Bilstein B4 Suspension question(s) + Brembo sidenote

[s40richard]

2011 R Design 2.0 Petrol S40 Cratus Factory alloys - 60k mileage.

The car has developed a 'knocking sound' on the rebound from smaller road bumps, not as much bigger ones - speed bumps etc - just more subtle ones.

I had it in for a check over the mechanic couldn't find anything obvious, but suspected the front shocks - specifically the nearside. No leaks from shocks though.

When I bought the car in 2018 I had 2 front springs, the lower arms (and bushes), top mounts and top bearings done. It hasn't done much mileage since then..

I got some prices for front shocks, starting with Volvo - which was a shock in itself.

SHOCK ABSORBER - £145.50 PLUS VAT EACH.
BEARING - £20.80 PLUS VAT EACH.
ANCHORAGE - £30.60 PLUS VAT EACH.
RUBBER BUMPS - £23.20 PLUS VAT EACH.

(not inc VAT and postage)[/I]

3 Volvo dealers, all pretty much the same. Including the recommended ones on this forum.

I noticed on here that the Bilstein B4s seem to get a few mentions - but I only had a quick poke around.

So, questions:

Anybody any ideas as to the source of the noise - granted a tall order, but any experience would be welcome.

And second, any recommendations as to new shocks if required.

I found a set of 4 Bilstein b4s for about £200, which compared to Volvo seemed pretty fair. Monroe do some aswell.

There are a number of other aftermarkets available, from recognized brands and unknown brands - to me anyway.. So, any thoughts welcomed.

Finally does anyone know who made the factory Volvo OEM ones?

Finally, finally I should add that I don't want any lowering or stiffening. The replacement springs were standard fit and the ride is fine as it is..

(Whilst I'm here, the brakes are looking a bit tired, especially the rear back plates.. I know Brembo do sets to fit.. Anybody with any thoughts on them, and especially if you have removed the back plates altogether - any drawbacks.. Volvo want daft money for new ones of them..)

Many thanks, Richard

[Kev0607]

Other things you could check would be;

-Balljoints
-Drop links
-Anti-rollbar bushes
-Track rod ends

With regards to shocks, Monroe & Bilstein are very good brands. Meyle are also another brand to consider, as are Sachs. I believe Sachs were the original supplier to Volvo & would be more matched to the comfort end of the spectrum. Monroe & Bilstein are still comfortable, but slightly firmer. If you want comfort, then Sachs is probably your best bet.

I'm not sure if you mean you're brakes are looking tired, or the protective plates are? Anyway, just in case you mean pads & discs, I'll continue...

For normal driving, I wouldn't bother with Brembo brakes. Unless you're driving around a race track, then I don't really see the point in fitting Brembo's because they're very pricey. The discs & pads you buy from Volvo are adequate for normal use & that's what I'd stick with, if you want to use genuine parts that is.

There's plenty of alternative aftermarket brands you could choose from. Pagid (Used on many German vehicles as OE standard) or Mintex (Used on Mercedes as OE standard) to name but a few. I've personally used Pagid & found them to be very good value & provide decent performance. Yes, they aren't Brembo's, but I don't expect them to be. The Pagid's were cheaper in comparison to Volvo ones at the time & certainly much cheaper than Brembo. I decided to give Pagid a go in the end & members of my family have used them in the past on multiple vehicles with good reviews. There's many differing views on which brand of brake discs/pads to use, many will say use x brand, others may say another... You'll get that no matter where you go. Fit what suits your budget & take into consideration what the car is used for. Pagid's are fitted to £100,000 S Class Mercedes & SUV's as standard from the factory, so they're certainly good enough to use in my opinion.

With regards to the brake backing plates, I'm not sure about what's other options are available as a direct fit. I wouldn't suggest removing them totally though, as they do help stop debris etc getting onto your brake components. I'd much rather the backing plate to take the abuse from the water, dirt etc on the roads than the brakes themselves!

Another option would be to spray the backing plates, ideally with some kind of rust protection spray. I did mine by removing as much rust, dirt etc as I could & then coating them with spray. They turned out much better than I imagined & it saved me buying new ones! Obviously, this can only be done if the originals aren't falling to pieces. They have to be in a certain state of repair so to speak.

[Bashy]

I too have slight knocking from smaller hits, I will be sticking on 2 control arms with ball joints too as that's what was on the MOT advisory anyway, certainly not coming from the shocks, so deffo sommat else to consider, needs to go back on the ramps and checked with a decent pry bar before you buy shocks, double check.

I have read on here Kev that Mintex do budgets and they ain't too clever?

