Bilstein stock shocks ? Which ones ?

[BrazBenz]

From an extensive research on this forum I concluded that my 1997 C280 Elegance came with Bilsteins.
When I go to the Bilstein site I find P/Ns for Heavy Duty or Sport shocks for W202.
How about the regular ones ? Are they truly Bilstein?
I am planning to replace them for an improved ride quality (10 year old, 47K miles). but don't want a stiffer behaviour.
Car is standard in all aspects (springs, height, etc)
Thanks in advance.
PS: How about Sachs?

[Proven Guilty]

HD's came stock on C36/C43s. If you plan to lower your car by swapping the springs, I would go with the Bilstein Sport shocks, as they are designed for the lower ride height.

[stox]

Originally posted by Proven Guilty
HD's came stock on C36/C43s.

I don't know about the C43's, but the Bilsteins on the C36 had modified valving from the stock Bilstein HD's.

[BrazBenz]

In fact I am not looking for a lowered and/or stiffer suspension.
Just the same stock specs of the C280 Elegance.
How about their Bilstein specs?
TIA

[davis449]

Originally posted by BrazBenz
In fact I am not looking for a lowered and/or stiffer suspension.
Just the same stock specs of the C280 Elegance.
How about their Bilstein specs?
TIA

What you want is Bilstein HD's. They tend to be a bit stiffer than stock non-sport w202 C-Class shocks, but they are what you want if you don't want to pay the dealer over $600 for shocks.

[NEA-4311]

Originally posted by davis449
What you want is Bilstein HD's. They tend to be a bit stiffer than stock non-sport w202 C-Class shocks, but they are what you want if you don't want to pay the dealer over $600 for shocks.

Do you know the part number of those HD's? Not the dealer ones (with the modified valving) the ones bilstein sells but same as in C36. If I understood correctly thats their only difference.

[BrazBenz]

Originally posted by NEA-4311
Do you know the part number of those HD's? Not the dealer ones (with the modified valving) the ones bilstein sells but same as in C36. If I understood correctly thats their only difference.
Please see below info from a PDF file available in Bilstein's site.
As for the 1997 C36 (not mentioned below) if you go to a product search area, in the same site, they tell you to contact a distributor... (I mean THEIR distributor)
In fact not a single mention to something neither HD or Sport.

PRODUCTION SERIES W202 (C-CLASS)
180/200/220/230K/250D/280/T
93-5/00

HD F4-B36-1856-H0 (F) F4-B36-1857-H0 (R)
SP F4-B36-1854-H0 (F) F4-B36-1855-H0 (R)

[BrazBenz]

Originally posted by davis449
What you want is Bilstein HD's. They tend to be a bit stiffer than stock non-sport w202 C-Class shocks, but they are what you want if you don't want to pay the dealer over $600 for shocks.

Well... this changes the whole picture. I love the ride of my car and plan replacing shocks just for the sake of perfection.
It is too risky to test stiffer shocks and get something worst than I have now.
I will do some research on Sachs. Maybe I find something there. ( I doubt)

[OzC36]

Some research areas:

C36 Shock Part Numbers:
http://www.amg-owners-club.org/board/en/wbb2/thread.php?threadid=10433&sid=1506a970195479c8396ec7ec33e92e29

EShocks with some info on HDs etc:
http://www.eshocks.com/bil_veh.asp?Model_Index=415&Make=Mercedes&Group1=Cars&Make_Long=Mercedes&Manf=Bilstein

Shockwarehouse with additional info:
http://www.shockwarehouse.com/site/index.cfm?mode=results&selected_model=207131&selected_year=1997

[NEA-4311]

Hm... cool info, but if someone wants the closest model of Bilstein to that of the C36 AMG one, which one is it out there on the market? Dont just say HDs or whatever, I kinda need the whole models code. ...preciate it.:rolleyes:

[davis449]

Originally posted by NEA-4311
Hm... cool info, but if someone wants the closest model of Bilstein to that of the C36 AMG one, which one is it out there on the market? Dont just say HDs or whatever, I kinda need the whole models code. ...preciate it.:rolleyes:

Well the HD (this is an abbreviation of the word Heavy Duty and is the name of the shock exactly) is the closest model, that I know of, to the stock C 36 AMG shocks. Just go to www.eshocks.com and look up the info on your car and in there they will have the Bilstein part # of the HD's.

