Guest midlife-pug Posted November 29, 2007 Hi all, A few months ago I sourced a replacement rear beam for my 1.9 Gti. It had a fairly recent refurbishment, was lowered 1 spline and had Bilstein shocks which looked very new so it went straight on the car like that. In normal driving I was happy with it, however with more energetic B road antics the rear seemed to squat quite a lot on cornering and felt a bit soggy. Having read various threads on here I put it down to the rear Bilsteins which are part No BNE-1932. I decided to replace them with OE rears so aquired a pair of new Sachs OE dampers. On their arrival however I found that they can be pushed in and out by hand and when compressed seem happy to stay like that. To compare I removed the lower bolt on one of the Bilsteins, swung it out and found that I could hardly compress it at all and it immediately went back to its original length. To my uneducated mind that would tend to mean that the Bilsteins on the car are a fair bit firmer than the Sachs OE I got to replace them. Does anyone have any particular opinions on this prior to me going the whole hog, fitting the Sachs and going for a blast to compare properly. This would be appreciated as I think the Bilstein top bolts are gonna be a bugger to remove in any case. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jackherer 543 Posted November 29, 2007 The Sachs one are unlikely to be very good I wouldn't have thought. Streetlines (the Bilsteins you have) do return to full length very quickly, I assume they are gas filled but they are still too soft. However BNE-1932 is listed for a Citroen ZX, 205s are 1931. If I was you I would return the Sachs if possible and buy some genuine Peugeot shocks as they are hard to beat without spending a lot of money. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RossD 43 Posted November 29, 2007 (edited) The Sachs one are unlikely to be very good I wouldn't have thought. Streetlines (the Bilsteins you have) do return to full length very quickly, I assume they are gas filled but they are still too soft. However BNE-1932 is listed for a Citroen ZX, 205s are 1931. If I was you I would return the Sachs if possible and buy some genuine Peugeot shocks as they are hard to beat without spending a lot of money. Going slightly away from the orginal question here but probably still valid: Does anybody know how a 306 rear shock (i.e from peugeot, not aftermarket) would compare to the 205 Bilstein Gp N rears? Reason being the 306 rear shocks are £38 each and the Bilsteins double that. Edited November 29, 2007 by RossD Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Miles 331 1 Cars Posted November 29, 2007 The best cheapest option is the Pug 306 K6 rear damper's as fitted to the GTi6, You can;t compare them to the good Billies but a 100% on those Streetline thing's Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
de Noir 0 Posted November 29, 2007 Speaking of billies, I read many threads here but really don't copy... I'd like to be enlightened... Checking Bilstein parts catalog, I discovered that 205/309 product line ends with B4 streetline dampers, namely VNE-4104/4105 fronts and BNE-1931 rears. Some of you guys here speak of B6 and B8 on 205, so I guess these must be 306 items. Checking Bilstein parts catalog further for 306 products reveals B6 front/rear and B8/B6 front-rear combo. There is no B8 rear damper listed! I quote Bilstein parts catalog here, by ordering B8 set for 306 you get B8 fronts and B6 rears! I suppose it's those rude behaving B6 rears! (How) is this possible? Am I getting something wrong here, or am I lacking information? Further, browsing around I found Peugeotsport GTI line dampers for 205/309, costing 120/95€ front/rear a piece. This set me thinking, as a set of B4 Billies, ordered long time ago is waiting for install... I wonder does anyone have experience with those Peugeotsport GTI items, and how do B4 compare with Peugeot OE dampers? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tom_m 0 Posted November 29, 2007 Checking Bilstein parts catalog, I discovered that 205/309 product line ends with B4 streetline dampers, namely VNE-4104/4105 fronts and BNE-1931 rears. i think you need to check the catalogue again Peugeot 205 Bilstein B6 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brianthemagical 1 Posted November 29, 2007 B2, B4, B6, B8 are the different models, oil oe, gas oe (very good on my front), better than the others. B4's are very good, i've only had them, brand new from gsf and the 15year old oe dampers, but i can't complain. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
de Noir 0 Posted November 29, 2007 (edited) i think you need to check the catalogue again Peugeot 205 Bilstein B6 Seems like you are right for B6 on 205... I don't understand how I missed this... Ah, it was that I went for 309 parts, as I'm rebuilding my suspension to full 309 GTI 16V spec... B4s being only option here... Must admit, I feel plain dumb right now! However, the B8 on 205 question stays... Edited November 29, 2007 by MH_ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tom_m 0 Posted November 29, 2007 Seems like you are right for B6 on 205... I don't understand how I missed this... Ah, it was that I went for 309 parts, as I'm rebuilding my suspension to full 309 GTI 16V spec... B4s being only option here... Must admit, I feel plain dumb right now! However, the B8 on 205 question stays... nope you're right there, no b8 on the 205. i've been wondering what the gti6 b8 dampers would be like on a 205 or you can use the challenge spec items (listed under bilstein motorsport not as peugeot 205 parts) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
James_R 3 Posted November 29, 2007 depends what torsion bars the B8's are deisgned for. Since 306's use 20mm bars on a beam that's much wirder the spring rate works out pretty poor hence the bigger ARB they have even though they're so much heavier :s Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
de Noir 0 Posted November 30, 2007 (edited) nope you're right there, no b8 on the 205. i've been wondering what the gti6 b8 dampers would be like on a 205 or you can use the challenge spec items (listed under bilstein motorsport not as peugeot 205 parts) I'm afraid MDS system parts are far beyond my reach and skill... However... I find it very frustrating to compare, for example, Bilstein 106 and 205/309 product lines... For former you get everything, for latter almost nothing... Edited November 30, 2007 by MH_ Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
