bilstein BTC purchase from Korea

[66nexus]

Not yet. Will definitely report back when I do

I can't wait (chomping at the bit over here lol)

 

[jalanjalan]

Installed the bilsteins. Took about 6-7 hours for the initial install.....had to reinstall the rears again today to adjust the height.

I've never done such a big suspension job. It was intimidating. It is not work for the weak I can tell you that. At times it seemed like something just wouldn't fit or I couldn't line things up properly but I just stayed positive and powered through it

I bought an electric jack and impact wrench from amazon for this job. Would not attempt it without these. Also need 19mm socket, breaker bar and torque wrench which I didn't own or need until now

You can download standard R&R instructions from the Hyundai website

First some pics:
Bilsteins with factory Hyundai top mount. Note: the nut is recessed and you need to hold the shaft with a wrench to loosen the top nut. I couldn't see how to do this and didn't want to fuss with a spring compressor. Local tire shop did that swap for me.

Electric jack, I love you:

Removed the end link for the swaybar from the strut lower mount (note these are meagsns being removed)

Supporting the lower knuckle with the jack removed the long bolt holding the lower strut mount on

Removed pins and castle nuts from upper knuckle links

Four bolts hold the upper strut mount in place

Old strut completely out

To be continued

 

[jalanjalan]

Ok moving right along;
Bilsteins attached to upper mount (not shown) and upper mount bolted in place. Rather bulky and awkward and semi heavy so it was a bit of a chore

Put the long lower bolt through the lower strut mount. Note that the front brake etc it splayed outward from the top still.


Huge test of hand strength to hold the knuckle up while pulling the link down with one hand to screw the castle nut on with the free hand.

Front is done
No not really....do the other side. Then take a break

 

[jalanjalan]

Rear shocks and springs are mounted separately not true coil overs
Used the electric jack to compress the lower control arm back up and insert long screw

Megan shocks and springs in place before removal


Before installing the rear springs.i matched their height to
The factory one. However the car was jacked up like a dragster.

So had to remove the springs and screw the spring mounts in such a ways that they were ad short as possible. That gives about1/4" lowering in the back

 

[1FstYota]

Awesome write up man appreciate the time and effort. So theres no way to unbolt the 3 nuts holding the top mount without taking that whole cast peice off?

Now go enjoy it and let me know how it feels compred to stock and megans

 

[jalanjalan]

Awesome write up man appreciate the time and effort. So theres no way to unbolt the 3 nuts holding the top mount without taking that whole cast peice off?

Now go enjoy it and let me know how it feels compred to stock and megans

Almost positive that's needed to get the old strut off and new one on.

 

[1FstYota]

Almost positive that's needed to get the old strut off and new one on.

I think your right, I was looking thru that little oval black cover and there is no way to get to it unless it's unbolted.

 

[jalanjalan]

I have no idea what that fender port is for! I can say that my dealer lost one of them doing my oil
Change. It was raining when I drove home. Opened the hood mud and crap all over the left inside fender and under the hood. Nearly had an OCD breakdown!

 

[jalanjalan]

review of bilsteins from Korea

So Installed these babies as outlined above. Its been a while since I had the stock shocks on, I've been on the megans for about 1200 miles now. I will just free associate my feelings on these three setups:

stock: amazingly smooth gliding like ride over perfect roads. ride is good 8/10, handling is poor 5/10, over minimallly rough roads there is a high frequency vibration like feedback through the wheel which is annoying. over sweeping bends at speed, you can feel the tires loose grip as the car shifts a tiny bit over imperfections. You get this weird feeback over road irregularities where the wheel fights you, and it seems the wheels control the steering wheel rather than the other way around. similar to my ancient BMW 320i (1983) but much more so.

