Opinions - Eibach B12 Pro-Kit Suspension Kit

[Jembo]

Suggest you keep hold of your front springs - found the eibach fronts too harsh on Kent’s pants roads, Bilsteins all round are fab & following some advice swapped the front springs back to OEM.... never looked back

Did you replace the rubber pads and bearings when you fitted the B12's.

Nope, they were still in almost new condition as were front lollypops

However I did replace the track rod ends, f/r drop links, rear top mounts & RTAB/RTAL’s with Rogue Engineering bits after some good advice on here

[afennell]

Just wondering how you got on with the Kit?

[Smeg]

Still waiting on the B12 kit! Bilstein keep pushing the date back every month! Has been on back order since January 15th!

[brownah]

Still waiting on the B12 kit! Bilstein keep pushing the date back every month! Has been on back order since January 15th!

Me too
Although I did order a couple weeks back and I have received one front shock

[Mos6689]

Hey all, I’m considering going down the KW route but concerned about possibly needing spacers to fit them. Seems to be a mixed bag, some use 10mm spacers, others don’t use any. I’ve just fitted a set of wheels that don’t allow me to have spacers added because they’re flush already, so this kind of kills it for me if I need spacers to fit KW’s. Anyone with KW’s that can advise? Don’t see the point in going down the club sport route because I’m not going to use this car on any track days.

On the flip side of the coin, no one seems to run spacers with the B12 kit. Is that correct? From reading I’m not keen on Bilstein because they don’t seem to be as reliable as the KW’s & obviously no adjustability unless I go up to B16’s. However again I’ve seen a couple of these sets fall flat & fail. General consensus is definitely the KW’s but will I be able to fit?

[Jembo]

I just wonder what what some people were doing with their Billy kits to make them fail, as I’ve certainly given quite a few sets good exuberant use & never had any issue

[Ed Doe]

@Jembo - mine were under 3 years old when they failed. They had done 25k miles daily driving, plus 3 trackdays - the Passenger front burst and oil all exited the damper, meaning it essentially became completely solid. Upon removal of the other front it wasn't looking in particularly good condition either. As a point of note I was pretty fastidious about keeping the dampers clean during winter months to avoid any corrosion or salt/grit damage. Dampers had sleeves over the pistons too.

Annoyingly the failure happened on a drive out with my wife, who spent the whole journey moaning about how tragically bad the ride was in the Z4

[afennell]

No experiance the Billy's on my Z, but i used to go through fronts on my mr2 turbo. Just put it down to lowered springs on oem shocls and our pothole uk roads. I also had one pop when lowering the jack, i was droping the jack slowely next minute oil all over the front strut.
THis is going back 5 years, but all shocks were purchased from Toyota.

[Mos6689]

No experiance the Billy's on my Z, but i used to go through fronts on my mr2 turbo. Just put it down to lowered springs on oem shocls and our pothole uk roads. I also had one pop when lowering the jack, i was droping the jack slowely next minute oil all over the front strut.
THis is going back 5 years, but all shocks were purchased from Toyota.

So nothing to do with Bilstein or KW? Just saying how crap Toyota struts are

@Jembo - mine were under 3 years old when they failed. They had done 25k miles daily driving, plus 3 trackdays - the Passenger front burst and oil all exited the damper, meaning it essentially became completely solid. Upon removal of the other front it wasn't looking in particularly good condition either. As a point of note I was pretty fastidious about keeping the dampers clean during winter months to avoid any corrosion or salt/grit damage. Dampers had sleeves over the pistons too.

Annoyingly the failure happened on a drive out with my wife, who spent the whole journey moaning about how tragically bad the ride was in the Z4

Yes yours was one I came across Ed that made me think, “nope not going B12.”

Hey all, I’m considering going down the KW route but concerned about possibly needing spacers to fit them. Seems to be a mixed bag, some use 10mm spacers, others don’t use any. I’ve just fitted a set of wheels that don’t allow me to have spacers added because they’re flush already, so this kind of kills it for me if I need spacers to fit KW’s. Anyone with KW’s that can advise? Don’t see the point in going down the club sport route because I’m not going to use this car on any track days.

On the flip side of the coin, no one seems to run spacers with the B12 kit. Is that correct? From reading I’m not keen on Bilstein because they don’t seem to be as reliable as the KW’s & obviously no adjustability unless I go up to B16’s. However again I’ve seen a couple of these sets fall flat & fail. General consensus is definitely the KW’s but will I be able to fit?

Anyone with a KWV3 setup that can help me answer this?

[afennell]

No experiance the Billy's on my Z, but i used to go through fronts on my mr2 turbo. Just put it down to lowered springs on oem shocls and our pothole uk roads. I also had one pop when lowering the jack, i was droping the jack slowely next minute oil all over the front strut.
THis is going back 5 years, but all shocks were purchased from Toyota.

