Does anyone have advice on upgrading the shock absorbers on a 4/4. Mine is a 2003 car , I have seen positive comments about the AVO ones I am looking to get a comfortable road setup rather than go racing. Thanks in advance. Bill
Hi Bill,
I would definitely recommend fitting Bilstein suspension wherever possible, Bilstein are highly experienced German suspension experts who supply to wide variety of car makers including Aston Martin and Porsche to name just two, and make no mistake the quality and durability testing automotive components must pass to be adopted by modern car manufacturers are extremely strict indeed.
I like to support small British companies where possible but when it comes to damping, the TuV accredited OEM suspension giant Bilstein gets my vote every time. I ran the latest spec Bilsteins on my TVR Chimaera with fantastic results and my 2013 Aston Martin V8 Vantage also benefited from Bilsteins damping. Earlier V8 Vantage models ran Multimatic dampers which are not well liked, however, once Aston Martin switched to Bilstein its widely accepted the handling and ride quality of the V8 Vantage was completely transformed.
For my Morgan I went to Dan White of SSL who had in the past worked with Bilstein to develop front and rear dampers for Morgans, I believe the front kits are still available but the rears are more tricky. However, I was lucky and Dan had one set of rears left on the shelf so I snapped them up, they have massive inbuilt bump stops and proper large diameter bushes made of suspension grade rubber that are far superior to the soft and short lived 'Cheesium' bushes that come with AVOs.
My advice would be to speak with Dan White at SSL who I'm sure has all the Bilstein numbers to get a set of rears made up at the UK Bilstein HQ, I would then fit his front end handling upgrade that comes with Bilstein dampers to give you Bilsteins all round.
