Right when I first drove the IS200 it felt to me that the XE1 chassis was relatively nice handling and stiff at least for a 17 year old sedan. But just like any other older car or even newer on stock suspension I've driven so far it didn't like high speed turns, heavy braking and especially quick weight shifts too much. The Eibach springs helped with this a little bit but not enough to satisfy me so I decided it's time for new shock absorbers.
After some research I chose to get Bilstein's B6 Sport shock absorbers. These are relatively affordable and should be a great improvement over OEM ones. When the package arrived I went straight to the garage and got to work.
It's pretty easy for manufacturers to win me as a customer just print "made in Japan" or a picture of the nürburgring on it and the fanboy in me will buy it.
The old struts came out quick since I did some maintenance on the rear a few days earlier so no bolt was rusted solid.
Time to switch over the springs and top plates from the old to the new shocks which is the long part of the job if you're using a manual spring compressor tool.
I couldn't help but to restore those top-plate-thingies which were covered in rust and undercoating before putting the struts back together.
Now comes the fun part, putting all the shiny bits back on the car.
I've driven about 2500km on them so far and I'm thoroughly impressed. The car feels way more stable now and the steering input is much more direct and the ride comfort only decreased a tiny bit. They definitely are worth every penny and offered more than I expected.
Here's an extra picture of the front all assembled a few days later when I changed the front brake rotors and pads.
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