The Project Pad

I'm doing my coilovers rear first while the rear subframe is pulled to replace seals and bushings around the differential. Front's will come when I pull front arms and transmission for a more beefy clutch (NOTE: Will not be driven in between with only rear lowered)

Anyone running Koni shocks on the rear? Any problems or concerns/advice?
I'm gonna try them out and see how they do.

Koni Part#
80-2630SPT

Picked up Bicknell Racing top hats, A1 racing threaded sleeve and perches, and (2) 6" Eibach 550lb.

Waiting to order some helper springs.
Any thing I missed on a KONI setup?

Koni sports don't have a very good reputation for keeping up with higher spring rates. I think you can expect them to have a pretty short life with 550# springs. I have had the best luck, by far, with revalved Bilstein sports.

EDIGREG wrote:Koni sports don't have a very good reputation for keeping up with higher spring rates. I think you can expect them to have a pretty short life with 550# springs. I have had the best luck, by far, with revalved Bilstein sports.

Bilstein sports have very short lifespans as well. I recommend Koni just based on the horrid customer service I've experienced with Bilstein US multiple times. I did eventually end up with re-valved and shortened billies on my car, but it took months of arguing with Bilstein to get them.

I assume any shock I buy will have to be revalved at some point in it's life..
I guess I will be a tester for KONI and see how well they last.
If they don't, I'll pick up some Bilsteins and have them revalved.
At the end of the day money is just money, right?

loxxrider wrote:

EDIGREG wrote:Koni sports don't have a very good reputation for keeping up with higher spring rates. I think you can expect them to have a pretty short life with 550# springs. I have had the best luck, by far, with revalved Bilstein sports.

Bilstein sports have very short lifespans as well. I recommend Koni just based on the horrid customer service I've experienced with Bilstein US multiple times. I did eventually end up with re-valved and shortened billies on my car, but it took months of arguing with Bilstein to get them.

Not in my experience. I have never blown a Bilstein sport, and I've gone through two NEW sets of Konis in under a year each.

Konis are great on other platforms, but for some reason their Audi-specific products are bad. There have been lots of reports of Konis blowing out on other Audi chassis as well. Aaron blew out the rears on his allroad in just a few months (2B coilovers).

Also I believe the big bore front Bilsteins do a much better job of controlling the heavy front ends on these cars.

Doesn't Ron run 800LB springs on konis?

Well, I blew my sports in 6 months, and Nick suspects his are on the way out as well. The thing is, neither the Bilsteins nor the Konis are valved even remotely close to what we need for the spring rates we are running. Either one will blow on you in short order unless re-vavled. The best solution is to buy a blow used set and get them rebuilt and revalved. I will never deal with Bilstein again unless I absolutely have to (and I will on my new acquisition since Koni no longer makes rear shocks for it).

I've blown the Konis in my E34 as well, but I have no idea how long they were in there for (years) before I got it. Thats just on H&R springs though on that car. Big difference from the coils we use on these cars. I killed one corner by hitting one too many potholes with it lol.

If one had unlimited funds though, I'd still recommend Koni. Their racing dampers are actually valved to deal with up to 1000 #/in springs and they claim there will be no problem at all with them. They said the stock-valved Koni adjustables wont work well with ~500 lb/in rates.


Also, 800 lb/in springs on a t44 is obnoxious lol. Noone needs that.

Let's be honest, you were bouncing off the Bilstein's internal bumpstops with every bump when you blew them in 6 months. I saw your old setup and you'd be lucky to have 1.5" of travel No shocks are going to put up with that for very long.

Both of my sets of blown konis were on stock UrS lowering springs, for what that's worth. No high rate stuff. Many, many reports of C4 cars with the same issue on Konis. They just aren't suited for the weight of this platform, IMO.

Koni's racing line is fantastic...but really, really expensive.

loxxrider wrote:Either one will blow on you in short order unless re-vavled.

That's why i suggested revalved Bilsteins

EDIGREG wrote:Let's be honest, you were bouncing off the Bilstein's internal bumpstops with every bump when you blew them in 6 months. I saw your old setup and you'd be lucky to have 1.5" of travel No shocks are going to put up with that for very long.

Both of my sets of blown konis were on stock UrS lowering springs, for what that's worth. No high rate stuff. Many, many reports of C4 cars with the same issue on Konis. They just aren't suited for the weight of this platform, IMO.

Koni's racing line is fantastic...but really, really expensive.

loxxrider wrote:Either one will blow on you in short order unless re-vavled.

That's why i suggested revalved Bilsteins

Yes, that is why I suggest just finding some Konis to re-valve since they will most-likely be much easier to work with than my nightmare of an experience (two different times now) with Bilstein. Anyway, that is pretty sad about them blowing on the regular lowering springs. I agree, they just aren't valved for a heavy car and high rates. Somehow my E34 does just fine with them except that one bad one though.