So nothing to do with Bilstein or KW? Just saying how crap Toyota struts are


Yes the mr2 ran factory Bilsteins .

[Mos6689]

I did not know that! Confirms my position on Bilstein then, definitely staying away!

[RedUn]

Bilsteins are mono tube dampers, have a read up on the dual tube dampers like the KW, they are on a different level completely

Mos, it's worth while remembering when you lower the car your wheels tuck, often a flush wheel at oem height will be sunk in the arch once lowered.

[Mos6689]

Bilsteins are mono tube dampers, have a read up on the dual tube dampers like the KW, they are on a different level completely

Mos, it's worth while remembering when you lower the car your wheels tuck, often a flush wheel at oem height will be sunk in the arch once lowered.

I wasn’t planning to lower much at all to be honest. One of the factors in deciding on the KW’s was the fact it can be set closest to stock height. My old si coupe I lowered, only on eibachs & scraped the fangs so often it just became unpleasant to drive.

I’m still really torn on whether to go for the KW’s & if it doesn’t fit without changing wheels, potentially have to sell the new wheels & tyres that I’ve just spent over £1500 on or just stick with stock & keep the wheels. I don’t completely hate the ride but it certainly leaves me wanting, especially coming from a 981. God I love & hate this car so much at the same time!

From the reading I’ve done, the change in handling & ride is night & day with the KW’s. So I’m leaning towards just biting the bullet, hope they fit & if they don’t, sacrifice the wheels. As much as I love them, if I’m going to keep this car as long as I hope to, having a better suspension setup is definitely more logical in the long run.

[RedUn]

Bilsteins are mono tube dampers, have a read up on the dual tube dampers like the KW, they are on a different level completely

Mos, it's worth while remembering when you lower the car your wheels tuck, often a flush wheel at oem height will be sunk in the arch once lowered.

I wasn’t planning to lower much at all to be honest. One of the factors in deciding on the KW’s was the fact it can be set closest to stock height. My old si coupe I lowered, only on eibachs & scraped the fangs so often it just became unpleasant to drive.

I’m still really torn on whether to go for the KW’s & if it doesn’t fit without changing wheels, potentially have to sell the new wheels & tyres that I’ve just spent over £1500 on or just stick with stock & keep the wheels. I don’t completely hate the ride but it certainly leaves me wanting, especially coming from a 981. God I love & hate this car so much at the same time!

From the reading I’ve done, the change in handling & ride is night & day with the KW’s. So I’m leaning towards just biting the bullet, hope they fit & if they don’t, sacrifice the wheels. As much as I love them, if I’m going to keep this car as long as I hope to, having a better suspension setup is definitely more logical in the long run.

Interesting, if this helps, I came from a 987 years ago, the suspension is the worst part of the Z4m by far.

I decided to just go for it and see if the KWs would "fix it" if they didn't I would have sold the car as it was that annoying as standard, that was probably 8 years ago now and the zeds a keeper.

If your doing it, do the top mounts front and rear, rear trailing arm bushes and Anti Roll Bars then get it set up properly.

Sod the wheels, you need it to drive right first, you can tweak the looks after once you know your keeping it

[Mos6689]

Bilsteins are mono tube dampers, have a read up on the dual tube dampers like the KW, they are on a different level completely

Mos, it's worth while remembering when you lower the car your wheels tuck, often a flush wheel at oem height will be sunk in the arch once lowered.

I wasn’t planning to lower much at all to be honest. One of the factors in deciding on the KW’s was the fact it can be set closest to stock height. My old si coupe I lowered, only on eibachs & scraped the fangs so often it just became unpleasant to drive.

I’m still really torn on whether to go for the KW’s & if it doesn’t fit without changing wheels, potentially have to sell the new wheels & tyres that I’ve just spent over £1500 on or just stick with stock & keep the wheels. I don’t completely hate the ride but it certainly leaves me wanting, especially coming from a 981. God I love & hate this car so much at the same time!

From the reading I’ve done, the change in handling & ride is night & day with the KW’s. So I’m leaning towards just biting the bullet, hope they fit & if they don’t, sacrifice the wheels. As much as I love them, if I’m going to keep this car as long as I hope to, having a better suspension setup is definitely more logical in the long run.

Interesting, if this helps, I came from a 987 years ago, the suspension is the worst part of the Z4m by far.

I decided to just go for it and see if the KWs would "fix it" if they didn't I would have sold the car as it was that annoying as standard, that was probably 8 years ago now and the zeds a keeper.

If your doing it, do the top mounts front and rear, rear trailing arm bushes and Anti Roll Bars then get it set up properly.

Sod the wheels, you need it to drive right first, you can tweak the looks after once you know your keeping it

Yup that’s it, biting the bullet. Emailed Julian at Balance Motorsport & he sorted out a bit of discount.

@RedUn doing the top mounts & RTAB & ARB bushes, did you go for stock or aftermarket?