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In the Workshop - A Shocking Tale, Part 3

 

 

Following my inaugural event in the Rav at Bilsington, I began the search for a better front suspension solution. The KYBs had got the car through the first event, but after the race I'd found that near side strut was bent. The bodies are fairly thin and not up to the job of racing. After lots of googling it became apparent that I wasn’t the only one looking for better suspension for a gen 1 RAV4, but no real ‘off road’ solution seemed to exist.

 

I found that Bilstein did make an uprated front strut insert, that if you are lucky enough to have front struts with removable 'screw' tops (and not pressed / crimped ones) can be gutted and the insert dropped into the bodies. Whilst stripped this would give the opportunity to strengthen the strut body, and prevent the bending that the KYB suffered at Bilsington. I ordered a pair, but the transaction was refunded a few days later and I was emailed to say they were no longer available.

 

When researching I also came across some youtube videos from Papidakis Racing. He has a gen 1 RAV4 fitted with a 3SGTE engine from a Toyota Caldina. The car was upgraded over a couple of videos, and in one they uprated the suspension with Bilstein components.

 

 

In this video they fitted Toyota Tundra triple bypass shocks to the rear of their RAV4 and Bilstein 'sport inserts' to the front. In order to fit the triple bypass there was some modifcaition to the position of the top mount, and they also added an additional support to the lower shock mount to put it into 'double shear', feeling that this would be needed.

 

 

Having discovered the existence of the Bilstein sports shocks via the Papdakis racing video, I reached out to the US company that provided them (that were linked in the video), but after a few exchanges the trail went cold. I contacted Bilstein in the UK. They said the sports shock was no longer available in the UK or Europe. After a bit of a discussion and a recap on the story so far, the then informed me that the insert I'd previously tried to buy was now back in stock, so I bought a pair.

 

This was a step forward. Having inserts meant I could now weld and strengthen the strut body without damaging the shock's internals. This should result in a solution that would avoid the bending experienced with the KYBs at Bilsington. 

 

 

The next event was Plurenden in early September. Other than a short road test, I'd not had the chance to do any testing with the new setup, but I had high hopes for the new struts. We unloaded the car and I drove it across the field to scrutineering. Immediately I drove the car on the rough surface I was concerned. By the time I finished the 'look see' lap I knew I was in trouble.

 

For an off-road application, the Bilstein shocks were ... rubbish. They were incredibly hard, and seemed to have no rebound damping at all. Instead they were very highly pressurised, with any compression quickly pushed back to maximum length.  Within a lap and a half they were overheating and providing almost no damping at all. The shocks started bottoming badly, and on lap 2 the near side strut top failed. After temporary repairs, we limped round 10 of the remaining 12 laps to get a finish. By the end driver's side had given up  completely and the wheel was bouncing around all over the place.

 

 

After the event as disassembly progressed we found that the near side shock was starting to leak with oily deposits on the shaft, but the off side insert had completely burst and leaked all its oil into the strut casing. Both inserts also showed significant signs of overheating with discolouration to the paint, and the off side insert showed signs of some internal failure with bulging marks in the casing and cracking paint as if something was being forced from the inside out. 

 

The shocks were returned to Bilstein for analysis, and were replaced under warranty but were not refitted to the vehicle. Instead, for the next event (and last of 2025), I decided to return to the KYB setup. The KYBs were far from ideal, but if used with a little caution they would at least allow me to race. The next event was a 2 day 'Safari plus' (so much faster and longer)  at Manston airfield in Kent, with a potential of over 120 race miles to survive.

 

There were a few things to sort. First, the broken top mount. After a discussion with CompBrake they made a replacement pair of bearing holders in steel. Although slightly heavier they would be stonger and les prone to fatigue. Next to replace the  bent shock which was fairly easy to source, and then finally to reassemble and install the setup.

 

When it came to the race, the course was significantly less bumpy than Bilsington or Plurenden. The speed was much faster, so that aided shock cooling. After 2 or 3 runs back to back with no break, they did start to fade, but slowing down for the rougher parts and limiting jumping antics got us to the end without bending the KYBs. During the course of the weekend, we did destroy the aging stock bump stops, but the steel top mounts performed well. 

 

 

After the final run, looking over the car before loading up, we noticed some significant cracks had appeared in the near side strut tower. This must be a result of the recent beating the car had taken - especially on the near side - with poor or completely failed suspension.  It really was time to try to make some improvements to the car and I had a few ideas of what we could achieve over the winter break...