madsedan

I am going to replace my stock shocks/springs with Tein flex when the stock dampers finally give up the ghost. Currently the rear feels pretty good but the front is a little soft for my taste. I'm used to tracking M3's with stiffer suspension so I'm going after the same feel in this car. I am getting a little bit of oversteer under hard throttle out of turns at speed but this is my first S2k so i'm not sure yet if this is normal or a sign that the front shocks are toast. In the M3 we would run same size rims/tires all around and set the car up to be neutral.

My question is with the average lifespan of the stock dampers, the car currently has 63k miles on it, at this mileage the stock M3 shocks would be ready for a change, how long do daily driven S2k shocks last from the factory?

Ek9

Just a comment on the oversteer. That's a charactaristic of the S2k. They oversteer at the drop of a hat. People will post here after me calling it "neutral" but, it's anything but. You get used to it.

Is the Tein setup actually better than stock? That I'm not sure of. Stocks pretty damn good.

CoralDoc

63k is pretty high for stock shocks on any car. If you're looking for an excuse and want to play with the handling balance of the car, now is the time.

The cars have been tamed down in terms of oversteer. MY 2000 cars were pretty notorious, slightly better for the later AP1s and tamer still for the AP2s.

SpitfireS

My OEM shocks looked ok after 75k miles.
No oil leaks or anything.
I don't know if they actually were 100% because I did not do a shock test.

Using the UK-spec allignment will also improve handling.
Easy to do (and undo ) and a lot cheaper then new shocks.

With my Koni's (on OEM springs) I noticed a bit better damping at the rear during fast bumpy corners.

frofro24

If you are going to do it just do it. If you have been riding on the factory set up for 63k I am sure you will be waiting a long time for the struts to go. (Depending on the way the car has been driven in the past or present.) There is a 100K post floating the forum, maybe you could post your question there to see how some of those peoples struts have been holding up.

CoralDoc

When shocks fail it's pretty obvious - fluid may be leaking out, there is no dampening of comression, rebound, or both. However, most of the time, shocks suffer a slow, gradual decline in performance. This often goes unnoticed, but if you were to replace the shocks, even with OEM, there is a noticeable difference in ride and response.

Most shocks are a good way down the path of decline by 63k miles, and if you're contemplating a suspension upgrade anyway, it's a good time to do it. If you aren't going to change your suspension and can live with diminished dampening, there is no reason not to live with your original shocks up to 100k miles. Another good solution - to inexpensively restore dampening - is to pick up a set of take-off shocks from someone who switched to an aftermarket setup early in the car's life.