Bilstein B6 - Spring Perch Failure

[cjbryant]

Well, I didn't quite picture this as the way I make my first post on Bimmerpost….

Our 2017 X5 35i has 116,000 mi and was still on the original struts, so I figured this spring it was finally time to get them replaced. Ordered a complete set of Bilstein B6's from FCP Euro back in March and due to a rear shock being backordered, didn't have the full set ready for install until last month. Finally got my car into the shop on Monday of this week to have them installed. Picked the car up on Tuesday and I was really happy with the ride - rebound damping was much improved.

The next day after they were installed (Wednesday), I was backing out of my driveway and I heard an incredibly loud bang and the car seemed to be leaning towards the front passenger side. Threw the car in park, hopped out, and sure enough the front passenger side of the car was sitting on the tire. Had it towed back to the shop that did the install where we discovered the spring perch had completely failed. We luckily found a replacement locally and the car was back on the road last night.

This morning as my wife was driving into work in the X5, we were talking on the phone and I heard the same loud bang and she immediately said, "something happened." The strut on the drivers side has now failed in the same manner. That makes 2 spring perch failures within roughly 24 hours. Clearly, Bilstein has produced a batch of struts with manufacturing defects. Be aware if you've purchased any Bilstein's during the March timeframe this year.

[MizikeTSK]

Damn that sucks, Hope Bilstein comes through for you with some kind of recoupment. I was thinking of getting the same shocks. Did it just crack all the way around? Back in the day the aluminum perch was held in place by an o-ring clip like thing on the shock body with 2 height settings. Of course the perch had a groove on the bottom of it that the o-rings fit in perfectly to prevent it from coming loose/off.

[cjbryant]

Originally Posted by MizikeTSK

Damn that sucks, Hope Bilstein comes through for you with some kind of recoupment. I was thinking of getting the same shocks. Did it just crack all the way around? Back in the day the aluminum perch was held in place by an o-ring clip like thing on the shock body with 2 height settings. Of course the perch had a groove on the bottom of it that the o-rings fit in perfectly to prevent it from coming loose/off.

Still constructed the same way. No issues with the C-clip, it's still on the strut body.

The part of the perch that the spring sits on just sheared away from the main body of the spring perch allowing the spring to drop down onto the strut mount.

The response from Bilstein was disappointing to put it mildly. In a nutshell, their response was "take it up with FCP Euro to sort out a replacement," and "too bad about all the extra labor costs involved with replacing the defective struts, we're not paying."

Now I know what struts will never go near my M3 when the time comes...

[tlow98]

Damn. Good to know.

I wish Koni made a set of yellows for our cars. They’d be perfect.

[COSPILOT]

I'm going to side with Bilstein on this. You purchased from a vendor, in this case FCP, your refund or request for damages is from FCP, not Bilstein. If every manufacturer had to deal with end user issues it would be a disaster.

When is the last time you called xyz company over something you purchased at your local grocery store, retailer, etc. No, you work with the company you purchased from.

[Clifton]

Sounds like Bilstein is asking the OP to follow their claim procedures.

Warranty Claim


How to file warranty claim
Please read our BILSTEIN Warranty Promise and follow the steps outlined below to ensure that your warranty claim is resolved as quickly and easily as possible.

Step 1: Please first contact the original place of purchase (distributor of BILSTEIN products) where you purchased your shocks. Distributors are responsible for handling all product warranty claims. If your distributor is no longer in business, then continue to step 2 below.

[Maverik259]

Originally Posted by Clifton

Sounds like Bilstein is asking the OP to follow their claim procedures.

Warranty Claim


How to file warranty claim
Please read our BILSTEIN Warranty Promise and follow the steps outlined below to ensure that your warranty claim is resolved as quickly and easily as possible.

Step 1: [COLOR="Red"]Please first contact the original place of purchase (distributor of BILSTEIN products) where you purchased your shocks. Distributors are responsible for handling all product warranty claims.[/COLOR] If your distributor is no longer in business, then continue to step 2 below.

Originally Posted by COSPILOT

I'm going to side with Bilstein on this. You purchased from a vendor, in this case FCP, your refund or request for damages is from FCP, not Bilstein. If every manufacturer had to deal with end user issues it would be a disaster.

