Reviews for Bilstein Heavy Duty Gas Shock Set for 07-18 Jeep Wrangler JK & Wrangler Unlimited JK

Best. It's liked wonderfully.

Big difference from stock shocks. Nice ride. Can't go wrong with Bilstein!!!!!!

I have always used Bilstein in my vehicles for over 48 years. This set was no different. The Jeep has a firm, but controlled ride with these shocks. The rebound control is excellent and has eliminated the float from the rear in bumpy roads. My experience with Bilstein has been great longevity. I expect these will still be working well for the time I will own this Jeep.

Typical Bilstein quality, good and stable ride that seems to balance handling and control. They’re valved slightly tighter than the OEM Rubicon shocks but still allow slow speed flex. My only complaint would be the front shock studs. Rather than having a 17mm nut at the bottom of the shaft, these use a small Allen wrench that goes into the top of the stem, which allows you to tighten the nut down. On JKU’s, there is basically no room for this. I had to cut down a small Allen wrench to fit in there and it does not allow for easy tightening.

So far they seem like they provide a smoother ride than stock shocks but I wish I was told that, in order to install the front shocks, the cover has to be removed, which will ultimately shorten the life of the shocks because dust and dirt is allowed to get in without the covers.

At 130k miles I was way overdue. Ride feels like new again. -1 because installation is a PITA, mainly because of poor instructions. For the front, the orientation of the rubber bushings and metal washers is unclear. I oriented both washers with the concave side toward the bushing. I oriented both bushings with the protrusion upward. This was the most compact configuration and still the retaining screw did not protrude far enough to start the nut. I used a pry bar to push down on the nut while I used a wrench to get the threads started. Then I inserted the allen wrench and tightened the nut to the point where I could see a couple of threads emerge past the nylock. On the driver side, this got me to a point where I couldn't get the allen wrench out, so I had to back off and go find a stubby allen wrench, which fortunately I had. I didn't have the challenges that others report, because I removed the wheel well liners long ago when replacing the fender flares. For me, access was not bad.
Rear was pretty simple, but takes some strength to compress the shock to get in place. I had to jack up the front to stretch the suspension to be able to seat the bottom of the shock. The rear I didn't even need to do that.

I would give these shocks 0 stars if I could. Poor design and from what I have read, this problem has been an issue for years with nothing to correct the problem. Bushings are incorrectly sized. I could not get the passenger side shock installed because of such a tight space. I bought stubby hex wrenches and ratchet wrenches and still could not get to top bolt to secure. I wound up taking these off and ordering replacement Mopars. Shame on Bilstein for the poor design