hunter6

iTrader: (3)

I'm trying to determine my needs and looking hard at the Bilstein PSS/PSS9/PSS10 family of coil-overs. I see a review or two but nothing too comprehensive. Can anyone explain the differences between the models. Also looking hard at BC BR.

Thanks,
Justin

P.S. Car will be used as dd with occasional HPDE duty

Voboy

iTrader: (58)

pss - no shock adjustment
pss9 - 9 levels of adjustment (according to Gsedan35, only half the range is actually usable (he has shock dyno'd them))
pss10 - 10 levels of adjustment and small changes in the damper valving.

More info here: http://g35driver.com/forums/brakes-s...w-updates.html

rxkevin

iTrader: (66)

The PSS10s also have a larger **** for adjustments.

hunter6

iTrader: (3)

Wow...great resource...thanks for that...I need to search over there as well.

Justin

Sylvan Lake V35

iTrader: (23)

I have the PSS9 they are sweet they ride nice and handle great. My biggest fear with coilovers was a harsh ride but they are nice. A little soft for the track some guys swap out the rear progressive springs for a stiffer set. I find mine are fine as is.

PGT313

iTrader: (6)

I have the PSS and i think the car should have come like this. It's stiffer than stock but so much less "BOOM". One of the best mods i've done. Adam at Z1auto knows all about them if you have any questions.

-Peter

cliffrlp

iTrader: (15)

I love my PSS's ... I have no need for the adjustable feature. BUT I love my ride!! All though like i've said in some other threads...wish rear could drop some more!!

I got mine from Adam at Z1...good guy!!

DerekW

iTrader: (16)

Bilsteins are German engineered and TUV certified. It can be serviced, revalved, or modified at their U.S. facility or at many other authorized centers.

I purchased my PSS for purposes similar to yours: DD with occational track/autoX. I had them revalved to match stiffer linear springs. Review is coming after some track time But I have only heard positive things from racers with personal experiences.

HiHo_Silver350

iTrader: (6)

same here. I have the pss9 and it rides great. But again, I wish the rear was able to go lower. I was looking for some springs (I forget which company makes the springs for Bilsteins) but haven't been looking hard enough.

350Zenophile

iTrader: (20)

Haven't had mine on for too long...generally a great ride. Found the rear a bit bouncy on certain sections of pavement but I have it lowered as far is it will go and haven't had a chance to experiment too much with the damper settings which may be the issue.

Going around corners fast the rear can get a bit wallowy which I attribute to the progressive spring since I didn't have that with my linear rate Hotchkis. So I can definitely see replacing those for any semi-serious track work.

M1r4cL3

iTrader: (8)

I am looking at swapping out the springs on a set of PSS and getting the necessary revalve work also.

Since I kno I'm not the first to do this, can some one tell me the specs I need to give to a spring manuf. to fit the PSS systems? I want spring rates of 560/448 lbs/in (10/8 km/mm). Not sure about other specs like spring length and ID or OD.

DerekW

iTrader: (16)

To be cost effective, I avoided custom rates and got standard springs from Hypercoil. They are 70mm ID 8" length @ 500lbs front, and 2.5" ID 7" length @ 500lbs rear. They were $250 shipped from shock-shop.com.

You can get 550/450lbs from Hypercoil. The small difference from your goal of 560/448 is negligible unless your car is fully prepped. To make use and take advantage of the huge selection of standard springs, the rear mid-link had to be swapped with SPL pieces. This gives me complete freedom with rate combos.

The Bilstein is simple to revalve, but the design of the valving requires a professional tuner. I went with Fat Cat Motorsports and a set of PSS from Adam @ Z1. Bilstein and their service centers will revalve for $75 per shock. FCM is a little more, but definitely worth the money. If you are looking for REAL adjustability, do not get the PSS9/10. FCM has remote canisters in late stage development that should do this much better.

My review is coming up in the next few weeks. But I will recommend FCM to anyone. The street ride is firm but the comfort is very impressive! It's more comfortable than my OEM setup with Swift spec-R @ 336/364. You hear more of the road imperfections than feel them, and the GF agrees. Speed through low to mid speed corners increased beyond my comfort level for the street. High speed cornering is to be tested on track next month at Thunderhill.