When is the last time you called xyz company over something you purchased at your local grocery store, retailer, etc. No, you work with the company you purchased from.

While you're both correct. I think you're missing the point. If not on purpose. It's one thing to ask for a warranty claim. It's another to have catastrophic product failure that could have happened at speed and caused a serious accident. A better response would have been nice. Outside of just "not our problem".

[Clifton]

Originally Posted by Maverik259

While you're both correct. I think you're missing the point. If not on purpose. It's one thing to ask for a warranty claim. It's another to have catastrophic product failure that could have happened at speed and caused a serious accident. A better response would have been nice. Outside of just "not our problem".

Not missing any point, trying my best to avoid jumping to conclusions and reaching for my pitch fork and torches with the rest of the villagers.

I understand the frustration, and can relate. I've been there with a drive shaft on an M3 that had to be re-installed twice. The Bilstein is taking heat from this thread, but yet the OP didn't follow their stated warranty process.

Could it be a product defect, maybe. Is it possible that installer has hand in this, maybe. Did Bilstein tell the OP to pound sand, maybe, maybe not. The OP is frustrated, which as mentioned we can all relate, but I don't think this story has run to conclusion. I'd prefer to hear where this finishes after following the process vs. bashing a company from the start.

[cjbryant]

Originally Posted by Clifton

Not missing any point, trying my best to avoid jumping to conclusions and reaching for my pitch fork and torches with the rest of the villagers.

I understand the frustration, and can relate. I've been there with a drive shaft on an M3 that had to be re-installed twice. The Bilstein is taking heat from this thread, but yet the OP didn't follow their stated warranty process.

Could it be a product defect, maybe. Is it possible that installer has hand in this, maybe. Did Bilstein tell the OP to pound sand, maybe, maybe not. The OP is frustrated, which as mentioned we can all relate, but I don't think this story has run to conclusion. I'd prefer to hear where this finishes after following the process vs. bashing a company from the start.

My original post was about 2 Bilstein B6 struts suffering catastrophic failures 24 hours apart after just being installed on my X5. Bilstein's response was not even part of my original post, nor did I advocate for anyone to take up their pitchforks in response to my situation. I only mentioned Bilstein's response because someone else asked. I would hardly characterize Bilstein as taking heat from this thread given that it hardly garnered any attention prior to today. My takeaway was that nobody really cared

As to your other questions - could it have been installer failure? I guess it's possible, although I seriously doubt it. I use a shop that specializes in BMWs - the owner races and builds spec E30 and E46's. Both the shop owner and the actual installer use Bilstein's on their personal BMWs. Their first thought when I brought my car back in was that the C-clip on the strut body had failed. They were both shocked to see the spring perch itself had sheared in two.

I was already in touch with FCP Euro and I only contacted Bilstein after the second strut failed the next day. At that point it was pretty clear there was a serious manufacturing defect that I thought Bilstein would like to know about. I'll admit I was also hopeful that they would be more open to discussing the additional labor costs I was incurring because of their products. While they didn't explicitly tell me to "pound sand" that was the sentiment.

[Clifton]

Originally Posted by cjbryant

My original post was about 2 Bilstein B6 struts suffering catastrophic failures 24 hours apart after just being installed on my X5. Bilstein's response was not even part of my original post, nor did I advocate for anyone to take up their pitchforks in response to my situation. I only mentioned Bilstein's response because someone else asked. I would hardly characterize Bilstein as taking heat from this thread given that it hardly garnered any attention prior to today. My takeaway was that nobody really cared

As to your other questions - could it have been installer failure? I guess it's possible, although I seriously doubt it. I use a shop that specializes in BMWs - the owner races and builds spec E30 and E46's. Both the shop owner and the actual installer use Bilstein's on their personal BMWs. Their first thought when I brought my car back in was that the C-clip on the strut body had failed. They were both shocked to see the spring perch itself had sheared in two.

I was already in touch with FCP Euro and I only contacted Bilstein after the second strut failed the next day. At that point it was pretty clear there was a serious manufacturing defect that I thought Bilstein would like to know about. I'll admit I was also hopeful that they would be more open to discussing the additional labor costs I was incurring because of their products. While they didn't explicitly tell me to "pound sand" that was the sentiment.

