Koni Yellow Whoes :(

[feldy]

Ok a little background here. I have been running Koni yellows and RCE springs for the last year. In March I switched to the RCE tarmac springs slightly stiffer. During my time that I had the rce yellow springs on I have had 3 front konis blow. The last two happened during winter. All replaced under warranty no issues there. Now this weekend I noticed shock fluid sitting around the rear top hats. When I use the adjusters more fluid comes out. Ok so I do know these will be covered under warranty as well so no issues again.

However 5 blown shocks in one year of having them on the car sucks balls. To bad bilstiens were now out a year ago.

So I tend to run these on full soft for street driving and half turn from full stiff for hard driving. Someone made note that it didnt seem right. "Konis can blow and obviously you evidence that but something's not quite right here. Are you running them too high or worse yet full soft on the street?"


Now my question is how would driving them either on full soft most of the time wear these out that fast and cause them to start leaking?

[vroom4]

Sounds like installer error. Describe your process for installing the fronts...truthfully.

[feldy]

The front shock that broke the first time I actually blame the whiteline c-coms. I had 4 sets of those go bad in 4 months. The bearings were crap and couldnt take the extra caster. Now whiteline took them off the market for the 86.

The next two happened over a really harsh winter and tons of pot holes that are now just getting fixed. During that time the stock top hats were on. I currently have HVT camber plates up front now. The fronts were done to spec with open ended sockets ect. No impact gun.

Now this is the first time I'm having issues with the rears.

[vroom4]

Thats pretty wild. My fronts leaked from the adjuster as soon as I adjusted for the first time. I cleaned up the leak, and they havent leaked any more since then (raced all weekend). Ill rip them off this winter, when the season is over and send that one back for warranty and get my modified struts powdercoated at the same time.

[vroom4]

FWIW, I ran full soft and full stiff on multiple sets of koni yellows, never a problem.

[feldy]

Originally Posted by vroom4

Thats pretty wild. My fronts leaked from the adjuster as soon as I adjusted for the first time. I cleaned up the leak, and they havent leaked any more since then (raced all weekend). Ill rip them off this winter, when the season is over and send that one back for warranty and get my modified struts powdercoated at the same time.

These shocks see extensive autox all year. My local club has 28 events alone. So the car sees a lot of use.

[vroom4]

How much did you take off the oem strut housing in the front. I was curious if you took TOO much off it would constantly over extend the rod...still should lead to a leak at the adjuster though.

[wootwoot]

Do you have whiteline caster bushings on the front control arms?

[feldy]

Originally Posted by wootwoot

Do you have whiteline caster bushings on the front control arms?

Nope.

[feldy]

Originally Posted by vroom4

How much did you take off the oem strut housing in the front. I was curious if you took TOO much off it would constantly over extend the rod...still should lead to a leak at the adjuster though.

Not sure the measurements a year later but last month when I swapped the fronts The cut is right where the little bulge is on the shocks. Line up perfectly.

[Racecomp Engineering]

I remember when Konis first came out for 08+ Subaru Impreza there were a LOT of problems for a lot of people...many of them repeat issues for the same people on all sorts of springs. A lot of blown shocks, excessive weepage, and fluid slowly coming out of the adjusters. Most of these issues were eventually fixed and I haven't heard of issues in some time for Impreza.

This sounds similar and it's a little surprising. I've seen a few issues with Konis on BRZ here and there, but nothing like this. A bad install can do it, but without watching you we can't say from here (and truthfully I don't think that's the problem).

I don't think the springs are the issue either since we have tons of springs out there on stock dampers without issue and plenty on Koni as well.

I've run Konis on full soft on my own personal car for a while with no issues. I don't recommend full stiff ever.

At this point I would recommend warrantying them one last time, selling them, and switching to Bilstein. There's either something we're missing or you're just incredibly unlucky.

- Andy

[vroom4]

I cant believe they are still warrantying them to be honest. Even if their overall failure rate is absurdly high, like 20%, you would still be blowing that out of the water.

The engineer in me says something else is up.

[Racecomp Engineering]

Originally Posted by vroom4

I cant believe they are still warrantying them to be honest. Even if their overall failure rate is absurdly high, like 20%, you would still be blowing that out of the water.

The engineer in me says something else is up.

I agree, I just have no idea what it is. But I remember multiple users with similar stories before on Impreza...one warranty after another. I wish I knew what the solution was there.

- Andy

[feldy]

Well to be honest why wouldn't they? They are lifetime warranty item.

First shock went burst looked like this.




That was mid last summer.

Last month both fronts needed to be replaced due to leakage. They were not this bad. This shock like I said I blame on the c-coms. As you can see the metal cracked right where they sit with the bearings on the top hat.

Then during winter we had so much snow and so many new pot holes that cropped up I was not that shocked to see the fronts leaking as the car is daily driven. My wife's car needed a whole new wheel as a pot hole bent hers.

This is my first issue with the rears. Again I dont put any blame on the springs from Race comp as they have been great.