Megans. still very smooth ride over perfect roads, nearly as good as stock. on any other road, ride is horrific 2/10 not family/spouse acceptable. Cannot take them on a trip in the car. Handling is sports car like, 9/10 with nearly completely flat turning and almost no body roll, very good traction. You do not feel the wheels loose their grip over road imperfections on sweeping bends, it is really glued to the ground. The steering wheel is in complete control. road imperfections do not fight back against the steering wheel like stock. inspires confidence with spirited driving. Inspires sense of impeding doom and sphincter clenching when approaching poorly installed manhole covers or dips. At maximum high setting, the car is still about 2" lower than stock and scrapes over every speed bump. front spoiler eats parking bumpers and the road when I pull out of my driveway. Part of the problems described above may be due to incompetent install by poop boys/possible damage to struts. who the hell knows. If it were a two seat sports car these shocks would be awesome.

Bilsteins: characteristics are more like the stock set up. Handling is definitely improved, from completely unacceptable to fairly good, maybe 7/10. Nowhere near as good as Meagans. Ride is slightly compromised. Not longer smooth as glass over perfect roads like the stock shocks, but also none of that vibration like annoying feedback on textured roads. The bilsteins otherwise feel like the stock ones, just sportier. as if you ordered a sport suspension on the car from the factory. manhole covers and dips are absorbed without fanfare. Car at maximum low setting (in back) rides 1/4" or so below stock all around. Fronts are set to middle setting. I think I will keep like this and see if its low enough. the only way to go lower on back is to removed the spring adjusting nuts from the upper spring mount, they are about 1/2" thick combined. To lower the front would be a complete R & R and taking the struts to a shop to have the springs compressed and the C-clamp moved to one of the next two available settings. I believe this method of height adjustment does compromise ride NOT like a true coilover where the springs is not compressed in order to adjust height.

Was it worth it? Probably not. I like messing with the car and this car is relatively inexpensive compared to those I've wasted money on in the past. This car replaced a Maserati. So I anticipated doing alot of tuning and budget for such. But bang for the buck....not so great. Cost nearly $2000 to get them (thank you Peter for your help!) and I spent 8 hours installing them myself. Legit speed shop quoted $800.

I'm satisfied and not looking to change again, but if you are wanting something between megans and stock, I think if lucky there may be some better options at some point that are more budget friendly, such as better coil overs than the megans.

Ok Thats it. I'm not an expert or weekend track warrier. so if not happy with the review, then sorry you lost 5 minutes of your life reading it LOL

PS anyone wanting to pick up my used megans in Orlando area can contact me via PM. I'm not sure they are not damaged by the poop boys "installation"

 

[1FstYota]

That was a good read, after reading your impressions on the bilsteins, it really sounds quite like the koni/eibach setup I had on my Celica. The European suspension tuning really emphasis on car control from rebound.

2k is quite a bit for this type of setup, but it does offer a "sportier" factory like ride which is what I'm after and a bit of lowering. Maybe I'll wait a bit to see if anything else comes out, I never liked anything from Megan or D1 type style budget coil-overs, the're shock valving to spring rate is mediocre at best.

Still need to finish the beast then I can mess with the Genny. Oh since you got a 5.0 how you like the power? I got a 3.8 for a daily commuter but now wonder what a R-Spec feels like, maybe my next trade in lol.

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[jalanjalan]

Well as I mentioned before this genny replaces a Maserati coupe. It's not as fast 0-60 but it feels nearly as fast and is much more practical obviously.

The more I drive with the bilsteins the more I like them. It does now feel solid stable like a German car.

The CAI sounds evil and I'm sure it's a but quicker by my stopwatch. No one needs to reply CAI doesn't do anything. It's ok. Just don't buy one.

 

[jalanjalan]

Bilstein ride height

 

[1FstYota]

That looks damn good, I was looking around and KW has a v3 setup for the Genesis coupe, based on the coupe being 3481 or so lbs I wonder how that setup would do on the sedan, but I don't plan on spending 2500 to find out lol

What model of Maserati did you have?