Confused, are you fairly giving Bilstein via the vendor a chance to make it right or just letting us know their struts will never go near your M3 when the time comes?

From my seat, I'm curious where this ends up, because I've used Bilstein in the past and would consider them again when my X5 needs freshening.

However, I'm not going follow cancel culture and join you in a boycott of the company b/c a guy on the internet with 3 forum posts, scientifically states they have a serious manufacturing defect and that he didn't get the response he expected for not following the their stated process.

Friendly advice is that you help make the forum better and contribute here by running this issue to conclusion and updating with findings. Your issue may help others and may show how great or not so great vendor/suppliers are.

[yupetc]

I myself have Bilstein B6's installed on all four, and it's done earlier this year. So I am so glad to see a thread like this being posted and let us all be forewarned. And now that I'm aware of such, I'll know if one day if the car decides to cripple on one corner then I can go straight to look for that spring perch failure. Yes, I, too, agree for warranty claims, you go to FCP Euro, but at the end of the day, FCP didn't manufacture the struts, much less can put any sort of scope to quality check the perch rings as they are being made. FCP also assumes Bilstein to be on top of their game with quality and worksmanship. If only one fails, we may call it a dud, but if two fails in such a short span, you can bet your last dollar that the assembler took a brain fart when installing that perch ring. What if this is done for a wide array of a batch? I can't even go on thinking the ramifications.

And I think Bilstein should take a more open stance at this issue since this type of failure can cause catastrophic damages to both the car and possibly human life. This is a serious issue, Bilstein should be subjected to more heat until they can appropriate some root-cause investigation and try to help correct these issues. For guys like us who's already running these, it's a ticking time bomb. I've gone through KYB's and Bilstein upgrades on most of my cars, and losing the spring perch is never something I'd expect from a strut. If the failure is some simple loss of damping and the piston stays in the cylinder and if the height of the car can be maintained somewhat, then yeah, less heat can be tolerated on Bilstein. This whole thing really makes me think twice about using Bilstein at all in the future. My two cents.

[cjbryant]

Originally Posted by Clifton

Confused, are you fairly giving Bilstein via the vendor a chance to make it right or just letting us know their struts will never go near your M3 when the time comes?

From my seat, I'm curious where this ends up, because I've used Bilstein in the past and would consider them again when my X5 needs freshening.

However, I'm not going follow cancel culture and join you in a boycott of the company b/c a guy on the internet with 3 forum posts, scientifically states they have a serious manufacturing defect and that he didn't get the response he expected for not following the their stated process.

Friendly advice is that you help make the forum better and contribute here by running this issue to conclusion and updating with findings. Your issue may help others and may show how great or not so great vendor/suppliers are.

Ok, it seems like this thread has gotten off track from what it was meant to be - inform fellow X5 owners about my experience with 2 strut failures last week. My original post didn’t contain any attacks on vendors. It also wasn’t titled “Bilstein won’t replace my defective struts,” so I’m not sure why the focus has become all about Bilstein’s warranty policy? I tried to keep it as fact based as possible and ended it with the advice to be aware if you purchased any B6 struts earlier this year. I didn’t advise or demand that anyone “boycott” Bilstein.

As for the comment about my M3 in a subsequent post, again it was a comment that I would not put them on my car given my recent experience, but nowhere did I say, “and neither should you.” I still think, given the nature of the failure of these struts, that Bilstein might have some interest in what happened, but my phone conversation with their warranty department indicated otherwise. Perhaps, this is where we are misunderstanding each other? I chose Bilsteins for my X5 due to their reputation, but given the failures I experienced, I am disappointed in their seeming indifference about a pretty serious issue and will not choose them in the future. Just sharing my apparently unpopular opinion, which I believe is the opposite of cancel culture?

I realize I only have 3 forum posts (gotta start somewhere), but that doesn’t change the fact that my struts still failed. I thought I could help contribute to the community by sharing my experience, as well as provide pictures to validate what happened.

