Koni Yellow Settings

frank s

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I had yellows in my mustang until I blew one out (a lot of autocross) and went to coil overs; I wasn't running them even close to full stiff. A buddy of mine with a VW ran his at full stiff and blew one out as well. My car isn't a street car any more but I had oranges (STR.T) in a daily driver (SVT Focus) for a while but again they just don't hold up long on the street. There are better options for street driven long term shocks out there then off-the-shelf Koni's IMO.

Did you tell KONI about the failures? What did they say?
 

fdjizm

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They do have a lifetime warranty and they will replace it.
If just one went out I am wondering why he didn't just get it replaced instead of saying "koni's don't last".

That's the thing about the internet 1 failure of any part ever = total product is crap and everyone sold will die.
 

sheizasosay

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All dampers are wear items. So having a lifetime warranty on a wear item is good. The question is "how often". If you have to replace a damper every two months, then it would be fair to say that it is garbage, regardless of lifetime warranty.

I have had my koni's for over a year on my mustang that was a DD. Those koni's also have several track days on them.

Maybe I should go check them. What do you think the laziest most effective way of checking them would be? Turn them all to full soft, go drive. Then almost max one out, each one at a time? Think that would be telling if a problem exists? I think I will try.
 
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Sky Render

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All dampers are wear items. So having a lifetime warranty on a wear item is good. The question is "how often". If you have to replace a damper every two months, then it would be fair to say that it is garbage, regardless of lifetime warranty.

I have had my koni's for over a year on my mustang that was a DD. Those koni's also have several track days on them.

Maybe I should go check them. What do you think the laziest most effective way if checking them would be? Turn them all to full soft, go drive. Then almost max one out at a time? Think that would be telling if a problem exists? I think I will try.
Put it on full soft and hit a few hard road bumps. (Stray cats and pedestrians work best.) If the car goes 'bouncy bouncy', they're blown. :highfive:
 

jayel579

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They do have a lifetime warranty and they will replace it.

Give them a call and find out what it costs to pay for shipping both ways, on top of a 6-8 week turn around time. You can't have just any body service them, have to go back to Koni. The price difference between that and a new set for me was almost the same, maybe a hundred bucks cheaper.

I thought Koni carried a lifetime warranty?

They do but in the end racing on Koni's weren't the long term goal for my car. I didn't want to invest dollars into pretty much another set of Koni's only to be pulling them out to install coil overs. I have used the analogy of it's like painting you house before putting on aluminum siding.

The explanation for your lack of longevity with Konis could probably be summed up as "North Jersey."

I can agree with you there :) but the car wasn't being driven on a daily basis. To and from events was about all it was driven.

Did you tell KONI about the failures? What did they say?

Helpful and very informative about how and what I had to do but it was just too much hassle and cost in the end.

By no means am I saying Koni's are bad shocks, that is so far from my point, their higher end stuff is amazing. All I am saying is from a performance stand point the off the shelf stuff just didn't hold up for me. I do cringe a little when guys preach about anything Koni Yellow based for a performance shock based off of my experience. I have seen the Ground Control stuff, TC Kline stuff and it looks and runs great just be prepared to be rebuilding or replacing it at a much high interval (every season or two) then other options (MCS, AST, KW, etc) out there.
 

sheizasosay

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Maybe I should go check them. What do you think the laziest most effective way of checking them would be? Turn them all to full soft, go drive. Then almost max one out, each one at a time? Think that would be telling if a problem exists? I think I will try.

OK. Never do it this way. It's inefficient and you have to drive up and down the road like an idiot. And it is time consuming. And is less telling then the alternate way I checked them.

I simply put all dampers to full soft and then put my big butt on the fender adjacent to the damper I was checking or sit on edge of the trunk with it open for the rears. When I got off I would simply judge the time to reach ride height. Yes I know this test is better for softer sprung cars. I then maxxed that one damper out and sat on the fender again eyeballing the time it takes to return to ride height. Returned it to full soft and did the other side.

I did other "things" as well to determine the return. Things with a plumb Bob. Not necessary for a basic function check.

From my results, the left rear has an easily observable faster return than the right rear, yet the right rear does have functionable adjustment. I might give koni a hollar and see what they think.

Driver's rear, full rebound return=3.6 seconds.
Passenger rebound return =5.5 seconds
Full soft on either rears was immediate return to ride height with no extra bounce. Just fast.
 

csamsh

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It's ok, I just ordered ground control coilovers because my koni yellows are shit.

dude...ground controls are konis with coilover kits and slightly different valving

hopefully I've just been trolled
 

sheizasosay

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dude...ground controls are konis with coilover kits and slightly different valving

hopefully I've just been trolled

Could it be that he loves the koni's but wanted coilovers? I'm hoping. Otherwise that is hilarious.
 

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