Derek

Z1 Performance

iTrader: (564)

look forward to it Derek, should be a sweet setup!

DerekW

iTrader: (16)

Thanks for the PSS Adam!

M1r4cL3

iTrader: (8)

Thanks for answering my Q's.

Off topic, but what org are you signed up to do T'hill with??

I'll be @ Thunderhill next month too ... in the B group with TEAM Racing on Dec. 11

M1r4cL3

iTrader: (8)

Did FCM provide any special services that Bilstein does not?

It seems somewhat counter intuitive that FCM would be able to revalve a Bilstein shock better than Bilstein themselves.

Why did u choose FCM?

Gsedan35

iTrader: (10)

No.

Do not use Fatcat. He talks a great talk and has a ton of happy Miata customers, which is why I even gave him the time of day. I used him and paid for it in more ways then one.


1. He (Shaikh) does not have a store or a shop like the web site suggests. The store address is a UPS store and the shop he does his revalves in is a bench on the left side of his dads garage (been their 3-4 times) He has one assistant (Paul) and his girlfiend sometimes answers the phone.

2. He has very little experience with the 350Z/G35. He has this algorithm he's mapped out for the Miata he tries to apply to the FM platform, but it doesn't work. What I was sent away set to in the rear after the 2nd revalve was absolutely horrible, it was a combination of looking at Pss shock dyno values and the Miata based algorithm.


3. He is not an honest person. He took $600 from me for a service, to revalve 350Z Pss9 coilovers for 560/500 rates. A month or so after sending the $600, I get this phone call saying he had a really hard time with Bilstein's damping adjustment system; he'd spent 8-10 hours on them. Then he tell's me he had to kill the damping adjustment on the front, that's right fixed damping. But he's had a history when it suited his business needs of arguing against the need for adjustable dampers, but I still protested because it wasn't what I signed up for and it effectively KILLED being able to resell the setup (more on that latter). Instead of looking at his inability to make the dampers work as a learning experience and offering me a refund I get strung along for another revalve and then an outright refusal to fix them while he was standing right in front of me in person. Again, he talks the talk really nicely and theirs all those happy Miata guys. That made his refusal really hard to take, especially when I reviewed my voice mail from him 2 weeks prior saying he got my email and I should come to the shop so he could revalve me again.

4. Remember what I said about FCM not having much experience with the FM platform. I sold my FCM revalved setup to another G35 owner for a loss (who would pay full price for non adjustable front dampers that were also something I considered a failure). I sent them directly to Bilstein to be dyno'd. They revalved them and commented that they could not see what Fatcat's problem is with making the adjustment system work. And yes I did fully explain what we saw on the dyno when the adjustor's were turned open to closed.

The new owner reports that he is extremely happy with what Bilstein did to revalve them. Which should not be a surprise to me since I had considered using them in the first place. See, back in 2000 I had Bilstein do a revalve for me and I was extreamly happy with the resluts. I should have gone with them in the first place.

M1r4cL3

iTrader: (8)

^ Wowsers! An interesting precautionary tale.

Hopefully, for Derek's sake, the proprietor of FCM has since become more skilled in valving FM platform Bilsteins.

I don't see myself straying from my original plan of letting Bilstein revalve a set of Bilsteins.

DerekW

iTrader: (16)

I'm surprised by Jim's experience with FCM. But I will refrain from making a conclusion before testing. The results will be posted and I will stand by it regardless of the outcome.

Derek

M1r4cL3

iTrader: (8)

Finally pulled the trigger and purchased Bilstein PSS yesterday. Got a black friday deal.

Prolly gonna hold off on the re-valve and re-spring until I find a solution for the rear spring mount. At this point, I don't see myself spending that much for SPL mid link being that I already have plenty camber/toe adjustment (SPC). I just need rear spring height adjustment hardware. Anyone have any suggested solutions?

I'm currently riding around on RS*R springs on cut-down rear spring mounts. Those will probably stay in place for now ... they'll just be mated to superior dampers than what I'm using now (tokico).