AEV Bilstein 5100
 

Hello all, wanted to gauge any reactions or experience with this.

I have the 3.5 AEV lift on my 2010 Jeep JK Rubicon Unlimited. Unfortunately, after about 75,000 miles on it, my right rear Bilstein 5100 has sprung a leak. I've always found the lift/springs/shocks to be a little stiff for my liking. I do have aftermarket front and rear bumpers, but it still has always felt a little "stiff" for me. I don't overland, I only play around in the local off road park when I get a chance, and nothing too challenging.

Does anyone have any experience with replacing the shocks on this lift? I have heard good things about Fox and Rancho swap outs, but of course AEV says their shocks are directly tuned to the springs.

I guess I could just replace the rears with direct replacement AEV Bilstein 5100s, but I am open to replacing all four if it will work well and make the ride a bit more comfortable.

Thanks for your input.

Fox is a bit softer on setting 1 but is our country aftersales service is good on Bilstein and non-existing on Fox.

They are warranted from leaking. Bilstien should replace them.
Unless you are having shocks specifically built for your rig replacing with off the shelf throw away shocks is just a crap shoot.
Companies that claim shocks are "tuned" for their lift are just using marketing to get you to believe you are getting something you are not. You are just getting a generic valving for a range of the JK.

Unfortunately, due to them being packaged in a kit from AEV with the 3.5" SC lift, it is AEV's warranty program that goes into effect, thus, with 5 years and 75k on it, no longer under warranty per AEV.

I always get a kick out of that. And most especially for shocks like those Bilsteins 5100s: Heck, Bilstein didn't even design the shock to be installed in the JK without either cutting into the plastic on the passenger fender, or removing the battery, tray, and everything that attaches to it (air box, TIPM, etc). Such a simple thing that many other manufacturers did correctly, and twice I've seen an improperly installed Bilstein shock come loose on that passenger side because installers didn't do the job right.

So you're saying that the shocks in a AEV 2.5 are no better than a generic 5100 I could buy from anywhere???

. Seems it would simple enough to put an aev Bilstein 5100 and an off the shelf one on a suspension dyno and see. They have different part numbers. I bet they are slightly different. Probably not enough different for a butt dyno to feel but I bet they are different. Heck Bilstein makes a different front 5100 shock for a long arm lift a be a short arm lift. They are valved different but Bilstein says they are interchangeable

They are the same shock with different valving. Tuning shocks is more then "matching to coils" which I am not really sure how you do that since the coils are not matched to the vehicle or what your are doing with the vehicle. Weight of the vehicle and what you are doing with the vehicle has a lot to do with the tuning of the shocks and what valving you need. Something likes Marks rig would take something very different then a stripped down 2 door sport. This is one reason why in these "what shock" threads you can get answers from rides great, to too soft, to to firm for the same shock.

Unless you are doing coil overs or ORI stats it is almost impossible to get a properly tuned suspension from a kit since you can't get coil rates out of the manufacturers. You typically start with your vehicle corner wights and choose coils to match your lift requirements. With that in mind and what you are going to do with the jeep then you adjust the valving. Rock crawling and on road typically have a lighter compression and rebound where as go fast vehicles will have heavier compression and faster rebound and will typically run higher psi on the nitrogen.

At minimum if you want to improve your ride, I would look into one of the shocks that has compression adjustment in them so you can do a bit of fine tuning to the shocks. Bypass shocks offer adjustment in compression and rebound and can be built to have adjustable zones along the travel but are expensive and typically are more to set up then the average jeeper wants to spend.

No. I'm saying that a company--and I happen to usually like AEV products--that can't take the time to engineer for easy remove and replace hasn't exactly given me faith that they've engineered anything else about their product correctly. If they'd actually installed one, then surely someone would have said, "Hey, we need to can the Allen wrench hold-down on the stud shaft and weld a nut to the shock shroud instead." That would be engineering for a JK install instead of cramming something off-the-shelf in place. (Please bear in mind that I have a quarter century of work in a past life engineering and designing military command and control systems, including the logistic processes behind all of that, and working in maintenance and flying as a crewmember in three conflicts using those actual systems, so that's where I'm coming from).

Thanks for the responses!

AEV springs are stiff to handle the weight of overlanding. Bilsteins are a soft shock. If you want to actually find a shock that works great with those springs, get something adjustable like the Rancho 9K's. Then you have like 9 settings to find one that makes it ride to your satisfaction. If you can wait, Rancho will be probably be doing a spring time deal where you can get 4 for the price of 3.

I have the AEV 2.5" Dual Sport XT (2016 2 Door) and maybe I can help a little?

I ran the AEV Bilsteins and they were great. However, I really missed the tune-ability & ride of the Fox 2.5 w/DSC I had on my prior vehicle (2015 4Runner). I bit the bullet and dropped about $3K on the FOX shocks after only 1000 miles on the entire AEV lift.

Like someone said, most pre-packaged suspension systems use a broad paint brush stroke in an effort to cover the most vehicle set-ups it can. I called AEV and found out they tune all their systems using their own front bumper, rear bumper & tire carrier is made for their prepackaged completed dealer trucks. Unfortunately, I found this all out AFTER I had installed the lift because I was having issues with alignment specs, rear control arm and the overall ride.

I am now running ARB front and rear bumpers, but only a Teraflex hinge tire carrier. I also have a Bestop Trektop Pro and removed my rear seat. In other words, I am missing about 200 lbs. than what AEV has "tuned" my suspension for and I am running only a 285/75R17 tire. I was sitting about an inch to high in the back after install. Even after a 10mm front spacer and playing around with what I could, there was just to much freeway chop for my taste.

In the end and based on past experience, the best way to cover my needs was going back to a fully adjustable shock absorber. Once you have the ability to dial in the type of ride & handling you want, you will never want anything else!!! The FOX DSC's were a big chunk of change, but I'm grinning ear to ear whenever I drive my JK. The difference was significant on what was already a nice suspension system.

I will say that Fox customer service leaves little to be desired but the actual product has been high quality. Also, after about 40-50K miles, you will want to think about rebuilding the FOX shocks. Try to get that leaky shock replaced and then just save them to run while your FOX's are out getting rebuilt.

I hope the above info helps a bit, but not knowing your price point, this is all I can offer you.

The link below is for a 3.5" set-up and you might find it interesting re: AEV & Fox :

FOX 2.5 Factory Series Shock Review

[QUOTE=RESQLAB;4271141]I have the AEV 2.5" Dual Sport XT (2016 2 Door) and maybe I can help a little?

RESQLAB, how do you like running the AEV 2.5 kit with the BFG 34's? I am thinking about that combo in the near future, so any input would be appreciated!