problems seem to repeat multiple times, even move from electronic to mechanical and vice versa! Off top of my head, Larry's, Derek (?) with cone washer, and pureporsche (?); as if you are cursed . Only thing I could think of is more errors with repeated removals and installs.

 

Had the same exact thing happen to my 993 within a couple weeks of install

 

Same exact thing happened to a buddy of mine in his Toyota Tacoma with Billstein shocks. Left him stranded out in the woods, both front shocks exploded with an impact of 10mph. Scary stuff.

 

Wow, Larry, sorry to hear that.

I had the system fail twice on me. Both time electrical issues, first front left (which took a number of weeks to replace) and more recently (last month) the front right. This time I threw down a deposit, had a new strut shipped in so there was just 1 day of downtime, and sent the faulty one back. They confirmed it was faulty and a few days ago, received the deposit ($508) back.

For me, I've had the system for just over two years and almost like clockwork once a year I have had an issue. Next time it fails I'm doing the same as you ripping it out and replacing it with a non PASM KW.

My advice to anyone is and will be - stay away from these. Why take the chance!

Mike

 

It seems to me with springs and sways on the stock shocks we could get 95% of the performance with less money and less likelyhood of these issues. I know I've read enough of these threads now to know I won't be putting aftermarket shocks on my car. I would be so pissed if I spent that kind of money to have a shock "fail" multiple times, whatever the issue.

 

That sucks but i guess it's hit or miss on these things i bought mine used 5 yrs ago & zero problems so far .

 

He has installed 100's of suspensions (very accomplished in his field) and even noted that Dereks was installed incorrectly when Derek posted years ago on that old thread. In fact he discussed the tricky cone washer with me at that time with regard to Dereks car .
He made it a point then to discuss that mine was followed precisely to spec plus he has a shop filled with technicians who have also followed the build on my car . They also looked at my car (as he was on vacation when I brought my car) and multiple opinions pointed to a defect .

The break area is not at the washer but within the strut itself after 6 years of use on the car . It was a sudden snap too with no real warning . This is far too dangerous for my comfort zone .

 

You made the right move to bin them. All the excuses in the world won't fix a bad product.

 

Damn.

 

I just got my car but have been researching which way I was going in regards to suspension for a while now. After spending a lot of time reading this board I just couldn't get comfortable with all the damptronic issues. I chose to K.I.S.S. it. GMG springs and sways for me.

 

Exactly what I will be doing when/if I mess with the suspension.