Koni woes

Michael Westerfield · **Posted:** Wed Feb 02, 2011 8:26 pm

...and on that note, Konis are now 20% off at Stranoparts.com.

Pretty significant saving over retail for yellows or SRTs.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:37 pm

They are on sale for 25% off at shox.com too

.

Michael Westerfield · **Posted:** Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:41 pm

JamesShort wrote:

They are on sale for 25% off at shox.com too

.

Even better/worse depending on how much you like Koni!

JamesShort · **Posted:** Wed Feb 02, 2011 9:56 pm

Michael Westerfield wrote:

JamesShort wrote:

They are on sale for 25% off at shox.com too

.

Even better/worse depending on how much you like Koni!

Knowing me, I probably need a new set, what do you think?

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Thu May 12, 2011 8:33 am

Well, it took 3.5 months, but Koni sent me some brand new shocks. TC Kline was out of stock on these top-adjust rear E46 shocks, and Koni was out of stock also. Hence it took a long time waiting for them to be made (apparently) and then a few weeks of slow boat shipping from Europe. Koni USA didn't want to rebuild/fix the old ones for whatever reason -- perhaps they know more about the clunking true issue or something.

Anyway, they arrived yesterday, and fortunately the E46 is here in town as Jackie just graduated on Sunday from GA Tech. For those of you that know Jackie and watched her mature into a very good autocrosser starting in her junior year of high school, she majored in Mechanical Engineering and did incredible at GA Tech. She starts a research assistantship at GA Tech next week as she's going to grad school there now. She's working on some sophisticated new modeling software for the entire chassis and drivetrain for Ford who is sponsoring her grad school with a scholarship and stipend. It's going to be a serious effort over the next year and then she'll spend 3 months at Ford continuing that work.

Sorry for the aside, but I thought some may be interested in how she's doing. I wonder if I'm supposed to buy a Mustang now...

Regards,
Chuck

jeremy gast · **Posted:** Thu May 12, 2011 8:41 am

Chuck that is great on both accounts

Keith Quistorff · **Posted:** Thu May 12, 2011 9:04 am

Chuck Branscomb wrote:

For those of you that know Jackie and watched her mature into a very good autocrosser starting in her junior year of high school, she majored in Mechanical Engineering and did incredible at GA Tech. She starts a research assistantship at GA Tech next week as she's going to grad school there now. She's working on some sophisticated new modeling software for the entire chassis and drivetrain for Ford who is sponsoring her grad school with a scholarship and stipend. It's going to be a serious effort over the next year and then she'll spend 3 months at Ford continuing that work.

Sorry for the aside, but I thought some may be interested in how she's doing. I wonder if I'm supposed to buy a Mustang now...

Regards,
Chuck

Congrats to Jackie! You must be very proud of her, Chuck - sounds like daddy's little girl is headed in the right direction, for sure. I'm envious - wish I had stuck to my guns when I got my BSME and held out for a career in automotive, definitely regretting it 20+ years later.

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Thu May 12, 2011 10:03 am

Thanks Jeremy, Keith.

Yeah, Keith, I have to hand it her to have a vision of the future and making it happen. She got a minor in German also and spent last summer in Germany, so she's pondering working at BMW in SC longer term I think. Even though she is very technically oriented, I've pointed out that those skills and problem solving knowledge are some of the most needed in other career paths too.

When I graduated in 1982 from NCSU with a mech eng degree, the economy was horrid, so my wife and I went to grad school. I specialized in thermal and fluid sciences and ended up doing the "safe" thing by taking a "typical" corporate job with IBM doing thermal design work on military computer systems. Over time that switched to printers (Proprinter), then s/w management, etc, until I left after 10 years to start my own company. That was 18 years ago. I've done ok, but I'd never recommend anyone get into this financial business...the emotional asymmetry is tough. If I had it to do over, I'd DEFINITELY put together a business plan for a car-related business and take the leap.

Those decisions we make early on have life-long effect. For example, I had a potential offer from Intel back then -- imagine taking that decision and joining Intel when the 80286 was just coming out. What a difference in my life path that decision would have made.

So I'm with ya...I'm too entrenched and "old" I guess to do it now, but I admire someone like Steve Dinan for, as a mechanical engineer, the outstanding business he has built over the past 30 years.

