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Bilstein and Moog front and rear installed

Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2017 4:50 pm
by jz39
Just got both front and rear Moog springs and Bilstein shocks installed along with all new oem spring seats and isolators.

Overall the height is slightly raised compared to stock and very even front to back. Looks good.

There was one oddity in the install--it seemed as though the front shocks were missing a washer assembly which would not allow it to tighten down completely. We had to reuse the oem dust boot (getting rid of the Bilstein blue dust boot) with the cover assembly bound bumper still in it to make a correct fit. Weird. Not sure if this part was missing or you were supposed to reuse the oem boot or what.

Also, a bunch of stuff had to be cut out during the install, including some of the shocks, and LOTS of bolts were seized up. I warn you not to go into this lightly.

Ride quality is very good--no real improvement in lateral sway from the stiffer springs (not really expected as this is the job of the sway bars) and whatever small benefit there might have been is likely lost with the additional ride height.

Overall, ride is a bit firmer, less floaty and more composed and the truck looks better. My old suspension had 80k miles on it and if I had to put a number on how much better the Bilstein / Moog combo is vs a 2011 LE oem suspension, I would say it is better by about 20%. Not a HUGE difference, just a bit of an upgrade in all aspects.

Posted: Fri Apr 28, 2017 6:51 am
by smj999smj
The washer deal is pretty common on replacement front struts. I even ran into that with KYB, which is the OE strut manufacturer. You can now get a complete strut assembly (quick-strut) from KYB, which saves a lot of trouble.

Posted: Sun May 14, 2017 3:31 pm
by merrion13
Just finished the same setup on our '08 V6. Ours had just turned 100K and I was sick of the poor quality of the stock setup.

We ended up also doing new sway bar bushings and strut mounts, but ride is definitely improved and the vehicle feels a lot more composed. Also noticed a mild ride height, maybe a half inch or so.

Overall, very happy with this combination.

Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2017 6:18 pm
by jz39
After a number of months, happy to report back that the Moog/Bilstein set up still gets positive reviews from me. With the springs being stiffer, I did lower my psi from 35-36 to 33-34 and the ride quality is much better. At 35-36 the ride was definitely a bit more harsh then stock. With the slightly lower psi the ride is very good.

Bilstein Shocks

Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2018 6:42 pm
by sportynightster
To the OP

Did you install the 5100 Bilstein up front with 4600 in the rear?