"Coilovers" for mainly street use - durability of KW V3?

[Overtorqued]

I have Koni Sports and some prokit springs on my '14 GT right now, but I like having ride height adjustability among other things offered by various "coilovers". I put that in quotes because I'm not really looking for a true coilover, but what I'm considering are things like the Ground Control setup or KW V3 (I can get a smoking deal on these, which is a factor).

I've had countless sets of standard Koni dampers on various cars, and I trust them to be durable and reliable on a street car. I've also had other more expensive setups such as AST, and even on cars that see relatively little street use, I haven't had the best luck with the durability on the street. That's ok, and understandable, as some of these dampers are meant to live on race cars which see a somewhat different environment sometimes.

I guess my question is, does anybody have experience withe KW V3 package on the street? How do they stand up to the elements and typical street driving? I don't even plan to autocross (much) or track this car, so I don't want to waste money on dampers that will have problems in street use. That said, I only drive 8k to 10k miles per year right now, and that gets split between two or three vehicles. The Mustang will see about 4k to 5k per year. I might hit a few local autocrosses if I get a proper suspension setup, but I'm looking at getting back into autocrossing with a dedicated car other than my Mustang. Any input is appreciated.

 

[Mineral_'01]

If you're just looking for height adjustment and extra camber, why not consider the Ground Control coilover conversion kit for use with your existing Koni yellows. Then add your choice of GC, MM, or Vorshlag camber plates for camber adjustment.
http://www.ground-control-store.com/products/description.php/II=644/CA=96

 

[Overtorqued]

That kit is ok, but I want to run the car lower than it is now and I don't think off the shelf Koni Sport struts have enough bump travel.

 

[csamsh]

That kit is ok, but I want to run the car lower than it is now and I don't think off the shelf Koni Sport struts have enough bump travel.

Bingo...maybe the Bilsteins? They have a shortened and inverted front housing. Not ride-height adjustable though.

 

[Overtorqued]

Yeah, the Bilsteins are good but if I give up damping adjustment then I want ride height adjustment. Maybe I should look at some of the height adjustable offerings without damping adjustment. I only have about 1500 miles on the current setup and wish I'd have done it differently, so I want to make sure I don't do that again.

There are the H&R Street and Clubsport setups, but I don't know much about them. I wonder how much lowering they can take and keep good bump travel. I think I can get those for a good price as well. I've used the H&R Street coilovers on an Audi before, and they actually weren't bad for what they were.

I could probably send my Koni struts off to get shortened and get the GC coilover conversion kit, but I'd be ahead of the game to just sell them and buy their coilover setup with plates for 1600, or pick up the used set that's for sale here.

 

[Lucky_13]

I beat the crap out of my car (SE Michigan roads, hometown is near NYC), and my KW V3's have been holding up just fine, even on stiffer settings. I track them, as well. Also, far better ridequality than a Koni Yellow/spring combo (have ran those with 4 different kinds of springs to no avail), and slightly better than the Vorshlag Bilstein/P Spring setup I had on there prior. Handling wise, though, I can't say they are worlds better than the Bilstein setup. But the ability to adjust ride height has been nice. I'd recommend them for a daily driver suspension.

 

[Arustik]

I have a few friends with KW V3 for Street/Track duty. They're holding up great, haven't heard of a single complaint.

 

[Overtorqued]

Awesome, that's the kind of feedback I'm looking for. I've never heard or read about any issues, but there just don't seem to be that many cars out there with the KW dampers on them.

 

[kcbrown]

That kit is ok, but I want to run the car lower than it is now and I don't think off the shelf Koni Sport struts have enough bump travel.

Hmm...so if you were to remove the bump stops, the struts would bottom before the tires made contact with the fenders?

 

[Overtorqued]

Hmm...so if you were to remove the bump stops, the struts would bottom before the tires made contact with the fenders?