 

[jalanjalan]

Cambiocorsa coupe. 2004

Just got the car back from the shop where they put the Magnaflow on. Very mellow. I was worried. I doubt the spouse can even detect
The change. Planning in cat deletes soon

 

[Vince2]

Great job with an excellent write up. Your efforts, jalanjaln, convince me that the ideal setup (for me) exists as the car comes...it's a compromise: just enough "sport" to make it fun without ruining the drivability.

 

[path914]

Did you ever get the sway bars installed? Definitely curious about these...

 

[jalanjalan]

Great job with an excellent write up. Your efforts, jalanjaln, convince me that the ideal setup (for me) exists as the car comes...it's a compromise: just enough "sport" to make it fun without ruining the drivability.

The stock rspec suspension is amazingly smooth on perfect roads. Several passengers commented on that. That is lost with the bilsteins but there is definitely an improvement in handling. The car is dropped only a little. It doesn't look dropped. It looks like it should have come this way from the factory.

 

[jalanjalan]

Did you ever get the sway bars installed? Definitely curious about these...

I only installed the rear swaybar as it wax a piece of cake to do when installing the rear springs. The front looks like a bit if a hassle I plan to have the performance shop do it when I get my alignment done. The rear is 1mm bigger than stock. Dunno about front. They are made by neotech I believe in Korea. Not sure though. They could be taiwanese capillary.

Incidently. With orange sway bars red calipers yellow shocks and blue springs I'm beginning to wonder about the "orientation" of this car

 

[1FstYota]

So now that you had some road time and let it settle, how do you like them better? Worse? Still feel that way about whether it was worth the money?

 

[peter_302]

After installed the bilstein, I spend about 10 mins for install the rigid collar. Drive about
1000miles and I recommend this to everyone who want to make some change for their car, I will share that just 50USD,the hell to the heaven.

I tried to using my poor English to describe the evaluation of my car; The genesis is my third car which gives a lot of care for the modification. I’m sensitive for the ride, I make the decision to replace my Nissan qashqai to Hyundai genesis. And the result disappoint me due to after own the genesis about 1 week I found the jagging, vibration and wallow from my body, I’m a rational man that have accepts the good education in the campus. So I completely agree with Mark,vince , Gripper and Dasitor ‘s point of view, They describe the problem exactly and dedicate for some change for ride quality as the same as me.
and then I tried to find the solution from the internet and do a lot of research about the car knowledge.

Bilstein:
More balance ride
Some one ever create a thread talk about the over damp force for the genesis, and I’d like to describe the loose springs incur to unstable and wallow feeling include the nervous feeling from the steering wheel, After change to bilstein and adjust the ring to the top, the car like a tank.

Improve dynamic response from the bad road:
If using a curve describe the stock struts behavior, the ride like a sawtooth and I feeling I sitting at a cone or a water bed. After the changed, the sawtooth change to a wave. The different I can explain that the wave sometimes you can feel from the mind rather than taste from your body.

Rigid collar:
More solid body
Rigid collar can fixed (I use the word fixed instead of improvement because my car solid like a tank now) the jagging, vibration and wallow feeling.

Better brake:
I immediately feel the different when I step on the brake. Just as good as my Mercedes-Benz E class, no knock down, no walled, now I call taste the wonderful for 52:48.

Better high way ride.
Absolute improve the ride on highway, no vibration, no wallow and up and down move.

It’s difficult to describe the ride in on word, for me I want an ease and comfortable feel no matter when the car hit bump or joint, no floating feeling under the speed 180KM/H, I tried to envision myself to search what I want and get feedback from the 3000 miles, I give the overall score to 9.
And recently I raise my car to the height, and feel the car ride better now.

I want to give the compare with my 2011 Mercedes-Benz and stock genesis

Handling Controlling ride
Mercedes-Benz E300 8 8 8
My genesis with bilstein+rigid collar 8 9 9
Stock genesis 6 8 6