I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed with the conclusion of my ordeal. I’m not a materials or manufacturing engineer, but I feel fairly confident in saying these struts suffered from either a material or manufacturing defect. I’m posting another picture of one of the struts that was taken off the car for reference. I won’t be paying for any independent analysis to determine the exact cause of failure (and it doesn’t seem like Bilstein wants to find out either). As for how FCP Euro handled the situation, I did not find their offer acceptable for several reasons, but I’m not going to say anything more lest I be accused of trying to cancel them as well.

[crystalworks]

Originally Posted by cjbryant

Ok, it seems like this thread has gotten off track from what it was meant to be - inform fellow X5 owners about my experience with 2 strut failures last week. My original post didn’t contain any attacks on vendors. It also wasn’t titled “Bilstein won’t replace my defective struts,” so I’m not sure why the focus has become all about Bilstein’s warranty policy? I tried to keep it as fact based as possible and ended it with the advice to be aware if you purchased any B6 struts earlier this year. I didn’t advise or demand that anyone “boycott” Bilstein...

That... is scary. I don't care what anyone else says. One failure is an isolated incident, two is something amiss. Whether it's installation or a defect will never be known (to us) as you said, no one is sending that out for material analysis. You, and probably Bilstein, are lucky the failures happened without any type of accident resulting.

Thanks for posting. Always had good experiences with Bilstein struts on BMW cars, but I've never put them on any of our X5's (4 of them). And it looks like I won't doing so either.

BTW, FCP's warranty policy is very straightforward. They'll replace the part if it's defective. Or give you a refund. Won't cover anything else. Recently had to send back a defective brake booster they sent me (TRW/OES). The refund process was quick and all, but having to pay a shop $1200 to install a booster because I didn't have the time to wait for replacement and do it myself again was a bit irritating. That said, FCP is still my go to. Used their lifetime replacement guarantee many times.

Again, thanks for sharing.

[Clifton]

cjbryant - after watching an install video Click here I see several areas where an installer could create issues. One critical item of note is that the B6 strut requires re-using factory springs. The process to remove/re-install springs is certainly a point for installer failure.

As an example watch the video and fast forward to 10:19 mark. If the installer rushed the job and unequally applied force or released the springs compression unevenly they could have damaged the spring seat collar. I would imagine they would use the same highly efficient short cut for both struts explaining how both could fail within 24hrs.

The above is just a theory of course but also possible and slightly more believable vs. widespread manufacturing defect that would impact an unknown number of B6s around the world.

You mentioned that a race shop installed the B6s so the confidence was high, but I've had race shops install stainless brake lines that failed on track. Wild ride heading into a 2nd gear corner. I've also had race shop/race team over fill an expensive flat 6 motor with too much oil during an oil change.

My point being all possibilities should be considered in your suspension failure and the sole blame may not fall only on Bilstein.

[yupetc]

Originally Posted by Clifton

cjbryant - after watching an install video Click here I see several areas where an installer could create issues. One critical item of note is that the B6 strut requires re-using factory springs. The process to remove/re-install springs is certainly a point for installer failure.

As an example watch the video and fast forward to 10:19 mark. If the installer rushed the job and unequally applied force or released the springs compression unevenly they could have damaged the spring seat collar. I would imagine they would use the same highly efficient short cut for both struts explaining how both could fail within 24hrs.

The above is just a theory of course but also possible and slightly more believable vs. widespread manufacturing defect that would impact an unknown number of B6s around the world.

You mentioned that a race shop installed the B6s so the confidence was high, but I've had race shops install stainless brake lines that failed on track. Wild ride heading into a 2nd gear corner. I've also had race shop/race team over fill an expensive flat 6 motor with too much oil during an oil change.

My point being all possibilities should be considered in your suspension failure and the sole blame may not fall only on Bilstein.

By looking at Bryant's picture in the original post, it appears the installation was done correctly. The spring seems to have seated correctly on the perch; it's the perch that gave up. The only thing that the installer really has to pay attention to is to seat the spring into the top and bottom rubber seat correctly. And they're supposed to do tighten up the strut mount gradually while releasing spring tension in even increments while also checking that the springs top and bottom ends are "clocked" into the rubber seats, and depending on pass/driver side, BMW has two clocking grooves on the skirt side of the strut tower. That's the only place I'll suspect the installer get it wrong because if they do get the rubber seat to key-in to the wrong groove, it'll angle the entire spring/strut assembly in a wrong thrust angle, making it difficult to align. I've gone through that on my first stab at this job, and couldn't get the alignment on bullseye, and it ate both my front tires within 6k miles, mind that my setup also includes the H&R lowering springs. So it's a double whammy.