I think removing the bumpstops is a bad idea. Even then, unless you had a funky tire/wheel setup that sticks out, yes, I believe the struts would bottom before tires contact the fenders. It seems to be pretty well known that when you approach 2" or more of lowering, you have very little travel with off the self Koni sport struts. It works if you don't mind riding the bumpstops, but that is no good for performance.

 

[kcbrown]

I think removing the bumpstops is a bad idea. Even then, unless you had a funky tire/wheel setup that sticks out, yes, I believe the struts would bottom before tires contact the fenders. It seems to be pretty well known that when you approach 2" or more of lowering, you have very little travel with off the self Koni sport struts. It works if you don't mind riding the bumpstops, but that is no good for performance.

I wasn't suggesting that one should remove the bump stops. I was including that bit in the question so that the resulting answer wouldn't be "it would bottom out on the bump stops before bottoming in the strut".

If the Konis would bottom before the tires contact the fenders, then I have to wonder if the same would be true of the stock struts.

Regardless, if the shock bottoms before there's contact between the tire and the fender, then the shock doesn't have quite enough compression travel to deal with arbitrary amounts of lowering.


That raises the question, then: how much distance is left between the tire and the fender when the Koni shock bottoms?

 

[steve13gt]

Stay away from Eibach coilovers.. 3rd set now, car has 30,000km...

 

[moostang09]

Stay away from Eibach coilovers.. 3rd set now, car has 30,000km...

Which set do you have?

 

[ModdedMach]

Ground Control coilover setup comes with konis lifetime warranty on the dampers and I believe eibach warranties the springs for a million miles, and u can pick your rates in 25lb increments ...sounds like a no brainer to me if you are looking for bang-for-ur-buck durability/performance- and plenty of people autox or track GC setups well. If you're staying mainly street, it's probably better to run a more concervative spring rates with adjustable sways- that's should keep your ride decent but allow u to stiffen things up a bit for your random track days.

Can't beat that warranty

Just my .02

 

[steve13gt]

Which set do you have?

Multipro R3

 

[moostang09]

Multipro R3

I have the pro street a kit. No issues so far but it's not a daily.. I will be sure to keep an eye on it.

 

[sheizasosay]

Multipro R3

I have the pro street a kit. No issues so far but it's not a daily.. I will be sure to keep an eye on it.

Wow....30k miles and went through three sets of coilovers that do not even exist.

 

[moostang09]

Sorry my phone autocorrected me. I have the pro street s kit.

 

[Sam Strano]

Awesome, that's the kind of feedback I'm looking for. I've never heard or read about any issues, but there just don't seem to be that many cars out there with the KW dampers on them.

I use them on a number of cars. Mostly a few S197's and some Scion/Subaru FT-86. Both are street driven a lot. I put over 20k miles on my set on my FR-S including a hole on I-40 in Gallup, NM that destroyed a tire and two wheels comprehensively. The dampers were just fine.

Meanwhile. I had a customer put maybe 5k on a set of Eibach R2's and a strut blew a week after his 2 years was up. They told him to take a walk. Unimpressed. And if you opt to do a coil-over conversion to the Koni's note the fronts won't retain the warranty. It's obvious when coil-over sleeves are installed and that's not a design parameter for that damper. Rears you'd be ok though. Not that it won't work, just that something to be aware of.

H&R and Bilstein (H&R dampers are Bilstein) are not bad... but I hate not having adjustable damping, and most folks who've had adjustable damping wouldn't opt to skip it.

 

[o2sys]

Look into ST XTA coilovers. Basically the KW V2 in different clothes. KW doesn't offer the V2 due to some reason I think (contract with Roush? <- don't quote me on it)

V3 is over kill in my opinion for daily use, I mean it does have lots of adjustability if you want to dial in everything but most likely you will almost never touch it again after you've found your sweet spot.

I've been running the XTA and its been great. When I first switched from lowering spring with stock shocks I felt like my car was on clouds! The ride was so much more compliant yet still very sporty. On the softest setting it was very smooth (though can get a little bouncy on the highway) and on stiff it was full out race car feel.