they look like this, nobody makes working ads shocks except bilstein. even on more popular brands like mercedes

 

Thanks for the picture buddy, did you take it out of a Chinese strut?, Please elaborate a bit more I'm very interested. How do you know for sure have you tested them?

It's really good information, would be interesting to know more, did you take the strut apart?

 

Look, I understand what you're saying. OEMs have their parts made in China, we all know that.

But here's the thing. OEMs have their suppliers in China that make their parts to their specification, and there are other Chinese companies that are making copies. Are they as good as the OEM? Are they better? Are they worse? NOBODY KNOWS. It seems to me that you're suggesting that because JLR have their parts made in China, and you've never had a problem with Chinese-made parts, that somehow this means you can order pretty much anything you want and you won't have a problem.

That's a leap I'm just not willing to make. China is a big country with a LOT of manufacturers. Seller A on AliExpress is not necessarily making parts to the same quality Seller B on AliExpress, and neither of them might be making them to the same quality as OEM. Let's not pretend for one second that there aren't Chinese manufacturers who make parts that look the same but don't actually perform the same, especially with longevity etc.

How do you tell the difference? All you've got to go on is literally a JPEG of a suspension strut on an AliExpress listing. How do you even know they made it? They could've just pulled it off a Google Image search and figure they'll "work it out when an order comes in". None of any of this stuff is guaranteed and I'm amazed that anyone would suggest you just implicitly trust these listings.

Sure, you've had good experience buying Chinese parts. But maybe that's also because you have the time and the money to be a guinea pig testing different suppliers and parts qualities. For critical parts (suspension,brakes,engine) I'm definitely not willing to do that vs. just buying parts that I know are genuine to save a few hundred bucks. Swapping the shocks out takes time, and I definitely value my time more than that.

Edited to add: In specific reference to why this forum is growing so fast, that's not so much down to the reliability of the brand as it is that the price of (especially) used XFs has dropped considerably since they were introduced - an XFR can now be had for way under a quarter of their original retail price. That's a lot of f**king car for under 20 grand. This makes them far more accessible to people, especially to younger people who don't see the same stigma attached to an XF as they maybe did to say an early 2000s XJ. Jaguars have a reputation for unreliability in the US, which surprised me as a Brit now living here because we all knew the Jaguars of today are nothing like the 1970s XJSs that the US grew to laugh at for its unreliabilty. Go on any forum for any marque now, they all have problems - I don't think Jaguar has any more than any other car really, especially the Germans, who did an amazing job of selling the idea of Germanic reliability even long past the days it were true - mid-2000s Mercedes, for example, have frankly attrocious build quality.

 

My Jag has been a lot better than my Toyota and both Lexuses. Hasn't given hardly any trouble at all. Some are lemons, most are not. Jag has more lemons then other car makers, I'll give you that but Lexus makes lemons too. They are not infallible. I'll tell you the wear parts on my Jag are twice as in-expensive as my lexus sometimes three times. Jag water pump, $220 and My GS water pump $700. M5 (1) brake rotor, $1000. XFR (1) brake rotors $346. The only parts that are troublesome are made of plastic and should be on a replacement schedule and/or swapped with a metal part. The plastic parts are just as troublesome on my Lexus and other BMW and Mercedes as the Jag. If you snooze and let those parts break on you then your day will be ruined.

I am with Dave on this one, Bilstien are the best in the world at suspension. Did you know that in all of motorsports on road and off, you can count all the victories of all the shock companies in the world and combine them into one lump, and the lump with Bilstien is bigger. They have more racing victories and are on more OEM track setups than any other company combined. How is that possible? Well they invented the high gas pressure shock first of all. It was miles better than everything else when it came out and meant you had a shot at winning. Second their facilities pump out high quality in mass volume; is what drives their price to un-reproducable price points. Mass production means less expensive not lower quality. Their shock valves and shock dyno charts are better than all the cheap stuff and even some of the expensive. You will see well known coil-overs bouncing all over the place and fail to keep the car in control at high speed when they are tuned low and fail at low speed when tuned high. Some fail at high and low speeds because they are tuned to the middle and have a narrow window of performance. Some fail cold tuned for hot and vice versa.

One easy way to tell if a shock is just marketing is to see it on a 24 endurance race car. That environment will weed out ALL the wannabes and all the "We are just as gooders look at our billet suspension" guys. Billet means nothing. CNC this and that means nothing. Does your damping and valving still work in a 24 hour race? Does your shock have cavitation and foam the oil? Does it overheat? Can it perform at low middle and high speed as well as cold and hot temps the same way? Those are the million dollar questions. The way the gas pressure shock works is to use gas pressure to prevent cavitation and foaming of the oil and maintain performance hot or cold, fast or slow and that my friends is what separates Bilstien from anyone else doing suspension. They have won more races and been more consistent around the globe in every type of environment than any other company combined. Their off the shelf shocks are better than most companies dedicated coil-over setups. Bilstien can ride good AND perform on track AND not cost you your first born child. And they are offered on more vehicles than any other shock company. They also have a lifetime warranty. What is not to like? Why fix what is not broken? They are simply the best, Id choose them over any other company for suspension 10 times out of 10. I am not affiliated with Bilstien in any way.