I myself went pre-budget and I got 20% off (paypal thing at present on certain items) so cost me all in £42.67 (practically stole them lol), these were Eichers, 305mm, they even came next day, not meant to be here til Friday, not so sure I like the idea of the 500 mile bedding in lark, I thought that was a thing of the past, evidently not All I gotta do is fit them its never simple with me, sommat always goes wrong lol anyway, carry on.....

[Welton]

I believe there's an unfortunate characteristic knocking with our Ford suspension, I've replaced 75% of all of my front and rear sussy over the last 11 years and there's still an odd sound from the rear end.

The only bits I haven't done yet are the rear trailing arm bushes and the rear damper top mountings - but plan on doing this soon.

Lots of complaints on here about suspension noise, I think the fashion for low-profile tyres doesn't help and maybe transfers some of that shock into the suspension but as a 'noise'.

B4's - these suit the S40 perfectly for the right price, mine have been on 5 years now. They are approx 15% 'stiffer' than standard which you don't really notice having been riding on knackered dampers; and at higher speed offer superior stability and ride comfort. The standard Volvo dampers are terrible and completely trashed by 50k miles usually - again I suspect Ford's meddling on price. When the B4's were fitted the front end came up by about 10mm which looked much better and more 'factory fresh' than the knackered Volvo dampers and suited the car perfectly - it just looked 'right' again.

One main feature of knackered dampers is when you drive over a large pot hole - the wheel feels like it's been fired down into it by the road spring because the damper isn't controlling the compression and rebound - once replaced with B4's it's so much more civilised.

[Quarryscapes]

Bilstein B4s are OEM level shocks so no worries about harshness there.

Another thing to look out for RE knocking on the rear is the dust collar over the rear shock, it is basically hung from the bump stop, as the bump stop perishes the metal dust collar clatters against the body of the shock absorber. Made a horrendous din when going over painted lines and rumble strips etc in my Mazda 3 which uses the same setup.

[s40richard]

Thanks to all for the info, very thorough..

Typically I've just been out in it and I couldn't hear anything; but I expect that was a fluke..

Plan at the moment is to keep an ear on things and see how things progress.

I'm assuming my mechanic had a good poke around at all the likely candidates referred to; but I'll double check with him to make sure he did the complete rounds will the pry bar.

As for the brakes, they aren't a priority according to the MOT a few months back. The backing plates are pretty knackered, I had considered a re-paint but the practicalities of removing, painting and re-fitting is beyond my mechanic skills considering the rest of the brake set up are in the way.

I have a useful brother-in-law who could assist but even still it would be a faff.

Does anyone know of any decent after market backing plates.. Volvo quoted about 50quid a corner?!?

Reckon I'll just see how it plays out re the knock and look at the brakes as an ongoing project if and when stuff starts getting removed from the front set up and access is easier.

Thanks again, all.. It's much appreciated.

[Welton]

I can't imagine anyone developing the tooling to manufacture aftermarket backing plates as there's no market for them, mine are still 'ok' at 15 years old.

[FunkyMelon]

For what it's worth I had a knock on the rear of mine and it was only the anti roll bar bushes - Nice cheap fix

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by s40richard

Thanks to all for the info, very thorough..

Typically I've just been out in it and I couldn't hear anything; but I expect that was a fluke..

Plan at the moment is to keep an ear on things and see how things progress.

I'm assuming my mechanic had a good poke around at all the likely candidates referred to; but I'll double check with him to make sure he did the complete rounds will the pry bar.

As for the brakes, they aren't a priority according to the MOT a few months back. The backing plates are pretty knackered, I had considered a re-paint but the practicalities of removing, painting and re-fitting is beyond my mechanic skills considering the rest of the brake set up are in the way.

I have a useful brother-in-law who could assist but even still it would be a faff.

Does anyone know of any decent after market backing plates.. Volvo quoted about 50quid a corner?!?

Reckon I'll just see how it plays out re the knock and look at the brakes as an ongoing project if and when stuff starts getting removed from the front set up and access is easier.

Thanks again, all.. It's much appreciated.

I've had a search for you. I can only find brands that I've heard of, but they're on the cheaper end of the spectrum. I don't think the "big players" selling top quality parts like Lemforder, Meyle etc manufacture brake dust shields. You're looking between £7-£12 per dust shield depending on the brand you go for. The brands I've come across are Stark & Ridex - I've heard of both & they probably aren't the best brands admittedly, but its only a dust shield & they seem much cheaper than the Volvo ones. Whether they'll last or not is another story, but they might be worth a try at a fraction of the cost to what you've been quoted.

You do need to measure the diameter of your discs though because the shields vary in size, so that's certainly something to consider before purchasing anything.

