Do you like the allroad's adjustable suspension but hate the ride quality in level 1?
I bought 16.9102R for $7.00 /pair on ebay.
First - it is pretty simple and straightforward to install
Second - Cost effective, simple solution to bottom out thunk and stable level 1 driving.
To install remove air springs, and insert bump stop on shock shaft.
Remove Pinch Bolt
Magic the shock to the ground and remove the shock mounting hat.
Admire the horribly dusty wheels, from OEM Pads that I haven't replaced yet. Then look at the shaft.
The diameter of the shaft varies because Arnott has an adaptor mounted to the end of the shock. So I had to make 12mm polyurethane stretch over the 18mm adaptor, didnt work
I drilled the hole of the bumpstop in a vice to remove enough material to slide it over the adaptor.
Here is the bumpstop streached over and resting on the Arnott shock body adaptor. nice seat for the bump stop to ride on
Cleaned up the shock prior to reassembly, nothing like a clean shock, also I regreased the orings
All done, and back to Level 1 as normal, I have not 402'd it to rest on the bumpstop yet, and i dunno if I want to. ALSO the compressed shock length is slightly long, which means that installing the lower shock bolt is a difficult task. Be warned I used a an alignment pin and a prybar to get the bottom bolt in. Doable but a pain.
So I did driver's side, and drove around hitting pot holes, I shuddered every time I hit one on the Passenger's side because I could feel the whole car bottom out, but I could not get the same sound/feeling from the drivers side. So from a purely mechanical/drivability the $7 bumpstops are worth $1000 to me. I then finished the other side and drive the car on the same route intentionally hitting all the potholes that made me shudder before. GUess what I have good ideas sometimes and this is one of them.
After I was pleased with the bump stop effect I looked for a couple low speed corners that I could compress the suspension enough to ride on the bump stop around the corner. Lots of people out but I did some 25mph turns in a target parking lot. front end stayed planted but tire began to squeal. Maybe a bit of understeer as the spring rate increased.
My final opinion summary is that the bilsteins are not internally bumped sufficiently for the weight of the allroad or arnotts adaptors limit travel. either way an additional bump stop helps tremendously by eliminating the thud, thawk and thunks that level one presents on city roads. I will comment later if I have any other issues. THe ones I used are for a honda prelude rear. I have a second set, that I will mail if someone wants them. I think you could find a better suited set with a little more research. but these definitely work well once they are mounted.
The car feel much better on level 1.
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