front shocks

[Guest Anonymous]

I am putting in new Bilstien's in the front and some one mentioned that I need to put oil in the strut before I put in the cartridge,if so how much and what is the reason. Thanks in advance for your help.

[Guest Anonymous]

air space between the inserts and the strut body. Wisdom is that oil conducts heat better than air, and it'll keep the shocks cooler. The original 2002 front shocks weren't inserts and used the interior of the strut housing as their outer housing. When these were dismantled for replacement, there was oil left inside. Some people left it in, others siphoned it out.

But unless you're doing some serious rallying and/or drive on cobblestones or Belgian blocks regularly, you don't need the oil. I've been running my Bilsteins "dry" for 20 years and they haven't worn out or overheated yet...

Cheers

Mike

[Guest Anonymous]

(nt)

[Guest Anonymous]

maybe just a light coating on the insert housing to prevent rust, but any water that condenses on that will wash the oil off eventually. the problem is that if you put in oil and it gets squished up to the top seals it will rot them and destroy the shocks. insert them dry and tight and dont forget to water the roses!!

-Rob

[Guest Anonymous]

Bilstien's instructions used to say very plainly not to use any fluid in the strut housings.

It's not uncommon for some other brands of strut inserts to reccomend oil or antifreeze inside the housing, to aid in transfer of heat from the action of the damper within the strut housing tube.

But the Bilstien struts that 02's use are "monotube" construction. In this monotube design, the damper is really built upside-down, where the piston works in the upper section of the strut (that's why Bilstiens have that fat chrome tube sticking up instead of the skinny rod). So the work and heat created is in the exposed upper part of the strut. The gains in thermal transfer in the bottom of the strut don't mean as much in a Bilstien monotube. I had been advised by Nigel at Bilstien Motorsport there were other concerns about adding oil to the housings, and that together with the understanding of where the heat actually was shed convinced me to skip the fluid addition. Now if these were Koni or Boge twin-tube, I would use a couple tablespoons engine oil.

[Guest Anonymous]

Thanks for the info and sorry to hear about the job thing,that happened to me about 8 years ago and now happens on a regular basis.thanks