eugeni74

I'm replacing the front original Sachs with Bilsteins and noticed that the two sides are adjusted differently. One of the springs have two 7mm spacers, and the other side doesn't have any spacers, creating a 14mm different preload. Is this normal or was it a mistake? I bought the car used, but they look like original shocks, not sure if someone has changed them. Bilsteins have those adjustable circlips, and it makes sense they are to be equal on each side. Can anybody help with manufacturer's distance from center of bottom mount to top edge of spring? Is it supposed to be different? 14mm more on one side sounds a lot.

samaritrey

I doubt that they would have different spacers have you checked ECS to see if it says something about spacers only on one side?

eugeni74

Thank you for the reply! Can you please advice how to check ECS? I see at the website below there is one spacer, item 15. Wonder if someone put two on one side to make the alignment... Will spring preload affect alignment?

Or could the weight of the car be not evenly distributed, and it was done on purpose...

I installed both shocks with the same height, equal to the higher one with the two spacers. The car sits now 12mm on passenger side and 16mm on drivers side higher than before, drives well, much better than before shock replacement, but if I can find out the factory setup distance would be great. If not, I can adjust both sides as if there was one spacer, about 7mm less preload on each side, and then see if I can adjust the alignment if needed.


http://www.mbpartsworld.com/images/p...027.110412.jpg

http://www.mbpartsworld.com/showAsse...sembly=1092539