By the way, its not like I drove the Audi super low all the time! I had it at reasonable levels probably 80% of the time. Also, the way the top hats were, the car wouldn't ever hit the bump stops since they would hit the gland nut before the strut was all the way compressed. As such, all I'd ever get was a big bang every time I bottomed out, and I didn't like that so I kept it raised quite a bit higher most of the time except for pictures and meets, etc. You are right though, at a ride height that I thought looked good, there was about 1.5" of travel. That sucked. Hopefully that will be fixed now with the shorter struts.

The bottom line is, just try to find whatever you can used and have that re-valved. If you can't find some used, then you'll just have to install new ones, deal with them blowing, then get the re-valved later unless you just want to pony up for the racing Konis right off the bat and not spend an astronomical amount more in the long run... unless those blow too lol.

loxxrider wrote:the car wouldn't ever hit the bump stops since they would hit the gland nut before the strut was all the way compressed..

If the gland nut is hitting the top hat, that *IS* on the internal bump stops. Unless you have some funky weird shaped hat that is really tall??

I've only heard good things about Konis on BMWs - they just didn't spec them correctly for heavy Audis I suppose.

I know you had a terrible experience with Bilstein, but my transactions with them have been fast and easy... In fact you're the only person I've heard say they had a bad experience with them.

I dunno what Koni charges to revalve their shocks? Haven't heard of any Audi guys doing that, but it might be worth a try.

EDIGREG wrote:

loxxrider wrote:the car wouldn't ever hit the bump stops since they would hit the gland nut before the strut was all the way compressed..

If the gland nut is hitting the top hat, that *IS* on the internal bump stops. Unless you have some funky weird shaped hat that is really tall??

I've only heard good things about Konis on BMWs - they just didn't spec them correctly for heavy Audis I suppose.

I know you had a terrible experience with Bilstein, but my transactions with them have been fast and easy... In fact you're the only person I've heard say they had a bad experience with them.

I dunno what Koni charges to revalve their shocks? Haven't heard of any Audi guys doing that, but it might be worth a try.

The bottom skirt thing on the top hats would hit. If you use a top hat properly clearanced to make room for that gland nut (like the Bicknell racing ones), the struts will actually sit on the bump stops maybe 1/4" or 1/2" lower. Anyway, it is getting harder and harder to find this stuff, so just get what you can I suppose.

Ed - what spring rates are you running and what did you revalve your struts to? I need to dial mine in someday...

You guys are making it rather difficult to choose....
What DO I DO???!!?

WOMBAT wrote:Ed - what spring rates are you running and what did you revalve your struts to? I need to dial mine in someday...

450# front, 500# rear. Bilsteins are revalved to +10% compression, +30% rebound.

Are happy with that setup or would you do anything differently?

I just put Koni on my 200 - I set them pretty soft as others have suggested. From the reading it seems like Koni's will last a bit better in all condition without modification, and also allow for stiff dampening out of the box. They are really high quality and are settling in nice. You can get a set of 4 off tire rack for about ~530$ (pretty sweet deal)

For me it came down to price and the fact that if I get bored on this setting I can always set them to be aggressive is a big plus. For the record my bilstein sports on a stripped down mk3 2.0l with 20k miles on them were probably the best bolt on suspension I have ever driven on the street...

I was able to get the rears for ~$100 a piece. So not too bad there. Did you have any trouble with the snap ring/get a bigger one? Also, as a newb, did you take any assembly pictures???

Nice - same thing I did

I was lucky enough to have a friend help me with a lift, everything is HEAVY and you need to really take your time and heat everything up if it's never been taken off. Make sure you have a really strong air tool if you want to make it much less painful.

The hardware that came with it fit perfectly (even the weird little spacers that fit around the shock body in the front) and the damping adjustment is really easy. It even came with SPECIFIC instructions to the T44 chasis which was really nice. I would put aside a weekend to do it for sure, and make sure you have the full procedure.

If you get stumped I can pm you a phone number and walk you through how to do it, it's mostly straightforward except for the impossible balljoints haha.

Oh, and the guy that I did it with only took 90 minutes total, but he is on another level than most of us.

I am doing the rear first and the front at a later date when that is all taken apart.
I have the entire rear end dropped out at the moment and the stock shock bodies are already taken off. Everything is currently being cleaned and repainted. I have yet, mind you YET, managed to break any bolts off and everything actually came apart pretty well. Not to shabby for a car made in late 90'( Before I was made )

If I have any trouble though you can definitely expect a pm or two Thanks!

WOMBAT wrote:Are happy with that setup or would you do anything differently?

Honestly it's just about perfect for a street car. Stiff but comfortable, handles really well for a 3800lb pig