[dreaming440i]

I took my 2017 440i Gran Coupe (F36) in to replace a bent front strut (long story on how it happened, but anyway...). They replaced the front struts with Bilstein B4's instead of the OEM struts, without my knowledge; and the invoice hid this. It wasn't until I had some tires balanced that I discovered this.


I need to know if the Bilstein B4's are significantly different from the (non-M Sport) OEM struts before I negotiate what I want them to do. My personal impression is that they are "floatier", but I chalked that up to a change due to the repair of the strut. I've searched the forums extensively, including the terrific dynamic test graphs from some of you. But none of that data really answers this question. In fact, some of the F30 owners have reported that they considered the Bilstein B4's to be a performance upgrade from stock.

So does anyone have any info about this? Would going back to the OEM struts give me a more "buttoned-down" behavior, in which case I'll demand that they replace them. Or, if not significantly different, I'll try to get a service credit from them.

Thanks!

[cfm56d7b]

Your best bet would be to contact Bilstein and request more details about B4 struts. Bilstein has been very responsive to my questions.

[Westcoaster99]

Bilstein and one of the most well renowned shock manufacturers. I wouldn't loose sleep about the quality. Interesting that you think they're more floaty as a lot of people think they're actually stiffer. Either way bilstein list B4's as an oem replacement for oem so shouldn't be worlds apart.