MOVED: Koni Yellows - chop up stocks???

[calico]

So I was looking into some suspension stuff for my car (96 se) and I'm leaning a lot towards koni yellows with ground control adjustable springs. Reason being b/c I want to be able to adjust height and dampening but coilovers are more than I want to pay. I've also heard from many people that they are pretty satisfied with their koni/GC and koni/Eibach setups. But as I was looking at koni's, i saw some thing that said I would have to cut up my stock housing and reuse it. From what it seemed like, I basically have to ruin my stock shocks to put these koni's on. Is that correct? I wanted to keep my stock ones b/c they are still pretty decent. My friend has a prelude and he didn't have to do anything like that. He just said it was plug and play for him. Can anyone with koni's shed some light on this?

[masticatingcow]

Moved to Tires, Wheels, Brakes and Suspension subforum. Hopefully it'll get a more knowledgeable response here!

[calico]

thanks masticatingcow. i knew i saw a suspension section somewhere but just couldn't find it....

[nismofly]

yes you will have to cut up the stock shocks

if you want to keep them, youll have to run agx's instead, which will mean not running as high of spring rates like you could get with a koni / GC setup

imo as long as its a daily / street car, you dont need anything higher for spring rates than what you can run on the agx, so you could get those

however i will be running a koni / GC setup on my track car

[Juujai]

koni gc is a nice setup from what i've ridden on. but what it lacks if it concerns you from a full adjustable coilover setup is dual height adjustability, front camber plates and massive piston sizes. depends what type of drop you are looking for 1-2.5" koni would be a great choice, but anymore i'd go with full coilovers.

its about $900 for koni/gc vs about $1100 for some decent coilovers. with fairly aggressive spring rates nose dives, squats, body roll will be mostly eliminated.

[calico]

yea 2.5" will prob be good enough. what do you mean by dual height adjustability? and about the camber plates - is that any different than some cheapo camber kit i can buy? i saw a camber kit for pretty cheap, cant remember the price. it had a picture though and basically it just had 2 bolts with a metal piece around them. im assuming the camber plates are different? thanks for your help

[180fan]

Koni's are awesome. The fronts are inserts so yes, you do cut off the top portion of the shock casing, drill a hole at the bottom to put the bolt through and slip the insert through there then tighten down the bolt. The rears replace the stock shocks without a fuss.

[Dori Dori]

yea 2.5" will prob be good enough. what do you mean by dual height adjustability? and about the camber plates - is that any different than some cheapo camber kit i can buy? i saw a camber kit for pretty cheap, cant remember the price. it had a picture though and basically it just had 2 bolts with a metal piece around them. im assuming the camber plates are different? thanks for your help

He's talking about an adjustable shock body as well as spring perch.

Camber kits...no. That's just an eccentric bolt for the front. Get camber plates from Tein or others.

[nismofly]

yeah the 2.5" drop isnt a guarantee, with the ground controls its basically you get what you get, depends on the rates

[Rusted_PS13]

I've heard the GC's are crap for the S13 models, but i'm not too sure on the S14's. Installing the Koni shocks is a breeze man, BUT i'd go with the AGX because adjusting them will be easier. Koni rear's you have to take off to adjust by pushing in the shaft and turning.

[nismofly]

people say the gc's are crap because they arent height adjustable, thats the only reason

from a quality standpoint theyre perfectly fine

[Rusted_PS13]

I thought the Ground Controls were height adjustable? I know they are made from Eibach, but i believe the sleeves are height adjustble

[nismofly]

well i just checked the site and youre right

somebody from my SCCA connections told me they werent, but maybe he had older ones and the new ones are

pic of another car in the class ill be running, obviously this is lowered, looks great to me

[Dori Dori]

well i just checked the site and youre right

somebody from my SCCA connections told me they werent, but maybe he had older ones and the new ones are

pic of another car in the class ill be running, obviously this is lowered, looks great to me

It depends on the spring rates you want. I have Ground Controls with 450f/350r and they are definitely adjustable!

[calico]

oh the rear koni's on the s14 aren't externally adjustable?? well ****ty.... didn't know that. agx's are looking more and more promising. and you get to keep your stock shocks with agx's right? everybody on here with agx's pretty satisfied with their shocks? any input is appreciated.

[nismofly]

yeah, but youre not supposed to have much of a drop or much of a spring rate increase

this is ok if youre good with changing shocks more often, ive heard people say every 2 - 3 years, not quite as much as you can get normally