Non-adjustable Bilsteins or Koni retrofit?

JamesShort · **Posted:** Fri Jul 23, 2010 10:14 pm

Question for you koni folks. I just got them installed. The rear shocks have the full 2 turns (maybe about 2.25 actually) of adjustment.

In the front, one insert only spins 0.5 turns stop to stop. and the other insert spins 1.25 turns....WTF? Anyone have erratic behavior like this?

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Fri Jul 23, 2010 10:22 pm

JamesShort wrote:

Question for you koni folks. I just got them installed. The rear shocks have the full 2 turns (maybe about 2.25 actually) of adjustment.

In the front, one insert only spins 0.5 turns stop to stop. and the other insert spins 1.25 turns....WTF? Anyone have erratic behavior like this?

Never*, having owned three sets of them over the years. Mine have always been roughly 2 turns - the revalved ones on the S2000 are a little less than that, maybe 1 7/8. Something doesn't sound right with yours.

Did you check the adjusters before you put them on, and if so, were they that way then? Apparently, it's pretty common for Konis to get munged up at install time. People put air tools on the top of the shaft where the bushing goes, and that screws them up.

* I've only had double wishbone cars with Konis, never a strut car

JamesShort · **Posted:** Fri Jul 23, 2010 10:37 pm

Karl Shultz wrote:

JamesShort wrote:

Question for you koni folks. I just got them installed. The rear shocks have the full 2 turns (maybe about 2.25 actually) of adjustment.

In the front, one insert only spins 0.5 turns stop to stop. and the other insert spins 1.25 turns....WTF? Anyone have erratic behavior like this?

Never*, having owned three sets of them over the years. Mine have always been roughly 2 turns - the revalved ones on the S2000 are a little less than that, maybe 1 7/8. Something doesn't sound right with yours.

Did you check the adjusters before you put them on, and if so, were they that way then? Apparently, it's pretty common for Konis to get munged up at install time. People put air tools on the top of the shaft where the bushing goes, and that screws them up.

* I've only had double wishbone cars with Konis, never a strut car

When they were off the car, I adjusted all of them to full soft and then installed. I did not use air tools on the strut/shock nuts. I used a go through socket with a 6mm allen key to uninstall the old one (to preserve my stock struts) and a 9mm socket to tighten the nut onto the konis. I was very careful to not let the damper shafts spin at all.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Fri Jul 23, 2010 10:47 pm

Did you happen to check and see what the range of adjustment was when they were off the car? That's not something I think most folks would even think to do, just thought I'd ask.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Fri Jul 23, 2010 10:51 pm

Karl Shultz wrote:

Did you happen to check and see what the range of adjustment was when they were off the car? That's not something I think most folks would even think to do, just thought I'd ask.

No I didn't

.

So one insert is potentially leaking straight out the box and both have fubar adjusters.....great first impressions with Koni, eh?

The rep at shox.com said to expect to be well taken care of by Koni-NA so I guess we'll see how things go. He said that I could probably get some extra $$ for labor?!? I would have been satisfied with new inserts, but I won't turn down some perks

.....particularly with my 4 busted knuckles.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Fri Jul 23, 2010 11:04 pm

JamesShort wrote:

No I didn't

.

So one insert is potentially leaking straight out the box and both have fubar adjusters.....great first impressions with Koni, eh?

The rep at shox.com said to expect to be well taken care of by Koni-NA so I guess we'll see how things go. He said that I could probably get some extra $$ for labor?!? I would have been satisfied with new inserts, but I won't turn down some perks

.....particularly with my 4 busted knuckles.

In before Jason starts in with one of his anti-Koni rants...

Anyway, trying to get comped for labor when you did the install yourself seems like an odd thing to do, but that's your decision. I'm sure Koni will take care of the problem. PM me your email address - I need to talk to my friend who works there about something unrelated anyway. I'd be happy to put a bug in his ear about yours.[/quote]

Jason Mauldin · **Posted:** Sat Jul 24, 2010 7:21 am

No need for me to start a rant.

