I do not recommend this suspension. Both front coil over hammered loundly over small closely spaced bumps. It literally sounded like a ball pein hammer was being hit against the fender wells. I retorqued to factory specs and then later removed, reinstalled, and retorqued again, but the problem would not go away. Eibach gave me some custom spacers to allow the use of the OEM coilover tops (pillow blocks) on their coilovers (after drilling out the OEM parts for the bigger shafts). This helped alot, but one coilover still made an annoying amount of noise on small sharp bumps. One coilover wept ever so slightly from the oil seal right out of box. I figured it was just leftover oil spilled from original assembly. But it very slowly grew over approximately 3 years until now it finally shows as a deadlining oil leak. On the non-leaking coilover the welded tab that hosts the anti-roll bar end link broke in half. I did not like the characteristics of components either. The suspension was much firmer and controlled than OEM, which I liked, but the high speed performance was too soft while the low speed performance was too firm at any rebound setting on the dampers. The damping characterisitics were not on par with what I have experienced from Koni or Bilstein on other vehicles. I was relieved actually that the anti-roll bar link tab broke. I finally removed the Eibach fromt components and replaced them with all the OEM parts plus new Bilstein dampers, availble here at Tire Rack for $102 each. I like the Bilsteins SO much more. $1,300 less and no clunking, no leaks, and excellent damping performance. The AR bar link tab on the Bilsteins is made of much thicker steel than the Eibachs, plus you can use the OE dust boots to protect the damper shafts. I really regret every buying the Eibach suspension. I put in on a new car and then had it aggravate me every drive for 3 years. Now with the Bilsteins I finally am enjoying my "new" Challenger.

-- Review submitted 2012-09-18

Overall the R1 s are an excellent product, with some caveats, which we ll discuss first. For the Volkswagen GTI Mk5 Eibach is supplying the R1 s with spring rates that simply don t work. The supplied rates are 275f, 300r. At 275 front, there simply isn t enough spring rate with little 7" linear race springs to prevent the car from bottoming. However, the shocks have more than enough damping to support springs up to 600 lb/in. I ended up with 350fr/300rear, which has been working well. The supplied shocks seem to be of excellent quality, the inverted gas mono-tubes work great at the track and when turned down to softer settings are plenty comfortable on the street. The only other slight complaint is the rear adjusters. Rather than use a simple knob to adjust, Eibach uses a small wheel with holes, you use a pin to turn the adjuster. They are located at bottom of shock. A thumb wheel would have made much more sense (like AST s or Ohlins etc.). Otherwise great product. The finish and packaging of the shocks is first rate, you ll know you re getting a quality product when you unbox them. With the caveat of the springs not being ideal (but easily replaceable) highly recommended for a car seeing track days. Note that I ordered my new springs from Hyperco, they make excellent springs. Note that the rating system is sorta difficult in that suspension handling is really dependent on how you set up the damping and springs rates. For a few extra bucks also consider the R2, which has separate adj for rebound and compression.

-- Review submitted 2012-02-12