Heavy D HTV

Good morning all,

After a lot of reading on the forums and debate, I decided to swap out my F45 RTD for Bilstein HD.

I was very worried about being successful turning of the F45 RPO code with the Tech II, but my friend was able to do it without much difficulty on my 2000 convertible. The RTD box has to be disconnected first on this vintage of C5 as my friend learned.

In all fairness, the F45s were probably worn out with 80k miles on them. I could never feel any difference between the three settings regardless of the road surface or speed, so I figured they were toast. I had also read on the forum that when you disable F45, the shocks will be completely inoperative and comparable to having no shocks at all. I don't know if that is true or not, but on my ride home after disabling F45, the difference was nearly imperceivable. I think that was another clue that the shocks were worn out. There was no leaking or any visible signs of damage to the original shocks, so don't count on that as an indicator that your shocks are toast. At that point, my concern that I was replacing perfectly good extra expensive shocks was alleviated.

The removal and installation of the new shocks was pretty intuitive. I changed them out in the driveway with little trouble. After changing the front, I started the car to back the rear on to the ramps and begin the jacking process. My heart sunk when every imaginable DIC warning came on.... ABS, Traction Control, Active Handling, etc... Oh well, I'm halfway into the project, I might as well finish. After replacing the rear shocks, I started it up again and no warnings! Not sure what happened, but am glad it magically fixed itself.

I should also note my car is at stock ride height and I have no plans to lower it. I live in a third world country (Detroit Metro Area) and the roads are horrendous. The car is too low for these roads as it is! I also do not participate in any track events. It's a summer time daily driver, so this review may not be of assistance to people who primarily use their car for track events.

On to the test drive... Oh my God! It is a completely different car! Between the new Corsa catback and the Bilstein HD shocks... All I can say is AMAZING! The ride is firm, but smooth and comfortable. I could feel every crack in the pavement and acorn I ran over before the swap. Now the little stuff like that is gone. It sounds counter intuitive, but the car rides much smoother and much more firm. The cornering ability has increased greatly as well. There is no doubt I have much better contact with the road. The Vette rode like a stagecoach before, even my beat up old truck had better ride quality. The ride is not at all "floaty" like a 1970 Cadillac, but it is comfortable and firm like a luxury sports car should be. It is similar to my friend's BMW Z4 in terms of ride and handling now.

Hope this helps anyone on the fence.

Heavy D

teejerdude

Heavy D, sounds like you had great success on this install, so congrats! A few weeks ago, I changed out my original shocks (FE1 suspension) on my '98 coup and installed the Bilstein HDs and am much happier with the ride quality. I had never touched a shock before this install. As a mediocre mechanic, shortly after the shock install, I developed a squeaking noise coming from the rear and it turns out I did not tighten the top bolts enough to properly compress the new shock bushings. This forum is wonderful, and with info from this forum; I was able to fix the squeaks (but had to pull off the rear shocks and reinstall). I just added C6 Z51 sway bars (FE3) as an upgrade from my skinny stock sways. I was skeptical the sways would make much of a difference, but the Bilstein HD shocks with the FE3 sways definitely inspire more confidence on the curves. I won't be running with the Z06 crowd, but the new package all works well together...and I was inspired to do all of this from the fantastic community on this forum. Hmmm, you did mention you have a nice Corsa exhaust...I smell a future mod. Again, congrats on the Bilstein HD install and getting your codes from the F45 to disappear!

Heavy D HTV

Hey Teejerdude,

Yes, I did upgrade to Corsa Sports and I love them. They are downright magical. It is nice and quiet inside the car. They are amazing at directing the sound rearward. Standing alongside the car, it is pretty quiet. Get directly behind it and WOW!

It's something you just can't believe until you experience it yourself. My neighbor couldn't believe it and had to call other neighbors over to hear it.

I did a review on the forum here: https://www.corvetteforum.com/forums...rsa-sport.html

Have fun with your mods!

D

ScumOne

I did this same shock up grade 18 months ago, only I went with the matching Bilstein Z51 shocks with the C6 Z51 sway bars on my 99 C5. Big difference over the tired old F45 setup.

Now I just leave the 3 position switch set to "Performance", since that's what it feels like.

Congrats on the upgrade, Heavy D HTV! Enjoy.

Heavy D HTV

Oh no! I just discovered that they turned my car Canadian, eh? The headlights are coming on all by themselves in the garage as soon as I turn on the car. Can't disable twilight sentinel. Looks like I'll have to get that fixed!

Vetteman Jack

on getting the shocks swapped out.