Second time around, I was finally able to figure out how the clocking grooves work with the strut mount and got everything corrected. But wife complains the harshness of H&R springs, I ended up installing the stock springs back in. So 3rd installation was final and all is fine. Still running B6 with stock springs on all 4 with no problems. I hope I'm lucky enough to dodge the perch ring defects.

[Clifton]

Originally Posted by yupetc

And they're supposed to do tighten up the strut mount gradually while releasing spring tension in even increments while also checking that the springs top and bottom ends are "clocked" into the rubber seats, and depending on pass/driver side,

It's the spring compression and release of spring rebound steps is where I was thinking a point of failure entered that possibly caused damage. Unequal loading/unloading of pressure on the spring collar resulting in metal fatigue on one side. I'd be curious what type of spring compressor, aka widow makers, the installer used to better understand how they compressed the springs.

Visualize replacing a head gasket and not following the tightening sequence. The engine will run fine at first, but will eventually give up the ghost.

[yupetc]

Originally Posted by Clifton

It's the spring compression and release of spring rebound steps is where I was thinking a point of failure entered that possibly caused damage. Unequal loading/unloading of pressure on the spring collar resulting in metal fatigue on one side. I'd be curious what type of spring compressor, aka widow makers, the installer used to better understand how they compressed the springs.

Visualize replacing a head gasket and not following the tightening sequence. The engine will run fine at first, but will eventually give up the ghost.

If it's being done at a shop, we shouldn't have to worry about uneven unloading upon installing the springs onto the perch seating. I'm saying that because when I was in college I used to take on a mechanic job at a local muffler service joint. It's not all run down, but it's beat up enough to maintain as a shop. And we did all sorts of work besides piecing muffler onto cars. The shop has a spring compressor that has a very easy lever and release mechanism and it's a 3-point prong action that compresses and releases the springs for installation. Later on in life, when I visit any mechanic shops for any reason, I always browse around the shop or I would scan the shops for these. Pretty much with the exception of oil change or tire service shops, almost every shop has something like this fixtured into their facility. it doesn't sound like Bryant's car is done at a rinky-dink joint; I'd imagine spring release should be done correctly. Whereas I do mine at my garage, and for spring compressor alone, I have 4 different types of tools to use, none of it can compare to what they use at a auto repair joint. Just saying, unless they go scorch earth and mess with that perch ring, a normal job couldn't have been that wrong; and mind you, the Bilstein B6 is supposedly an upgrade, and it's advertised to go with both factory and slightly upgraded springs. These monotube gas shocks are a whole step above the B4's with hydraulic twin-tubes. I am an engineer myself, and if I'm running tiered products like this, I would definitely beg to have the B6's perch ring to be absolutely stronger than B4's, or the factory OEM's, for that matter.

[Clifton]

yupetc - I hear you, but will add that you put a lot of faith and assumptions in "race shops". They are not immune to the human element and mechanics/technicians are highly incentivized to find short cuts.

I've had three separate high end "race shops" make critical errors that each could have ended in catastrophe:

• S/S Brake line failure - they possibly twisted s/s brake line and/or hung using weight of caliper during the install which led to rapid failure (line burst at the caliper flange) while on race track. Second gear corner pedal to the floor followed by CODE BROWN.
• Fuel Tank melt - while welding sub frame supports they unknowingly burned a hole in the gas tank filler neck; how they didn't blow themselves up is beyond me. I discovered on high speed left hand bend.....sniff sniff sh!t that's GAS!!
• Oil overfill - 10 liters of oil in a flat-6 engine with max fill of 9.1 during a simple oil change.

You can't rule out an installation error on this one based on the assumption that a local shop is perceived as high-end or "race shop".

[yupetc]

Originally Posted by Clifton

yupetc - I hear you, but will add that you put a lot of faith and assumptions in "race shops". They are not immune to the human element and mechanics/technicians are highly incentivized to find short cuts.