[Will_w202]

Sachs is OEM, not Bilstein, at least on non-AMG cars. I don't know enough about them to say.

Bilstein Comforts will be as close to original ride as you can get, and they are better shocks. I upgraded to HD, and it's firm, but IMO, wonderful. With 17s, feels like an AMG

[davis449]

Sachs is OEM, not Bilstein, at least on non-AMG cars. I don't know enough about them to say.

Bilstein is OEM on most C-Class models. My 95 C 280's were Bilstein when they came off the car for replacement and so were the ones on my 1999 Sport.

[BrazBenz]

Originally posted by Will_w202
Sachs is OEM, not Bilstein, at least on non-AMG cars. I don't know enough about them to say.

Bilstein Comforts will be as close to original ride as you can get, and they are better shocks. I upgraded to HD, and it's firm, but IMO, wonderful. With 17s, feels like an AMG

The problem I am facing is that there is no part number for my C280 1997 other than S or HD.
I tried the reverse: from the Comfort series I specified Mercedes-Benz. The result was p/ns for the 190 series.

[OzC36]

Braz,

As usual, a seemingly simple part number question sometimes has a complex answer. In essence the answer is...it all depends...

Try here to start from square one:

http://www.translate.ru/url/tran_url.asp?lang=ru&direction=re&template=General&autotranslate=&transliterate=&url=http://www.detali.ru/cat/oem_mb.asp

This is for a model W202.028 C 280 (non AMG) for the front suspension:

http://www.detali.ru/cat/oem_mb2.asp?TP=1&F=202028&M=104%2E941&GA=722%2E328722%2E424722%2E604722%2E605722%2E629&GM=717%2E441&CT=F&cat=44V&SID=32&SGR=015&SGN=01

And so on...well I think you get the drift!

[BrazBenz]

Oz,
Many thanks for the great links.
My problem is not the MB P/Ns - I do have them.
In essence: I am looking for either Bilstein or Sachs STOCK shocks for my C280 Elegance 1997.
As of now I concluded that Bilstein does not offer them with their own P/N. (although you may find Bilsteins delivered to MB and packaged with MB P/Ns as previously pointed out)
The Bilstein Comfort line is the one from where supposedly these shocks should come from. But, again, I was unable to find Comforts for the C280 97 shock P/Ns.

On the other hand I have good news on the Sachs side: thru a cross reference from their site I was able to discover SPECIFIC Sachs P/Ns for the MB P/Ns used in my C280:

The shocks are:
MB 202 323 33 00 / Sachs 170.452 (front)
MB 202 326 27 00 / Sachs 170.450 (rear )

At Autohaus Az the 170.452 gives me a L4000-181129 (also Sachs).
Given that several shock brands have L4000 P/Ns I think they were recoded by some big distributor. The bad side is that I didn't find a catalog with the exact correspondence to have a double check.
A second point that is worth to mention: for the several different P/Ns MB has issued and gradually replaced by newer ones we may get also a 170.450 as the front shocks. The 170.452 refers to the last P/N published.
Thanks to all for your support.

[NEA-4311]

Originally posted by BrazBenz
Please see below info from a PDF file available in Bilstein's site.
As for the 1997 C36 (not mentioned below) if you go to a product search area, in the same site, they tell you to contact a distributor... (I mean THEIR distributor)
In fact not a single mention to something neither HD or Sport.

PRODUCTION SERIES W202 (C-CLASS)
180/200/220/230K/250D/280/T
93-5/00

HD F4-B36-1856-H0 (F) F4-B36-1857-H0 (R)
SP F4-B36-1854-H0 (F) F4-B36-1855-H0 (R)

So are these (HD Series) are definitely the closest Bilstein I can get to resemble and feel like the ones C36 has on? Yeap, Im looking to install a new set on my 2O2 and I would like to get what AMG has selected, without paying extra $$$ for the three - lettered brand.