Has anyone bought shocks from their GM delaership? Were they Bilstiens or AC Delco's? The reason I ask is I want to put the OEM's on my 96 and the dealer can't tell if their AC Delco's or not. At an earlier post someone indicated the OEM shock was Bilstiens. It appears the Bilstien is far more superior than AC Delco. The reason for wanting to buy from the dealership is I get a substantial markdown from being in the automotive industry. Thoughts???

 

The Bilstein shocks I have seen are yellow and blue. Delco shocks are usually black. The Bilsteins will have the name on them. I think your dealer parts guy is clueless.

 

Bilenstens are usually yellow & blue A/C Delco are white or black

 

I have a 93 with Bilstiens (FX3) Mr Goodwrench price was 695. ea.Got them online for 185.ea. So You can see the corvette tax ,If you get a heak of a discount get them from GM. You get a delco sticker for the extra money.

 

I can't speak to a 96's shocks, except to say that the old FX3 system was updated from previous yrs.

However I can give you a web site, partszoneonline.com, go there & use the phone # to the parts dept. They have people who know how to look up GM parts for corvettes and are very through in checking for superceeded P/N's. Oh yea the last detail.com has a phone # and they are just as through if you call them...they speak corvette too!

 

AC-Delco shocks (painted black) were used from 1984 thru 1988 cars with the base (FE1) suspension. There were slight rate differences between coupes and vert shocks in both the Delco and Bilstein shocks.

"Bisltein/Delco" shocks showed up in the heavy duty suspension at the same time and continued on throughout C4 production in both base and optional suspension packages.

The Bilstein/Delco shocks were yellow with a Bilstein/AC Delco label. I'm not sure if all of the factory shocks got the rubber shock rod cover. My Bilstein shocks for my 87 Z51 came with yellow metal covers in front and blue rubber covers in the rear.

Bilstein made the shocks for GM and put the AC Delco label on them. The shock rate and specific dimensions were made to GM spec for the car. If you go with specific Bilstein shocks (from an aftermarket supplier) they will be very close to the same.

You should be able to find Bilstein OEM-equal base shocks for your car for about $70 each at retail. If you have F45 that may be a different story. This link shows 6 different shock versions for the 1996 based on body style and suspension options

 

My apologies to all for leaving out a specific detail. The reason the dealer can not tell me much is he would have to order them (they're not a stock item). The links and comments were very well apreciated. Thanks a bunch to the members of this forum.

 

try eshocks.com too they have some awesome prices!