Koni inserts or wait for full Koni replacements
 

I'm at a cross roads about my suspension install, I have the Koni inserts and RCE yellows and about to have them installed but I am now considering waiting for Koni to come out will full strut replacements instead of doing these Koni inserts and just doing the RCE springs for now. Has anyone already installed this setup on their car, if so, what is your recommendation.

Considering they don't have a full replacement shock for the WRX yet...I wouldn't count on it for the BRZ either.

I have the Koni inserts on my car and love them. The install was straightforward. It will probably be a year or more if ever on the full replacements from what I've read. If you don't need or care about height adjustability then they are a great way to go with the RCE springs. I can't compare to just stock struts and lowering springs cause I did both at the same time. I can say that I was not happy with just springs on my previous car ('09 Lancer GTS) but the stock struts were not the quality of ours either. If you are not doing the instalation yourself you may be paying a good bit in labor to have the inserts installed. If thats the case you could look at the coilovers in that price range. For just the cost of the parts you can't go wrong with the Koni's and springs. I wouldn't be interested in coilovers in the same price range myself.

I just istalled the Konis on my car this weekend. Installing the inserts wasn't that big of a deal. I purchased a set of donor struts and shocks with about a 1000 miles on them. I did all the prep work before I installed them. It's then just a matter of pulling off the old and putting on the new. On the plus side if I ever sell the car I can pull the Konis off and bolt on the stockers.

I went with the inserts as well. I bought the shocks from TiC and they installed the inserts in shock bodies for me for an extra $300. That's not a bad price for stock shocks and labor. Now I still have my stock shocks for when I sell my car.

Plus I wouldn't count on Koni doing full shock housings any time soon.

Thanks again Grimlock!

I was going to ask you what TiC charged M&L for pulling the old and putting in the new struts?

Had you thought to add Whiteline's kca335 camber caster front top mounts when you did your suspension mods?

It's been a couple of months. Any comments on the street ride for the Konis?

Is it slightly harsher than stock or same as stock? Particularly interested in the RCE/Koni pairing as well. Thanks guys

I'm running the Konis with stock springs. On full soft they are are about the same ride quality as stock as they should be. Switching to Dunlop Z2's hurt the ride quality more than anything. Definitely stiffer ride than the OE Bridgestones.

We have a ton of the Konis in stock and all of our customers have had no issues (as far as I know). They are great shocks.. I've used them on two of my previous cars. The spring lower perch is a nice addition to lower the car a tad bit as well :)

Hope this helps!

-AJ
ECS Motorsports

This has adjustable spring perches? How does that work for the front if these are inserts?

They don't have adjustable spring perches in the rear. It is a fixed height that puts it at stock.

We have a very close personal relationship with Koni and as such have access to a lot of inside information. A full replacement is in development and on the way, but no ETA has been set.

Tony

I just picked up some Koni yellows and also have some Eibach Pro-Kits coming. It sounds like installation is quite involved and I will need to have someone do the install for me. The main reason why I bought the Koni's is because I didn't want to wear-out my stock dampers, thinking I can pull them off and set them aside for either selling to someone else or keep them until I want to go back to stock at some point. But it sounds like I will need to buy some additional hardware to hold the stock dampers. What exactly is it that I would need to buy to hold/preserved the stock dampers (Apologies beforehand for the ignorance).

Do you want to have stock dampers FULLY assembled or do you mind swapping if you need to?

To have fully assembled dampers on hand you'll need:

• Another set of stock front dampers fully assembled (top hats, spring seat, spring seat isolator, spring)
• Your rear dampers and springs
• New or someone else's rear top hat w/ rubber isolator.

I don't [think I] need the OEM dampers to be fully assembled. I just want to retain the OEM shocks and be able to use/sell them at some point in the future. A friend told me I would lose the front OEM shocks if I went down this path, and I was just trying to understand what he meant. The way he described it it sounded like at least the front OEM shocks would be throw-aways. If that was really the case I would have just rode the crap out of my OEM dampers with the Eibach Prokits until it was time to actually get new aftermarket dampers. Just looking for clarification on the different inputs I've been getting.