Dave B

I just received my Koni rear struts and I had a few questions since the directions included resemble that of a Peanuts cartoon. BTW, I have H&R springs.

1) Which setting did you put the clip at for ride height? I'm assuming you went with the lower one.

2) What is the purpose of metal ring? It slides freely over the housing and I'm left to wonder if it has something to do with seating the coil support?

3) What setting do you have the struts at? I'm not an autocrosser and I don't want a harsh ride, but I do like my handling and a firm ride is fine. I ride on 225/50R17s in during spring/summer/fall and the on the 15s in the winter. I usually keep my Koni fronts at 50-60%.

Thanks.

BlackCat

iTrader: (6)

Are yours like this?
http://www.koni.com/_cars/_general_i...djustment.html

Chunger

iTrader: (1)

With my old Intrax, I had them on the upper position.

With my new Tein H tech - it was better in the lower position.

The "C" clip-like piece goes in first. The larger ring fits over the clip after it is seated, locking it in position. The lower perch (large piece) goes on top of that.... Hope this helps

Ride harshness is very much sensitive to the rear adjustment... don't use the last 10% unless you are on the track. I suggest 30-40% setting... still comfortable.

Dave B

Thanks for the help. I think I'll compare where the perch is on my AGX and go from there. I'm pretty certain the lower perch setting is probably where it should be on my Koni's.

A couple more questions, is this the correct way the large ring should sit (ie going over the C-clip):



I have set the firmness at 1/2 turn (0 turn being the softest). Do think that will suffice for good ride quality, but still contolling the higher rate H&R spring? A half turn should equal a 20% increase over the base setting. How many turns do you ride on?

For those that have never seen them, this is what the Koni rears look like:

Chunger

iTrader: (1)

That looks correct as the adjustment clip is locked into place....

I forgot how many turns from softest to firmest. I would definitely think it no more than 1 complete turn before it gets "jolty" (imho)... some people like it that way. I think i'm at about 3/4 turn but i don't really remember...

The stiffer the spring... the more dampning you need... HRs are relatively soft so you should be fine.

Nismo

iTrader: (18)

mine are on the bottom perch and I think I have mine on a half turn towards stiff. I had it once on full soft for a day but that made the car jounce too much so I think Its still between a half to a full turn stiff

drewm

Hey Dave, you might find my observations of value, since I've been running front and rear Konis for about 3 years now on Eibachs.

Started off at the lowest setting. Way too bouncy.

Decided to turn them up to 75%. Absolute perfect setting. Fortunately when you turn them up, the only thing that gets adjusted is rebound, so when you hit bumps it doesn't get any stiffer. The only thing you notice as you turn them up is drops on the road really send your car flying downward.

But for you, I'd pick the same setting that you run on your front Konis for your rear. So about 60%. I really do feel that the Konis do very well with the same front and rear setting.

These days I'm running the fronts at full stiff and the rears at full stiff minus about 1/16th turn. Handling is insanely awesome.

Also, I run on the lower perch, and it sits perfectly even. The higher setting according to the manual is for towing.

Dave B

Thanks everyone.

Am I right to assume full stiffness is approximately 2.5 turns? I think I'll go ahead and use ~40% stiffness or about one full turn. It looks like all of you are in CA where the roads are smoother in comparison to the winter butchered and pothole infested streets and highways of Kansas City. If the roads were smooth here, I'd probably run higher settings.

For those that are wondering, I bought the Koni's because I like the fact that they are only rebound adjustable. For a street car, I think this is all you need. When you adjust the KYB AGXs, you're adjusting both dampening and rebound. I could never find a happy medium with my AGXs. It was either too stiff or too bouncy. I have loved my front Koni's from day one and they've performed flawlessly. I know adjusting these struts is a pain compared to the AGXs, but the ride quality and control of the Koni's is far better. I hope the same can be said for the rear Koni's.

Chunger

iTrader: (1)

The thing with Konis is that the last ~10% DOES affect compression... that's why it gets really stiff at the end of the adjustment setting. I think Sports Compact Car did some testing with Konis (for a RX-7) that showed this...

drewm

Usually it's 2-2.5 turns. One of my rears is about 2.2 turns and the other is 2.5 turns. Kinda strange, but they work. You can make sure they are even by watching the speed as they expand after adjustment.

What's crazy about my setting is that it actually takes the shock about 2 minutes to expand fully. In the softest setting it takes about 5-10 seconds if I remember right.

And the roads around my area aren't quite pot-holey, but they definately aren't smooth. Most highways are still concrete sections which give you that train track feel, with bumps and dips all over. Even 1" uneven step ups and downs exist on the freeways.

But as a person of age 25, I still find the highest settings to be tolerable.

But I do think that one full turn should be a good setting for H&Rs being that they are easier to dampen than my Eibachs.

Dave B

Thanks guys. You've been a great help. I'll probably install them within the next couple days. I hope the rears have the same nice ride quality as the fronts.

Dave B

I got the Koni rears installed last night. It took about an hour to do both and lower perch height matched perfectly with the AGX perch height. After driving last night and some of today (upper 60s to low 80s), I'm happy to say the ride is quite good with the struts adjusted to 1 turn or ~40% firmness. In neighborhood areas with bumpy roads and 25-30mph speeds still introduce some jounce though not as pronounced. On normal roads and highway driving, the ride is definitely more controlled with no jounce. The problem with the AGXs was that everytime you increased rebound, you also increased dampening therefore it was really hard to fine tune the ride. The Koni's seem to be better because only rebound is adjustable and that's all you really need for the street.......plus it's cool to say I have Koni's at all corners. When I pulled out the AGX, they were still in perfect shape after 1.5 years and 15K miles.

Dave B

*Update*

Drewn:

You were right, you need to go with a decently high setting on the Koni rears. After about a week, the Konis must have loosened up a bit because I was getting some bounce coming off bumps was becoming more pronounced and starting to annoy me. Tonight I yanked the struts and cranked them to ~1.6 turns and the ride is awesome. The bounce off a bump or dip is totally controlled now even with the temps in the mid 60s right now. The unadjustable dampening on these struts is flat out PERFECT. The AGXs have nothing on these struts.

Dave B

Another update.

I decided to set the rear perches at thier heightest setting so that my wife and new born would have a smoother ride in the back seat. The higher setting is approximately .5" which means I gain .5" in travel and unfortantely .5" in ride height. I now have 2 1/8" rear gaps in the back compared to the 1 3/4" gap I have in front with my H&Rs. I tell you what though, the ride quality has drastically improved. It's well worth the gain in wheel gap. The rear beam soaks up bumps far better now and the ride is less choppy over rutted surfaces. Who would have thought .5" in wheel travel could make such a difference in ride quality.

njmaxseltd

iTrader: (19)

Dave, do you have the movational upper mounts or the mounts that Ben is making? They also add to ride quality by giving back rear shock travel. They give you around 3/4 of an inch of shock travel back without changing the ride height. If you want to put your Koni's down on the lower perch again so your drop is better, just get the upper mounts. Best of both worlds, they don't change ride height, but give you back much needed rear suspension travel.

Dave B

I've already got them. My rear drop right now basically looks like what your car does in your sig. I believe I have nearly 80% of the stock wheel travel back now.