Reviews of Bilstein strut assembly

B4s are trash.

The B4s are better than the factory struts and shocks.

Extended strut in photo is missing a small spacer that goes on top of the piston before you add the first bushing perch, which basically just makes it the same as the standard strut on the left. I switched to the standards because I wanted to lose 1" of lift to bring me down to 2" of front lift. As you can see, there is nothing really "extended travel" about these. The reason for the added 1" of lift is because the perch is higher and adding more preload on the spring. After having these side by side, don't waste your time or money on the extended travel struts. Just get the standard struts, and get the appropriate spring for the weight and lift you want. Extended struts seemingly offer no benefit to down or up travel, and only make the ride harsher by compressing the spring even more.

No experience with the b16s but I went from lowering springs on stock struts to lowering springs on b8s and it made a world of a difference.

I installed B6 struts on all four corners, top mounts, end links, and new bump stops. The suspension arms were in good shape and didn't actually need to be replaced. My car has been garage-kept and has 47k miles on it, which might explain why the rubber was in decent shape. My bump stops looked much like yours, and when I took out the front struts, I could compress them with my hands. I was basically riding on the front springs with no dampening. With the new struts, the ride is much better, and the car feels excellent over bumps. The B6 struts aren't super stiff (about 20% stiffer than B4), and the ride is similar to a factory with OEM springs.

Difference with the new b4s was night and day vs the 20 year old ones.

I don't care for stiff springs. And, Bilstein shocks/struts have always been perfect in my vehicles(ride/longevity/handling).

Don't buy B4s unless you are selling the car soon. Extremely high failure rate past 1 year.

I’m using bilstein b6 with vogtland lowering springs… still somewhat harsh on my local shitty roads. Feels amazing on smooth roads though. I might consider swapping to b4 when my struts wear out because the comfort is really nice.

I tried Bilsteins B8 because they said AWD and FWD compatible, but nope and the holes won't align and same for some from Monroe. The spindle that accepts the struts won't align properly.