Learn me Bilstein B4's

Much to my surprise, Bilstein lists a bewildering 4 different variants of their B4 shock / strut for the Merc 190E. They show:

22-001993 - Standard suspension

22-001924 - Off-road suspension

22-002006 - Sport suspension

22-003621 - Heavy duty suspension

Again, this is a Mercedes 190E, so the standard and sport make sense to me. But how do the heavy duty and the off-road variants stack up? And, wait, they have an off-road shock for the 190 ??!!??!! Costs are within $30/shock for each variant, unlike the B6 (also listed as heavy duty), which is more like double the price. The plan is to wade into the rallyx waters once I've given it the once over and done the needed deferred maintenance, but it's also a semi-DD. I think the standard option is out, but I have no idea whether to go sport, HD, or off-road.

I will have to start a proper build thread, but for now I have no pics and I'm still determining which parts to amass and when.

Heavy duty might be because they were used as taxi's and as police cars occasionally. I know that some of the Africa delivery cars got slightly higher suspension as well .

This makes me want a 190 for a rallycross car even more. What year 190 are you building?

When in doubt, HD. Lots of rally/rallyx e30's running them w/ happy results.

B4s ie standard are what they call touring. Its just a normal twin tube gas shock. B6 are the HD's, the stereotypical yellow and blue bilstein everyone knows and loves. The sports are hds that are are shorter (for lowered cars) and stiffer (the hds are already stiffer than the b4's but sports are stiffer yet). I dont suggest the standard b4s to anyone but personally love the b6 HD. Havent tried the sports. And no clue about the offroad.

If stock height get hd if lowering springs get sports.

chiodos wrote: B4s ie standard are what they call touring. Its just a normal twin tube gas shock. B6 are the HD's, the stereotypical yellow and blue bilstein everyone knows and loves. The sports are hds that are are shorter (for lowered cars) and stiffer (the hds are already stiffer than the b4's but sports are stiffer yet). I dont suggest the standard b4s to anyone but personally love the b6 HD. Havent tried the sports. And no clue about the offroad. If stock height get hd if lowering springs get sports.

That's the surprising part, the HD's that I referenced are NOT from the B6 line. All of the shocks I listed are B4, per Bilstein's own site. They have the B6 ones as well, but those are a different part number from the B4.

I e-mailed a vendor about it and their reply was mostly in line with what has been said here:

I do not have detailed specifics of what bilstein did differently in them but it should break down like this: standard - basic OEM; sport - slightly lower spring, stiffer shock/strut; off-road - used in some other countries as a poor road package, stiffer, taller spring; heavy duty - essentially the same as the off-road but not as tall. The different shocks/struts were accompanied by correlating springs. Generally the off-road package was the stiffest but you might want to consider contacting bilstein to see if they can provide you more exact specs.

And in answer to your question Brett_Murphy, '85 190E. 210k on the chassis, ~160k on the engine (2.3 8V). And the only reason I bought this one - 5sp manual! Based on my observations from driving it over really rough, potholed sections of road in my area on the admittedly shot suspension, it feels like it should be awesome on the rougher stuff!

Maybe the vendor uses their own internal part numbering system and has it borked up? Have you cross referenced them to bilstein themselves?

Offroad, just because it's offered and an excellent suggestion to any 190E owner.