Suspension: What dampers?

[ma70]

Just shopping for new rear dampers for our S80 ('06 plate P2 manual/D5) and wondering who the OEM supplier was/what people would recommend? Cheers.

[AndyV7o]

Either Volvo or sachs/boge/bilstein/kyb/Koni if you want to buy quality.
Monroe should be good, but Ive seen a lot of people saying they have dropped in quality/standard of late, which, before I experienced these reports, had experienced myself first-hand after fitting a pair of Reflex dampers to my former car then finding it reacts oddly under braking... (One side has better compression damping than the other, thus one side 'sets' more than/before the other causing a little initial pull to one side which then evens out once each side has settled)

[ma70]

Cheers, my thoughts were with Sachs or Bilstein. KYB and Boge are a bit less cash but I have heard mixed reviews of KYB particularly, some seem to love them whereas others see them as rubbish.

I think for the difference of £20 or so I'll go with Sachs unless I hear otherwise/see a good price on Bilstein B4's. Cheers

[AndyV7o]

I have no experience of kyb myself, but apparently they make a huge amount of oe dampers. One would summise from this that even if they arent allowed to use the exact same valving, they should be similar and would be using decent internals...
Out of sachs or bilstein, bilstein every-time, if budget allows...

[MarvinMitt]

Happy B4 user here. They have a tad more lift than OE so ride will probably rise 2-3 mms with stock springs. I very much like the B4 and 16/55 tire match altough I haven't tried with 17" rims. 16/55 will soften the bad street and B4s will make highway speeds feel like nothing.

[bkulcsar]

I went for Sachs 3 years ago. The rear ones lasted two years only (about 55.000 km). The front ones are still going strong, not leaking oil.

[ASt85]

Originally Posted by ma70

I'll go with Sachs unless I hear otherwise/see a good price on Bilstein B4's. Cheers

Go for the Bilsteins; the last pair of Sachs shock absorbers I bought already had a misting of leaking oil on delivery from that well known "Eurocar....shed".

The Bilstein B4s I eventually bought from PFS must cost less than the shed supplied Sachs "shockers".

[ma70]

Ah, well that's a bit of a bummer as I've ordered some Sachs before I noticed these replies! Still, if they come already leaking then I will return them and go B4. Otherwise, I shall have my couple of years out of them and budget for replacement with Billies in the near future. Live and learn huh, ought to refresh the page before assuming there's no further replies!

On the Euro shed place, I'll actively avoid buying from them these days even if it costs me a few quid extra to go somewhere else. They're a bunch of clowns IMO.