I've had three separate high end "race shops" make critical errors that each could have ended in catastrophe:

• S/S Brake line failure - they possibly twisted s/s brake line and/or hung using weight of caliper during the install which led to rapid failure (line burst at the caliper flange) while on race track. Second gear corner pedal to the floor followed by CODE BROWN.
• Fuel Tank melt - while welding sub frame supports they unknowingly burned a hole in the gas tank filler neck; how they didn't blow themselves up is beyond me. I discovered on high speed left hand bend.....sniff sniff sh!t that's GAS!!
• Oil overfill - 10 liters of oil in a flat-6 engine with max fill of 9.1 during a simple oil change.

You can't rule out an installation error on this one based on the assumption that a local shop is perceived as high-end or "race shop".

That's a fair enough argument; and that's fine. But I think the original intent for the OP is to alarm everyone that his case may very well be yours. So while we all want to be heroes to give our most fair and best opinion out here; the more cases revealed the better.

[Clifton]

Originally Posted by yupetc

That's a fair enough argument; and that's fine. But I think the original intent for the OP is to alarm everyone that his case may very well be yours. So while we all want to be heroes to give our most fair and best opinion out here; the more cases revealed the better.

The OP's situation definitely raises my eyebrows. I've used Bilstein in the past and would most likely opt for them over OE down the road. Those spring collars on the B6s do look weak-sauce and I'd rather see them welded to the strut assembly. I can also envision a company using inferior metal to help cut costs.

If I were a betting man, I'd put money on the damage occurring during the install vs. manufacturing flaw. Just too many of the B6s on the road. We would either see a product recall or sudden design change if there really was a bad batch of them out there.

Nothing wrong with alerting and calling attention to an issue - I learn daily from this forum because of other X5 owners. My preference is to consume more facts and less assumptions before bashing well known race proven products (Bilstein) and a vendor (FCPEuro) who supports DIY'ers like us.

[yupetc]

Originally Posted by Clifton

The OP's situation definitely raises my eyebrows. I've used Bilstein in the past and would most likely opt for them over OE down the road. Those spring collars on the B6s do look weak-sauce and I'd rather see them welded to the strut assembly. I can also envision a company using inferior metal to help cut costs.

If I were a betting man, I'd put money on the damage occurring during the install vs. manufacturing flaw. Just too many of the B6s on the road. We would either see a product recall or sudden design change if there really was a bad batch of them out there.

Nothing wrong with alerting and calling attention to an issue - I learn daily from this forum because of other X5 owners. My preference is to consume more facts and less assumptions before bashing well known race proven products (Bilstein) and a vendor (FCPEuro) who supports DIY'ers like us.

Yes, fair enough, and totally in agreeance.

[engineerofsorts]

Originally Posted by cjbryant

Well, I didn't quite picture this as the way I make my first post on Bimmerpost….

Our 2017 X5 35i has 116,000 mi and was still on the original struts, so I figured this spring it was finally time to get them replaced. Ordered a complete set of Bilstein B6's from FCP Euro back in March and due to a rear shock being backordered, didn't have the full set ready for install until last month. Finally got my car into the shop on Monday of this week to have them installed. Picked the car up on Tuesday and I was really happy with the ride - rebound damping was much improved.

The next day after they were installed (Wednesday), I was backing out of my driveway and I heard an incredibly loud bang and the car seemed to be leaning towards the front passenger side. Threw the car in park, hopped out, and sure enough the front passenger side of the car was sitting on the tire. Had it towed back to the shop that did the install where we discovered the spring perch had completely failed. We luckily found a replacement locally and the car was back on the road last night.

This morning as my wife was driving into work in the X5, we were talking on the phone and I heard the same loud bang and she immediately said, "something happened." The strut on the drivers side has now failed in the same manner. That makes 2 spring perch failures within roughly 24 hours. Clearly, Bilstein has produced a batch of struts with manufacturing defects. Be aware if you've purchased any Bilstein's during the March timeframe this year.

I'm going to have to ask a question. Were these the front struts that failed?

From looking at the design of the spring perch, these look like Billstein's b6 rear design. B6 struts for the front have a spring perch that is able to support much more weight as it actually sits atop the strut itself.

Everyone's first conclusion is to jump to the most complex answer... but I must ask... (not even sure it would be possible but)

Did they install the rears in the front?