More Koni/spring stuff

[y2k tibby]

Ok I have a few questions I wanted a little help with and decided to lump them together in one large post, so in no particular order:

1)Does anyone on this board have Koni sports? If so please tell me where the stiffness adjustment knob is located (in the rear). It seems like it would be in the way of the strong arm

2)How effective are sway bars and would they be easy to install the same time as the springs/shocks?

Thanks, I'm a little confused


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[HRD_Tiburon]

Well sway bars highly effective in countering the bodies tendency to lean into a turn. As for Koni's I had a set on my Beretta and they worked quite well, its nice because you can adjust each corner of the car independently to help with dive going into a corner.
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[MarkHazard]

The rear struts are "standard adjustable" which means you have to take the strut off, compress it by hand, twist it to adjust, and then replace. It's a pain in the ass, but once you're dialed in you leave the rears alone and fine tune the fronts. The fronts are externally adjustable; they have the nice little knob. I don't know why koni did that, but my guess is that on the rear the top mounting points cannot easily be gotten at, seeing is how they are under the carpet panel in the trunk. In my case, I have a rear strut bar which required the removel of some of that panel anyway, so I can get quite easily at the top of the struts, but the normal person would not be able to.

My advice (and I wish I had thought of this myself before investing) email or cal koni ( www.koni-na.com ) and ask them if there is another insert with your particualr specs that are externally adjustable. They are very good about custom requests.

Good luck!
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[y2k tibby]

Well as it is now I could save by $275 by going with the Eibach struts over the Konis. Tell me are the Konis worth that?


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[MarkHazard]

Are they worth it? Quite a few Formula 1 teams seem to think so, Ferarri for a number of years used Konis on most production models, Dodge uses Konis for their Viper, and as a general rule Koni dampers are the preferreed choice of autocrossers.

I've never used the eibachs so I can't give you a direct comparrison. But I hear over and over again that there is no better suspension upgrade then Konis all the way around. Forget nickel and diming it to death with strut bars, sways, etc. Those items should come last to accent and tune the struts.

I guess it comes down to what you want to do. If you are going just for an aggressive lowered look go eibachs. If you are going to do road racing/autocross I think the investment in the konis would be well worth it.

As an aside note, the installation is annoying. It requires some hacking, drilling, and beatiing on of the original struts. It's not too bad if somebody knows what they are doing. I didn't...so I paid some place to do it for me.

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[y2k tibby]

Tanks for the help. The Koni tec guy made it sound like it would be hella expensive to make the rears externally adjustable. He then proceeded to tell me that they might not fit on a 2000+ tib.....
Mark, do you have these bad boys on your 2001 tib or is it on a different car?



<hr width=60% noshade size=1 align=left>TSR #250

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Edited by - y2k tibby on 01/23/2002 11:32:33 AM

[MarkHazard]

Sorry for the belated response. <img src=/images/forums/snitz/smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0>

I had konis on my Miata which was friggin' awsome. I could out corner pretty much anything. And now I have them on my Tib; also very very cool. My entire setup includes H&R springs, whiteline adjustable swaybar, the strut ties from Sharkracing, and Kumho rubber. Currently the car handles like it's on the proverbial rails. I noticed the biggest difference after the konis were installed. It's not like strut bars where you're like "well, it feels like it corners better...I think" No my friend, the car is flat. Whether stopping, starting, or cornering, there is very little body roll. The softest setting is stiff enough for daily driving IMHO. However, for racing (especially) on a smooth surface you can crank those suckers up stiff and let G forces slosh your brain around.

Hope you don't mind a noisy jittery ride though. Yes, it's bumpy, most people can live with that; but, a lot of road noise is transferred directly to the cabin and that can be annoying at times.

Like I said before, I think it's worth it dude. As it's stated over and over again on this board you have to know what your goal is in setting up your car. Personally, I am set for auto-x (I prefer turning to driving straight <img src=/images/forums/snitz/approve.gif width=15 height=15 border=0> ). you may have different goals.

Let me know if you have more questions.


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[Frisco]

<BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>quote:<hr height=1 noshade id=quote>It's not like strut bars where you're like "well, it feels like it corners better...I think"<hr height=1 noshade id=quote></BLOCKQUOTE id=quote>

Well I'm gonna have to disagree about the strut bar statement. At least for myself, installing front and rear strut bars on my 96 Accent made a big improvement. I'm sure a shock/strut replacemet make an even bigger impact, but the strut bars were more than noticeable.

For instance, just driving the car straight my steering wheel immediately felt more responsive. And of course, I could take the same corners at higher speeds. Not to mention my car didn't lift as much while simply making U-turns. And lane changing on the freeway was more balanced/easy. Maybe it's just me. I prefer to go straight, but I'm not too bad in the corners either, heh.

Frisco


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