Here's the website I used:

www.buycarparts.co.uk

Put your reg number in, then search for "Brake dust shield" & several come up - Just be careful to check which axle the shield is for. Alternatively, phone Volvo & see if they'll give you the part numbers for the axle dust shields for the front & rear. Then it'll be easier to track the exact ones you need because you have the original part numbers to cross reference against other brands.

Originally Posted by Bashy

I too have slight knocking from smaller hits, I will be sticking on 2 control arms with ball joints too as that's what was on the MOT advisory anyway, certainly not coming from the shocks, so deffo sommat else to consider, needs to go back on the ramps and checked with a decent pry bar before you buy shocks, double check.

I have read on here Kev that Mintex do budgets and they ain't too clever?

I myself went pre-budget and I got 20% off (paypal thing at present on certain items) so cost me all in £42.67 (practically stole them lol), these were Eichers, 305mm, they even came next day, not meant to be here til Friday, not so sure I like the idea of the 500 mile bedding in lark, I thought that was a thing of the past, evidently not All I gotta do is fit them its never simple with me, sommat always goes wrong lol anyway, carry on.....

Hi Bashy,

I've used Mintex in the past & found them decent in terms of braking performance, but I did find that they were slightly noisy in comparison to Pagid. That's probably to do with the material they (Mintex) are made with, maybe its different to Pagid? All things considered, Mintex were fine, but were a bit noisy... Not bad, but you could hear it at the same time. I'm not sure about the budget ones they do though.

With regards to Eicher discs & pads, I don't think they're good at all. Sorry to be straight to the point, but I've put a set of them on a Ford Transit recently. I decided to go with these because they were cheap & its an older vehicle with high mileage, so it wasn't worth spending too much on & they were the only ones available without having to keep it off the road until more reputable brands were in stock (It couldn't be off the road much longer, so that wasn't an option). There's nothing wrong with the brakes, as they're sharp in terms of response when you press the pedal. They just squeal like mad though, even with all the slider pins, pads etc generously greased!

Don't be surprised if the squealing does your head in! I hope they don't of course. From my perspective, I wouldn't use Eicher again for this reason. New brakes squealing is not good, just an annoyance really. They've been 'bedded in' properly, all surfaces are greased like I said... I've done plenty of brake jobs in my time . They're just made with poor materials & I wouldn't use them again for this reason.

I hope you have a better experience than me though. Maybe I got a bad batch from Eicher!

[Bashy]

Originally Posted by Kev0607

I've had a search for you. I can only find brands that I've heard of, but they're on the cheaper end of the spectrum. I don't think the "big players" selling top quality parts like Lemforder, Meyle etc manufacture brake dust shields. You're looking between £7-£12 per dust shield depending on the brand you go for. The brands I've come across are Stark & Ridex - I've heard of both & they probably aren't the best brands admittedly, but its only a dust shield & they seem much cheaper than the Volvo ones. Whether they'll last or not is another story, but they might be worth a try at a fraction of the cost to what you've been quoted.

You do need to measure the diameter of your discs though because the shields vary in size, so that's certainly something to consider before purchasing anything.

Here's the website I used:

www.buycarparts.co.uk

Put your reg number in, then search for "Brake dust shield" & several come up - Just be careful to check which axle the shield is for. Alternatively, phone Volvo & see if they'll give you the part numbers for the axle dust shields for the front & rear. Then it'll be easier to track the exact ones you need because you have the original part numbers to cross reference against other brands.



Hi Bashy,

I've used Mintex in the past & found them decent in terms of braking performance, but I did find that they were slightly noisy in comparison to Pagid. That's probably to do with the material they (Mintex) are made with, maybe its different to Pagid? All things considered, Mintex were fine, but were a bit noisy... Not bad, but you could hear it at the same time. I'm not sure about the budget ones they do though.

With regards to Eicher discs & pads, I don't think they're good at all. Sorry to be straight to the point, but I've put a set of them on a Ford Transit recently. I decided to go with these because they were cheap & its an older vehicle with high mileage, so it wasn't worth spending too much on & they were the only ones available without having to keep it off the road until more reputable brands were in stock (It couldn't be off the road much longer, so that wasn't an option). There's nothing wrong with the brakes, as they're sharp in terms of response when you press the pedal. They just squeal like mad though, even with all the slider pins, pads etc generously greased!

Don't be surprised if the squealing does your head in! I hope they don't of course. From my perspective, I wouldn't use Eicher again for this reason. New brakes squealing is not good, just an annoyance really. They've been 'bedded in' properly, all surfaces are greased like I said... I've done plenty of brake jobs in my time . They're just made with poor materials & I wouldn't use them again for this reason.

I hope you have a better experience than me though. Maybe I got a bad batch from Eicher!

Cheers for the heads up, I really hope they don't, even the slightest of squeal will do my swede on for sure, they will come straight off if that's the case thanks again...