2010 Liberty GT Bilstein OEM shocks replacement?

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Re: 2010 Liberty GT Bilstein OEM shocks replacement?

Postby ilib11 » Wed Aug 31, 2022 6:21 pm

Pulled the trigger and ordered Cusco Touring A set from Car Mods Australia - P/N 687 65T A:
https://www.carmodsaustralia.com.au/touring-a-aus-spec-shock-absorbers-liberty-gt-09-15.html
https://www.cusco.co.jp/en/news/touring-a_shock_absorbers.html
http://suspension.cuscousainc.com/cusco-touring-a/

Will try to rebuild old Bilsteins once I put the Cuscos in and took Bilsteins off the car.

Regards, ilib11
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Re: 2010 Liberty GT Bilstein OEM shocks replacement?

Postby bigBADbenny » Wed Aug 31, 2022 9:22 pm

Wow good pick!
Just a little more pricey than kyb SR digressive single rate struts…
yet less than Koni and less hassle too, lowering compatible plus two stage cprv : can’t wait for the post break in review.

The CPRV feature sounds amazing for touring purposes.
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Re: 2010 Liberty GT Bilstein OEM shocks replacement?

Postby ilib11 » Sun Oct 16, 2022 4:04 pm

Hi All,
I got my Cusco Touring A set installed this week, here are some quick results:

1. Cusco Touring A results
The car lifted up 1 cm, both front and rear.
The behavior on the road with the Cusco settings close to max hard (19 of 20 at front, 17 of20 at rear) is very similar to Bilstein. I have not tried softer settings yet.
Even with hard setting as above, the tolerance and handling of speed bumps, pot holes and other stuff on the road improved greatly.

Overall, I am happy with the replacement. Will experiment with softer settings later.


2. Cusco Touring A installation instead of Bilsteins
The installation of Cusco after Bilsteins may come with surprises.

Front: Bilsteins do not have rubber bumpers, and Cusco seems to be have a slightly thicker rods than the standard shocks. So if you are replacing Bilsteins, you will need a bumper 20321AA201 ( marked red ).

You may install also inner dust cover (20322sc000, marked green) - I believe it clicks onto strut's body. Please check it has a hole for a rod wide enough - mine set with a snag fit and I do not believe it is right, so you may need to make a hole slightly bigger so the strut's rod moves freely through the dust cover.

I expected to reuse the outer dust cover (also marked green) from Bilsteins (20322AG010) but the service who did the work said it did not fit and they just did not install any outer dust cover! That for me is very, very strange. The top mounts and pads are the same so I cannot imagine any reason why the outer dust cover could not be reused. So if it is true, then you would need an outer dust cover from a standard struts (20322FG000, also marked green). I currently have only inner dust covers which I pushed up to the very top and they sit fit on the rods just below the bumber and provide some cover for the open part of the rod. Not happy with the works that service did not installing the outer dust covers and also not telling me about that either.

You will need to make a hole with 10mm diameter in the top mount caps (marked blue) for adjusters to go out.

Front Strut Parts - Cusco.JPG
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Rear: bolt-on install with old parts could be reused, only one issue - the adjusters on top of the rear strut rods holds the boot trim slightly up. You will need to cut trim if you want to get to adjusters on regular basis. And probably add some plastic tubes on to of them so the adjusters are not affected by the things you may place in the boot.

Post-Mortem and Bilsteins rebuild
The front Bilsteins taken from the car - the rods have some free play in the strut case, you can feel that if you try to move rods laterally. I managed to disassemble the struts - you need to unscrew a nut at the bottom and then screw in the bolt, and you can take the rod out. As you can see, seal is on a good condition and there is grease there. The red stripes inside are bearings, and you can feel that they are not a snug fit and the rod have a play there. You can also see they are not big at all, I expected them to be wider.

I was not able to remove the metal ring which holds the seal, so I am not able to take the bearings out yet.

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Regards, ilib11
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Re: 2010 Liberty GT Bilstein OEM shocks replacement?

Postby bigBADbenny » Wed Oct 19, 2022 4:31 am

Great update, how’s the break in progressing?
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Re: 2010 Liberty GT Bilstein OEM shocks replacement?

Postby ilib11 » Wed Oct 19, 2022 6:10 pm

Not sure if got the question correctly about break in, sorry - I cannot see of feel any changes since struts are installed, so looks like nothing happened for break in.... Or shall be any changes over time?
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Re: 2010 Liberty GT Bilstein OEM shocks replacement?