JamesShort · **Posted:** Thu May 12, 2011 10:55 am

Let us know how things go after you reinstall them.

My first set of Civic rear koni's are still in Kentucky. They installed them on a QA engineers 06 Coupe (non-SI) and it made no noises. Currently the 4 people who are having this issue all have Sedans.

Lee said their next step is to put them on the electromagnetic dyno for the FSD shocks which can apply very high acceleration/frequency inputs. A traditional dyno, can apply a breadth of velocities, but the acceleration rates are very low (0 in/s to 10 in/s over 1-1.5s) which does not depict real world road disturbances (or in my case the low amplitude, high freq inputs that cause my clunk/rattle).

Brice mentioned the lower double shear eye bolt might need to be overtorqued but one of the other guys set his to 80 ftlb from 51 ftlb (spec) and it was still there.

I found it comical that Lee admitted that Koni never tested the dampers on a SI Sedan, only non-SI coupe/sedan and an SI Coupe.

Matt McGrain · **Posted:** Thu May 12, 2011 11:09 am

JamesShort wrote:

I found it comical that Lee admitted that Koni never tested the dampers on a SI Sedan, only non-SI coupe/sedan and an SI Coupe.

I guess we're the 'testers'.

So far, I love my Konis and will keep daily driving and autocrossing 'em until (if) they throw in the towel. I'm still tickled that you can change the car's dynamics with the twist of a tiny little knob.

As far as longevity, would it be a safe assumption that Koni shocks are more durable than a strut design? I've been thinking about doing a set of yellows on the IS next year, which is a double wishbone suspension but the car is at least 400# more than the Si.

-Matt

JamesShort · **Posted:** Thu May 12, 2011 11:13 am

Matt McGrain wrote:

JamesShort wrote:

I found it comical that Lee admitted that Koni never tested the dampers on a SI Sedan, only non-SI coupe/sedan and an SI Coupe.

I guess we're the 'testers'.

So far, I love my Konis and will keep daily driving and autocrossing 'em until (if) they throw in the towel. I'm still tickled that you can change the car's dynamics with the twist of a tiny little knob.

As far as longevity, would it be a safe assumption that Koni shocks are more durable than a strut design? I've been thinking about doing a set of yellows on the IS next year, which is a double wishbone suspension but the car is at least 400# more than the Si.

-Matt

I would say yes to a 'shock' being more durable than a strut given the little to no lateral load on the damper. Kind of ironic that our struts are perfect and it's the rears that are having problems

.

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Thu May 12, 2011 11:17 am

JamesShort wrote:

I would say yes to a 'shock' being more durable than a strut given the little to no lateral load on the damper. Kind of ironic that our struts are perfect and it's the rears that are having problems

.

Yeah, it is. The Konis on the M5 are struts front and rear, and I've had no issues with them nor have I heard of any issues in E39 circles over the years. The E46 rears are traditional "shocks". The front struts have been problem free. Good luck Matt with four shocks all around.

Matt McGrain · **Posted:** Thu May 12, 2011 11:53 am

Thanks Chuck! Autocrossing a car is sort of like mountain biking, if you spend to much time worrying and 'going easy' on your equipment, you'll be slower. :wink:

Keith Vail · **Posted:** Thu May 12, 2011 4:23 pm

JamesShort wrote:

I found it comical that Lee admitted that Koni never tested the dampers on a SI Sedan, only non-SI coupe/sedan and an SI Coupe.

I can do you one better. When Aaron, Bryan and I were running the Crossfire we were working with Lee on shock valving and he admitted to me that they had never even put a set on a Crossfire and the shocks were designed the the MB SLK. Since the two cars are identical under the body that they just labeled them for use on the Crossfire as well. What makes it even better is the Crossfire weighed about 200 or so pounds less and had stiffer spring rates than the SLK did.

Chuck Branscomb · **Posted:** Sun May 15, 2011 1:37 pm

Ok, we put the new shocks on this morning, and as I expected, they are silent -- all the clunking is gone. I sure am glad I saved the OEM shocks all these years as they got almost 4 months of use while waiting on Koni. So all is well now (for the time being anyway).

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