Cascade Crew

iansane · Posted: Thu May 05, 2011 9:43 pm Post subject: Bilstein or Koni?

My shocks/struts have probably ~100k on them and at least one offroading adventure. I was inspecting the passenger side one when I did my strut mounts and it was leaking just a bit. I have bilstein HDs right now but I'm not sure what I should run next. I'm kind of leaning towards the Konis just to try something different?

Dewey316 · Posted: Thu May 05, 2011 9:52 pm Post subject:

You can't go wrong with Koni. It sucks that the front strut options are so limited. The UE valved rear bilstein-pro's would be awresome, but I don't think their is anything out there to match them for the front end.

I vote Koni. Or get a hold of your mom's Amex, and start calling some serious race shops.

iansane · Posted: Thu May 05, 2011 10:05 pm Post subject:

Dewey316 · Posted: Thu May 05, 2011 10:28 pm Post subject:

I am pretty sure Penske makes a strut body, it would just be a matter of getting the right size to somehow fit "into" your bilstein strut housing.

Twilightoptics · Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 8:49 am Post subject:

I'd go Koni.

91RSVert · Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 9:01 am Post subject:

Ive been looking myself. I am thinking Koni front and KYB adjust rears.

Twilightoptics · Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 11:28 am Post subject:

KYB's are great but still don't compare to Koni or Bilstein. I put Koni's in the back and they made the rear much more stable than the KYBs.

IROCDave · Posted: Fri May 06, 2011 6:12 pm Post subject:

Just posted about this on ECM.

I have Koni adjustable shocks and struts on my car. When I put them on the car I also swapped out the stock springs to Iebachs so I cant really give you a clear opinion of the merits of Koni.

You are more than welcome to take my car out and form your own opinion or you can swap out the struts and shocks and see how they perform on your car. The caviat is that you will have to do the wrenching.

I would be intersted in the results. You never see a direct comparison between Koni and Bilsteen even though the price is similar.

Red Bird · Posted: Sat May 07, 2011 12:13 am Post subject:

I run Koni Yellow struts, and they are awesome. They stopped the nose diving under hard braking, settled my car down through slaloms in AutoX. You can adjust the stiffness, and they can be rebuilt/revalved to suit your application. Bilsteins cannot be rebuilt/revalved or are adjustable that im aware of. I would get Konis......

iansane · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 8:00 pm Post subject:

So I was under the car last weekend yanking the line lock off and flushing the brake system and realized the passenger side isn't leaking but the drivers side IS blown and has fluid all down the strut body. I'll be needing to get shocks/struts sooner rather than later and I was going to pull the trigger on KONIs when I saw AST now has an offering for our cars...
http://www.ast-suspension.com/index.asp
I could get these directly from stranoparts which would be nice as well.

Adjustable and rebuild-able just like the KONIs too. Thing that piques my interest with them is actually how highly recommended they are by Vorshlag Motorsports (the guys who did the LM7 e30 for the 2010 GRM challenge.) I'm about 90% sure I'm getting these...

IROCDave · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 8:54 pm Post subject:

Offer still stands and since my car is in limbo you can run them for awhile. I am working a 12 hour night shift starting Tuesday through Saturday morning. If your interested, Saturday morning would be a good time to pull them.

DBL_TKE · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 9:02 pm Post subject:

I don't see any offering for our cars on the AST website. Another thing to look into is the strut/shock height. It'd be nice to find some that fit our cars that have a shorter shaft.

iansane · Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2011 9:31 pm Post subject:

91RSVert · Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 4:26 pm Post subject:

I just put konis on the front, and kyb adjust on rear of mine. Still playing with them, but very nice as the front doesnt hop as much. Also got some of the front end plow removed. Still tinkering.

DBL_TKE · Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 4:33 pm Post subject:

I just noticed that those AST's are adjustable for rebound only. Aren't Koni Yellows adjustable for both bound and rebound?

Alphius · Posted: Tue Sep 06, 2011 5:57 pm Post subject:

iansane · Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2011 7:57 pm Post subject:

Side by side may not be that accurate since everything else about our cars is different!

Alphius · Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2011 8:29 pm Post subject:

iansane · Posted: Wed Sep 07, 2011 9:00 pm Post subject:

Ooooh, that works. I just ordered them. Very Happy

DBL_TKE · Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 5:17 am Post subject:

Even with a blind comparison like that, height makes for a huge variable in how well the shock/strut can handle movement.