Bilstein PSS9

1366 Views 26 Replies 6 Participants Last post by carlfreddy, Oct 27, 2005

carlfreddy

Discussion Starter · Oct 23, 2005

Who has the PSS9's on their Focus, and how do you like them? (I'm looking for people who either autocross with them or track with on R-Comps)

Do you notice a difference when you adjust them?

These are the next shock I'm gonna try on the HS Mini KillA....

1 - 20 of 27 Posts

CharlesWA

· #2 · Oct 23, 2005

Are you going to weld spring perches onto the front? I don't think you can switch to a threaded body strut in stock.

Auto-X-ZTS

· #3 · Oct 23, 2005

What!? Did Koni hell freeze over???

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carlfreddy

Discussion Starter · #4 · Oct 23, 2005

Are you going to weld spring perches onto the front? I don't think you can switch to a threaded body strut in stock.

I don't even have to weld it on. I just have be able to show that whatever perch I use is the same height as stock.

And no, Koni hell hasn't quite frozen over. I'm still gonna try the DA Koni's, but I'm also gonna try the Bilstein PSS9's, as well as KYB AGX. (See a trend here? I'm gonna test out compression shocks...)

P-51

· #5 · Oct 24, 2005

What do you want to know about them?

The dampers are great, the springs, not so much. The spring rate is wrong for competition use. Too much front spring rate, they understeer heavily.

The damping adjustment seems to work well. Might have more range than the Konis, though it's hard to tell without a back to back. In typical Bilstein fashion, they have excellent body control damping, without being harsh.

carlfreddy

Discussion Starter · #6 · Oct 24, 2005

What do you want to know about them?

The dampers are great,

Perfect. That's all I'm interested in.

the springs, not so much. The spring rate is wrong for competition use. Too much front spring rate, they understeer heavily.

Doesn't matter for me, I'll be discarding the springs that come with them. Remember, I run in H-Stock.

The damping adjustment seems to work well. Might have more range than the Konis, though it's hard to tell without a back to back. In typical Bilstein fashion, they have excellent body control damping, without being harsh.

Although I've run on the Koni's, I can't really comment on their adjustment range (in off-the-shelf form) as the car didn't like any setting except full stiff.

carlfreddy

Discussion Starter · #7 · Oct 24, 2005

What do you want to know about them?

Actually, one more thing: Care to comment on their reliability and/or durability? Will I get multiple seasons out of them, or am I looking at having to freshen them up every year?

CharlesWA

· #8 · Oct 24, 2005

2

Threaded body strut with some sort of "adapter" from a 2.5" (or was it 3") race spring perch to the stock spring seems like a protest waiting to happen.

I guess you're going to need some certified engineering specs/drawings from Ford for that protest defense. Even then there's going to be some interpertation as to what is the "same height as stock". Then of course you have to factor in that they're going to be comparing dimensions of the strut body, compressed length, extended length, etc., etc. to those factory documents you provided.

I'm thinking a set of DA or custom valbed Koni struts for the front would be both cheaper and easier in the long run. Something custom and more exotic might also be a better option.

I can't remember if the PSS9's are rebound or a combined rebound/compression adjustable. I know the H&R PCS coilovers are single adjustable and that adjusts both compression and rebound.

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carlfreddy

Discussion Starter · #9 · Oct 24, 2005

Threaded body strut with some sort of "adapter" from a 2.5" (or was it 3") race spring perch to the stock spring seems like a protest waiting to happen.

And I'll point to 13.5.A #'s 3 and 4. (It's the Stock category suspension rules)

I've done my homework as it applies to the rules.

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carlfreddy

Discussion Starter · #10 · Oct 24, 2005

I'm thinking a set of DA or custom valbed Koni struts for the front would be both cheaper and easier in the long run.

You'd think, but I destroyed a set of front Koni's in under a season, and it's only gonna get worse once they get the DA conversion and get revalved. It's all that rebound on the soft stock springs that kills the konis.

Something custom and more exotic might also be a better option.

Well, after talking to Lee @ Koni, I'd wind up spending significantly more if I went with a custom set of 2817's as they would need to be serviced more frequently, not to mention the initial cost of something like that. He also said the adjustment spread from soft to hard would be less (area under the curve wouldn't be that much different at full soft vs full stiff when compared to a set of revalved Sports)

I can't remember if the PSS9's are rebound or a combined rebound/compression adjustable. I know the H&R PCS coilovers are single adjustable and that adjusts both compression and rebound.

The H&R's actually appear to be ~$300 more than the PSS9's. At least everywhere I've seen them.

Plus, as Team DFL pointed out to me, shop work on Bilstein's is significantly less than on Koni's

P-51

· #11 · Oct 24, 2005

I can't really say how long they would last for you. Call me stunned that you destroyed Konis in a season. Something seems wrong with that picture.

That being said, Bilsteins have the reputation of being the highest quality, most durable damper available. And the PSS9 sure feel like it. Quite heavy, very well made, inverted strut, they really do feel indistructible.

I'm not sure what it would be like running them with stock springs rates. The words "way overdamped" come to mind.

teamDFL

· #12 · Oct 24, 2005

I can't really say how long they would last for you. Call me stunned that you destroyed Konis in a season. Something seems wrong with that picture.

Call me the Oracle at Delphi (the Greek one, not the bankrupt one) as that is pretty much what I said would happen.

P-51

· #13 · Oct 24, 2005

Rich, why? What happened?

carlfreddy

Discussion Starter · #14 · Oct 24, 2005

Nothing happened, per se. Rich just called this from the first day I installed the Koni's.

carlfreddy

Discussion Starter · #15 · Oct 24, 2005

The words "way overdamped" come to mind.

Perfect. "Trick" the car into behaving like it has stiffer springs.

Remember that we do some rather un-orthodox tuning in Stock class.

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teamDFL

· #16 · Oct 24, 2005

Rich, why? What happened?

They are Konis, hence they have seals that don't seal. I have never seen a set of Konis make it through two seasons without one of them having some kind of leaking issue. Koni will often say it's not a problem, but since I actually understand how dampers work, that load of bovine excrement just doesn't fly with me. Oil is the working fluid in a damper and pressure leakage affects damping. The bigger problem is that the rebuild costs are absurd. If they were ~$60 like for a Bilstein, then I wouldn't think it as big a deal. But at $125 and up, you are spending $500 to get a fresh set of dampers.

teamDFL

· #17 · Oct 24, 2005

Nothing happened, per se. Rich just called this from the first day I installed the Koni's.

As much as I would like to say "I TOLD YOU SO", I won't. Your job now is to tell people about alternatives, just as I try to.

carlfreddy

Discussion Starter · #18 · Oct 24, 2005

I just thought of something, since the PSS9's are inverted, I don't think I'll be able to use them since I won't be able to use the OEM bumpstop, unless they have an internal bumpstop that is exactly the same as OEM (which I doubt).

P-51

· #19 · Oct 24, 2005

Rich, are you suggesting Koni yellows are junk?

Carl: they have an internal bumpstop, but it's not like stock.

carlfreddy

Discussion Starter · #20 · Oct 25, 2005

Carl: they have an internal bumpstop, but it's not like stock.

P-51,

Perhaps I can have Bilstein use the OEM bumpstop? Then I'd be legal. Methinks I'll be calling Bilstein tomorrow.

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