Here's a bit of advice. Don't call Koni without being ready to defend your installation, and I'd certainly take Karl up on his offer to name drop his friend. Work through him if possible. He seems to be the key to getting decent service from Koni.

Sorry to hear about your troubles...

Michael Westerfield · **Posted:** Sat Jul 24, 2010 8:09 am

Since they haven't been used I would think about just getting your money back if possible. The more I hear about konis on strut cars your story (about them leaking) seems like par for the course. I have been thinking about shocks for the mustang and believe my options to be either Bilsteins or Bilsteins.

Jason Mauldin · **Posted:** Sat Jul 24, 2010 8:19 am

I'm not so sure the strut vs shock issue comes into play here.

These were bad out of the box. The strut argument is about them not being able to handle the forces from the strut suspension. This sounds more like a build quality issue.

Michael Westerfield · **Posted:** Sat Jul 24, 2010 8:39 am

That is true. All the others I know were after some amount use.

That being said I really liked the set I had on my double A arm Honda, but I don't think I could go for them on a strut car.

Jason Mauldin · **Posted:** Sat Jul 24, 2010 8:42 am

To be fair, I liked them on my strut cars as well when they work

JamesShort · **Posted:** Sat Jul 24, 2010 8:49 am

Jason Mauldin wrote:

No need for me to start a rant.

Here's a bit of advice. Don't call Koni without being ready to defend your installation, and I'd certainly take Karl up on his offer to name drop his friend. Work through him if possible. He seems to be the key to getting decent service from Koni.

Sorry to hear about your troubles...

I don't have to defend my installation, one of the other people on nasioc who got one of the first 10 sets is having the SAME issue but prior to installation....one turns .5 and the other 1.25 (my exact observations). Looks like Koni rushed a bit to beat Bilstein.

Karl, regarding getting comped for labor, that was shox.com technical guy talking. However, I think it's fair, particularly given these are inserts. I happen to have donor housings so I could have swapped my oems back in, but 99.9% of other koni insert users, hack up their oem struts to install these so if they leak or having issues they are s*** out of luck if it's their only car. If they can buy me new spring compressors (b/c one of mine broke on this install) I'd be happy

.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Sat Jul 24, 2010 8:56 am

Another thing, I find it interesting all the negative things I've heard about koni inserts for struts on this board. In fact it was part of what made me go with the Bilsteins way back when.

However, seems that *no* Subaru owners have issues with them (the previous chassis had struts at 4 corners too).

Jason, has your bad insert experience only been with one car? Or multiple?\

EDIT: To clarify the leak, it's not the damper shaft to shock seal that is leaking. There is a cap that screws into the body of the shock via a large two prong spanner (hence the two holes in the cap). It was leaking from there and the tech guy at shox.com said that they can be slightly overfilled from the factory and seep a bit from there. Looks like Koni-na is going to get a flood of calls on Monday from the other 9 people who got the first sets for this chassis. I'll let Karl do the dirty work for me but keep up with their feedback that they'll surely post.

Karl Shultz · **Posted:** Sat Jul 24, 2010 11:25 am

JamesShort wrote:

Looks like Koni-na is going to get a flood of calls on Monday from the other 9 people who got the first sets for this chassis. I'll let Karl do the dirty work for me but keep up with their feedback that they'll surely post.

Then it may well take care of itself.

Lee has a set of CRX shocks of mine that I need to get back from him and sell, or barter for a revalve for my current ones, so I'll mention the issue to him when I talk with him this coming week. I'm hardly going to "do the dirty work for you," though. :wink:

Kevin Allen · **Joined:** Thu Aug 28, 2003 6:42 pm **Posts:** 3479

JamesShort wrote:

Another thing, I find it interesting all the negative things I've heard about koni inserts for struts on this board. In fact it was part of what made me go with the Bilsteins way back when.

However, seems that *no* Subaru owners have issues with them (the previous chassis had struts at 4 corners too).

I've worn out/ busted several Konis on Subarus - some rallyxing, some just autoxing/dding/VIRing. Will never buy them again. Loving my Feal Suspension tarmac revalve/rebuild of the stock 06 STi struts.

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