opelrsx

Hello, a friend asks me to help him replace shocks on his G500, which has 350k kms, still factory shocks I believe. 2002 model year. Looking for recommendations on shocks, nothing fancy, just hope to get a better ride. And should we replace coil springs as well? Thanks!

Plutoe

Stick with factory oem

opelrsx

Bilstein B4 OE replacement? I believe stock are Bilstein. How about the B6 4600? From the decription, B6 4600 looks better than B4 OE.

Any install videos/instructions available? Gotta make sure this is something we can do in the garage.

Floobydust

The best choice of shocks with be a function of what you plan to do with your G. Heavy off-roading demands a different setup than highway driving. Search the forum and there have been many recommendations, I personally went with the Bilstein OE replacement.

Absolutely inspect the springs when you do this - G springs are well known for breaking.

And I did my shocks in my driveway. It can be a bit tough to manipulate things and deal with rusty hardware, but it was doable.

shiann

The Bilstein B4 are OE replacements branded as Bilstein instead of Mercedes. Good cost savings there with no difference in product.

The B4600 are Bilstein's HD line of shocks, which will be stiffer than the OE B4 and come in yellow body/blue shock boot. How much stiffer? I cannot say. I would purchase through FCPEuro if I was going to go with either of those with their lifetime warranty. I just sold a set of used B46 Bilsteins for a good price so they do pop every now and then.

As Floobydust stated, for your normal dailly on-road driving with maybe occasional light off-roading, the Bilstiein B4 or B46 will be fine. Anything for more serious offroading or a more comfortable ride, you'll have to explore the more expensive options. And definitely check your springs.

Ian, Member "AlmostOrdinary" wrote up a good how-to to replace the shocks + springs in his build thread here: Post #71

opelrsx

Thanks guys. Just trying to restore OEM ride, so mostly like will go with bilstein B4 OEM. It has 350k kms, I believe the shocks are long "dead", lol... I think it would be ideal to replace the coil springs too at this milage.

Did search the forum, looks like the front is a bit hassle to replace. I've done quite a bit works on my Jeep wrangler and Ford raptor myself but know nothing about G. So looking for some detailed instructions to make sure I can do it.

shiann

Check out the post i linked above by Ian (Almostordinary). He has a pretty complete writeup of how to replace the springs and shocks. I'm using it now actually on my truck and it's super helpful. With OE part replacements, you should be ok and most likely won't run into any weird issues. The bottom shock bolts are tough to get off though due to rust, so make sure you have an impact or plan to cut the stud/nut off.