Postby bigBADbenny » Tue Oct 25, 2022 7:05 am

They must be pre-broken-in then :P

How do they perform vs the Bilsteins?

Hopefully the fancy features are essentially digressive damper tuning.
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Re: 2010 Liberty GT Bilstein OEM shocks replacement?

Postby ilib11 » Sun Oct 30, 2022 12:00 pm

1. Cusco Touring A results
I tried the soft settings - on max soft the car feels and handles on street like a boaty mass-production Holden. :) It might be good on corrugated roads where Bilsteins were pretty much undrivable. Will try once I get to such roads (that does not happen often though). So for sure the adjustment range is wide and you would be able to find your sweet settings.

So I reverted the Cusco settings close to max hard (19 of 20 at front, 17 of20 at rear) - and the behavior and handling is very similar to Bilstein and very good, but well better with speed bumps, pot holes and other stuff on the road - the Cusco struts absorb them very well and makes the drive much smoother then Bilsteins without compromise on handling.


3. Bilsteins rebuild - continued
I managed to remove the metal ring which holds the seal with a bent metal rod, piece of plastic and a light hammer. Next is to find a way to extract the seal and bearings....
Capture5.JPG
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Re: 2010 Liberty GT Bilstein OEM shocks replacement?

Postby bigBADbenny » Mon Oct 31, 2022 6:55 am

Using the stock springs on the Cusco struts?
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Re: 2010 Liberty GT Bilstein OEM shocks replacement?

Postby ilib11 » Mon Oct 31, 2022 7:53 am

Yes, old stock Bilstein springs are reused. They are of a black colour and with a white and blue dots (if my memory does not fail me).

Update:
partnumbers for front spring:
my stock with Bilstein strut: 20330AJ030
stock with non-Bilstein strut: 20330AJ000
Last edited by ilib11 on Tue Nov 01, 2022 8:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: 2010 Liberty GT Bilstein OEM shocks replacement?

Postby bigBADbenny » Mon Oct 31, 2022 9:00 pm

That might explain your preference for the upper range of the damping adjustment, aftermarket springs might have a heavier spring rate eg to suit a lowered ride height, therefore requiring less damping?
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Re: 2010 Liberty GT Bilstein OEM shocks replacement?

Postby RX25SE » Tue Nov 01, 2022 8:25 pm

Higher rate springs store more energy, so require more damping.
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Re: 2010 Liberty GT Bilstein OEM shocks replacement?

Postby bigBADbenny » Fri Nov 04, 2022 3:26 am

Properly performing suspension setup is always a balancing act between the related factors (including the tyres which are an undamped spring) plus personal preference for the handling feel.

Softer springs eg stock springs allow more wheel movement potentially requiring more damping?
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Re: 2010 Liberty GT Bilstein OEM shocks replacement?

Postby ilib11 » Mon Dec 12, 2022 8:40 am

3. Bilsteins rebuild - continued

Ok folks, next step completed - I managed to get out oil seals and the top bearings.

First removed a spring ring from the oil seal with a paper clip. Then use a slightly bend & carved metal rod to kick out the seals. The metal rod is about 45 cm in length (cut from a Bunnings' one of 3.6 m p/n 1091129 $5.66 :) ). I put it from the bottom part of the strut where there is a convenient hole.
Oil seals have a metal outer ring, no signs of any glue or else - just a snug fit. They are in good condition still, no need for a replacement.
Capture6.jpg
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Then I tried to get the bearings out. I presume best would be a tool like that https://www.kitplanes.com/its-a-knockout/ but I do not have a lathe so I tried to use that metal rod and flat screwdrivers. Very snug fit, I was not able to move the bearings either in or out and had to cut them first with a metal saw blade:
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Finally I got the top bearing out:
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Next step is to get bearing replacements and try to put them in. I do not think I will be able to extract the bottom bearing - pretty much impossible without extra tools. So I will try just to put a new bearing on top of the old one. And I will try to use a bit wider bearing (30mm instead of 20mm) for the top one.
Stay tuned....
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Re: 2010 Liberty GT Bilstein OEM shocks replacement?

Postby bigBADbenny » Mon Dec 12, 2022 9:43 am

Have you contacted Hakon suspension for parts or advice?

I was peeping their website and they stock all sorts of nice things like Koni sport & Bilstein, very reasonable prices too :good:
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Re: 2010 Liberty GT Bilstein OEM shocks replacement?

Postby ilib11 » Mon Dec 12, 2022 9:54 am

No, did not know about Hakon suspension, sorry. RS Online have the SKF 30mm bearings for $10 - ordered these for Jan 2023 delivery.
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