Good morning,
I am looking at refreshing the front suspensions on my 2010 Rapide, and I was wondering if someone ever contemplated, or even completed, a "simple" struts replacement vs replacing the whole damper assemblies?
This seems to be an OEM option on the DB9, but not on the Rapide (of course...)


Thanks for your input!

 

I would like to rebuild them if possible. Haven't found a place just yet.

 

While it's overseas, I wonder if nagengast (https://nagengast.pl/en/regeneration-of-shock-absorbers/) in Poland would be able to rebuild the Bilstein's. Also depends on the cost and such as well though new ones are plenty expensive. Mine on my Vantage are starting to leak slightly, so I need to see if a rebuild is possible. Possibly a project for next winter though or in a few years.

 

Just a thought. https://www.shocksurplus.com/pages/shock-service

 

They did not have the Rapide on the dropdown but will send them an email.

 

Just spoke to them and they offer nothing for the Rapide.

 

Trying to find a local shop for a rebuild but this seems like I can't find any...

 

Update from my previous message about Nagengast in Poland. They said they can rebuild them (at least the Bilstein sport coilovers for the V8 Vantage which I inquired about). Cost is $250 per shock, plus around 600 shipping via Fedex (1500 - 1600). They said it will take two weeks for them to refurbish them. I think I'm going to bite the bullet on this one and be the guinea pig. Considering a new shock is 1500 - 2000 from what I can find. I'll probably pull my shocks this weekend and ship off next week. While it's not the Rapide ones, I'll keep everyone posted since it could be an option if it works.

 

Are the OEM struts mounted at the factory Bilstein struts?

 

I'm not sure. I don't know if Bilstein makes the standard shocks or if they are made by someone else. Multimatic I believe built the original standard shocks for the early model years, but I'm not sure if the standard shock supplier was switched once the sport pack was introduced.

 

If you have adaptive damping you have Bilsteins.

 

I found these replacement struts on a chinese website, but I am not sure about the reliability and quality...

 

I'd stay away from those.

 

Bilstein also got back to me and they don't do rebuilds themselves, they have performanceshock certified to do that (https://www.performanceshock.com/). The kicker here? It looks like they won't rebuild the shock if it is still in production (or highly recommend against it), which I think Bilstein still makes all of ours (I could be wrong there), so they might not rebuild it. You can read about it more here on their website: https://www.performanceshock.com/bilstein-service/

Also, prices are a little more and they have a few other service fees that seems to bring the price right in line with nagengast.

 

If a set of new Rapide shocks are around 10K in the US, what you would think is a reasonable price for rebuilt OEM shocks?