Adjusting Bilstein Circlip - Step By Step?

[HuH]

Hi All,

I bought my R32 a couple of months back and I've just fitted up some new wheels. I'm keen to get the ride height down by 10-20mm, and I understand that I might be able to do that with the suspension that's already in there.

I bought it with Bilstein shock absorbers fitted but still with standard springs, I think. I was going to get new springs but I've been reading about the adjustable circlip on the Bilstein shocks. Do all Bilstein shocks have this adjustable feature?

Basically I'm hoping that someone can give me a really basic and step by step guide on what I need to do to move the circlip down a notch or two. Do I need to take the wheel off and pull the suspension apart to be able to get to the adjustable part, or can it be done much easier than that? I'm not even sure which bit I'm looking for. I know this will be an obvious question to some, but I've searched and can't find the answer here or on Google.

Would really appreciate some tips.

Thanks.

[nisskid]

no, not all bilstein's are adjustable. if u have circlip adjustment, its pretty simple for the 32, u have to take the wheel off, take the shock absorber and spring out (2 nuts on the strut tower, 1 on the bottom attaching it to the "hub"), compress the spring if the spring is captured (with spring compressors), lift the seat up, take the circlip out of the groove and put it on a lower groove, then drop the seat back down onto the circlip, uncompress the spring and put the shock and spring back in, do the nuts back up and put the wheel back on.

[HuH]

Thanks, that's helpful. Is it obvious when looking under the car whether the shocks are adjustable before I go and buy a spring compressor and take it all apart? What am I looking for? Just the grooves around the shock? Make sure it's not already adjusted all the way down?

[r32woohoo]

If you can see the bottom spring seat then it should be pretty apparent whether you have extra grooves or not.

You will be able to see them straight away.

Like nisskid said, they're not all adjustable. The adjustable ones you have probably seen around the forums had the circlip grooves machined into the shock body by the person that sold them.

[HuH]

I had a look and it's adjustable. There's an extra groove on both front and back. I'm off to get a spring compressor and give it a go.

[Trav33]

Is it possible to compress the spring and remove+reinstall circlip without pulling the whole shocker out?

[nisskid]

Is it possible to compress the spring and remove+reinstall circlip without pulling the whole shocker out?

it is, but i wouldnt recommend it, it will take longer than just undoing a few bolts. its very hard to get the spring compressors on the spring in the car, and even if u can somehow get it on, it will most likely be very uneven and the spring will compress uneven, im not sure if its enough force to damage the damper, but its not a risk id take. as i said, 2-3 bolts on the strut tower (depending on the car) and 1 at the bottom, takes like a minute to do, and make the rest of the process a lot easier and quicker.

[HuH]

Alright, I need some more help with this.

I went to give it a go today without taking the shocks out (limited time frame) but there's no way to compress the spring enough to get the seat at the base of the spring to move. So you're right about that. I'm willing to have a go at getting the shocks out, but I need some more info on the process. I'm told that to get the rear shocks out you need to get the back seat forward and remove the parcel shelf or something? This is info coming from Unique AutoSports in Seven Hills. They offered to do it but said it'd be 3-3.5 hours in labour. Can anyone shed some light?

Even better, if anyone in Sydney has done this and can help me with it tomorrow morning, that'd be fantastic. Please PM me. Otherwise, some info or pics on the process of removing both front and rear shocks would really really help.

[nisskid]

hey mate, ur rear strut towers in the 32 are in the boot. 3-3.5hr labour is quite simply ridiculous, it takes me roughly 20 mins to do without a proper hoist etc.

open ur boot, undo the 2 nuts (13mm if i remember right), undo the nut at the bottom (17 or 19mm), and take it off, seriously its not worth trying to do with it on the car.

[HuH]

Alright, I'll take another look today and give it a go. Thanks mate. I'll update after this next attempt.

[HuH]

Damn. So I spent nearly 10 hours on the car trying to get this job done today. What a massive pain in the arse. You were right about the rear shocks - very easy to remove. Well, at least one side was. The driver's side is proving to be a real pain, with the base of the shock being secured so tightly, I'm going to need to get a pro to loosen it with a rattle gun. The other side was a piece of cake - strut out, circlip moved, strut back in and fasten in about 20 mins. The fronts however, were an entirely different story.

To get the thing adjusted I had to remove the struts and take the whole spring off the shock and then hit the seat of the spring with a hammer to get it off the circlip before it could be moved. Then compressing the spring to get it back on the shock is a real damn hard job when the compressors are too short to reach over the whole thing, and they suck balls anyway and just bend. I ended up using giant clamps to get it done. It took hours and hours to do both fronts, as I've never done it before and didn't really know what I was doing.

I do have one question: at the top of the struts in the front, there was what looked like a red gasket between the underside of the mounting to the car body itself, and the top of the strut when it bolts in. The gasket had become really brittle and cracked, so I pulled it off on both sides and just put the suspension back in. Do I need to replace that gasket? Thanks.

[nisskid]

haha well at least u know what ur doing now, i guarantee u the knowledge u will have gained from doing it all will be very valuable down the track. with the tight nut, what are u using? try getting some leverage on it, a pole or something on the end of a socket wrench will do the job. also what spring have u got in there? sounds like they are stockies, they are an absolute prick to compress as they are so long and are fairly well preloaded in there.

i know the gasket ur talking about, im not sure how vital it is, i certainly dont use it anymore as it looked pretty screwed and insignificant, but u might want to get confirmation on that.