Suspension refresh, H&R coilovers, rebuild or replace?

[Javi Cooper]

I will be refreshing all suspensions bushings soon and my shop is convinced that my H&R coilovers belong in the trash. They claim that they're just not that good performance and durability wise and to go with something else like PSS9's and up. I don't want to drop another $2k-3k on coilovers if I don't have to but with all the clunking and squeaking going on under my car I can't tell if my coilovers are bad. My questions are:

1. Are H&R's that horrible? I've heard stories of them not lasting very long, like 20k miles or so. Digging through the PO's threads in here my coilovers are around 11 years and 30k miles old. They've only been tracked once and autoX three times. Time to replace them?

2. Are they worth rebuilding? Seems like not many people do it, and the only place I've found that does it actually discourages you from having them rebuilt. My shop says they're hard to disassemble and rebuild and that's why the service is more rare and expensive.

3. While at it, can anyone recommend a good, affordable, basic suspension refresh package? Which are the most essentials parts? I'm thinking Elephant's basic refresh package (minus struts) at $1,584. Anything else out there? I just want to restore ride quality and eliminate noises and sloppiness on the street - not looking for performance upgrades or anything. TIA

[Javi Cooper]

No love for H&Rs? Anyone knows where I can get them rebuilt?

[SCCA_AX]

Half hearted Google shows H&R uses Bilstein shocks. So anyone that can rebuild Bilstein *should* be able to do it. Additional Google for specifically H&R shows Performance Shock, Inc will rebuild H&R for $200/ea. It kinda depends on how the shock body is sealed, though.

While not 100%, a worn shock typically should not cause clunking and squeaking. That is normally strut mounts (the top plates.) Worn swaybar mounts are also a common source for those types of noises. I'm typically a fan of locating and identifying a specific worn part, rather than throwing a bunch of often unnecessary new parts at a car. When it's a shop doing the work though, it does often make more sense to have them only take it apart once and do everything.

[Javi Cooper]

thank you. Performance Shock, Inc is the company I mentioned that will do the H&R rebuild but at the same time recommends that you buy new ones if possible. They're an authorized H&R rebuilder too. I wonder how subpar the results are that they have to recommend their clients NOT to buy their services

I found out about H&R using Bilsteins too and wondered why H&R's are so complicated to rebuild. Even H&R themselves won't touch their own used coilovers. One reason I read somewhere is that H&R doesn't release specs of their internal parts so no one knows what parts to rebuild them with. Could be?

I did find an old thread saying that Bilstein will rebuild H&R's at a reasonable price so I went to their site to fill out their order form. Then I found a newer thread that said Bilstein no longer rebuilds H&R's and instead will refer you to Performance Shock. So back to square one

I did email Bilstein anyway plus Glenn Yee Motorsports asking about H&R rebuilding. Let's see what they say...

[Javi Cooper]

OK so I found out Bilstein now doesn't even rebuild their own shocks anymore.

And Glenn Yee contacted me back. WOW. It's a no-brainer. Glenn (not an employee or secretary - Glenn himself) called me (not emailed back - called) from his cell in his car. Talked for 45 minutes about tech stuff, performance options, possible causes of my different symptoms, life in California and Tennessee, etc. That's a lot of time for a guy he's never done business with and for such a small job. What a great guy, full of knowledge (50+ years experience racing and building Porsches) and genuinely interested in fixing my issues without overselling me anything.

He quoted me $600 for the rebuild labor plus $100 for the basic parts. No extra charge for cleaning the struts or removing/reinstalling the springs like other places (he encouraged not to do any of those things), AND springs and struts will both be tested, strut dyno chart printout included

Sending the coilovers to him in a week or two, then replacing the parts he recommended while I wait. I'll report back when everything is done.

[SCCA_AX]

That's awesome, and thanks for the info. People like that are out there, but are tough to find. Bet that guy gets a lot of business from your post, word-of-mouth is the best way to grow that type of business.

[bcrdukes]

Originally Posted by Javi Cooper

OK so I found out Bilstein now doesn't even rebuild their own shocks anymore.

And Glenn Yee contacted me back. WOW. It's a no-brainer. Glenn (not an employee or secretary - Glenn himself) called me (not emailed back - called) from his cell in his car. Talked for 45 minutes about tech stuff, performance options, possible causes of my different symptoms, life in California and Tennessee, etc. That's a lot of time for a guy he's never done business with and for such a small job. What a great guy, full of knowledge (50+ years experience racing and building Porsches) and genuinely interested in fixing my issues without overselling me anything.

He quoted me $600 for the rebuild labor plus $100 for the basic parts. No extra charge for cleaning the struts or removing/reinstalling the springs like other places (he encouraged not to do any of those things), AND springs and struts will both be tested, strut dyno chart printout included

Sending the coilovers to him in a week or two, then replacing the parts he recommended while I wait. I'll report back when everything is done.

Happy New Year everyone.

I know I'm late to the game but curious to see how the service went with Glenn.

I checked some of my old emails with Performance Shock and at the time of email (about a year ago) they were asking $700 to rebuild a set of H&R RSS coilovers and even then, gave a strong impression they were reluctant to do them due to the fact the costs often end up being the same as new.

Thanks in advance!

[Javi Cooper]

Originally Posted by bcrdukes

Happy New Year everyone.

I know I'm late to the game but curious to see how the service went with Glenn.

I checked some of my old emails with Performance Shock and at the time of email (about a year ago) they were asking $700 to rebuild a set of H&R RSS coilovers and even then, gave a strong impression they were reluctant to do them due to the fact the costs often end up being the same as new.

Thanks in advance!

No news yet as I haven't been able to find a place to leave my car up on jackstands for a few weeks. My friend who let me borrow his lift still hasn't finished his projects and I don't think my HOA would appreciate a car on blocks on common grounds

BUT that leads to option B: RaceWorks coilovers, which I'm trying to find more about. For another $700 ($1,400 total) I'll have new coilvovers with adjustable camber plates. Since I needed top mounts anyway that closes the price gap, and selling my old H&R's will close it even more. Plus there's no downtime, I can spec damping and spring rates to my liking, and best of all the adjustable camber plates will let me play with the fitment of my upcoming aggressive offset wheels (more savings on trial-and-error alignments). I just need a little more info on RaceWorks quality but what I've read so far is promising.

That said, I'm still going with Glenn for the rest of the suspension. I'll be following his advice and buying all other needed parts from him. In fact, at this point I don't even trust anyone else. I'll report back as soon as I know more

[bcrdukes]

Thanks for the update. Much appreciated!