virtualbong

Alright, my suspension stuff all came in this week (Neuspeed Koni Yellow Shocks and Neuspeed Sport Springs).

Now, I'm still contemplating installing these myself or not. I took a look at the shocks and there's all these freakin' pieces to assemble which is kinda nerve racking since I've never installed shocks before, just changing springs in my previous car. From what I've read and been told (by JTso), I will also need to enlarge the opening of the dust boot, which just adds to my hesitation to do this myself. Since I am a newbie with these shocks, I was hoping that some of you could answer my questions, so that I can be better prepared for this install or if I do take it into a shop to do.

1. Is assembling all the pieces pretty straight forward?

2. Adjustment of the dampening and height. Since the springs give it a 1.5"F+1"R, I'm thinking this would be fine since stock is currently set at 2.5" gap in front and 1.75-2" gap in the rear. Since I would like the height to be set at the standard lowering height of 1.5 and 1, do I just not make any adjustments to the shocks and just install them as is?

3. What are people's recommendations on the dampening? What should I set it at and how do I set it? If I don't do the install on my own, what do I need to tell the shop for my specific dampening?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

btw. if there's any Massachusetts people (who have installed Koni shocks before or has some experience with suspension installs) who would be interested in helping me out, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. Thanks!

WIL

btw. if you want this setup and want to know where I purchased this stuff, just PM me.

AlterZgo

1. Yes. Follow instructions that come with the shocks and use JTso's tips on removal of the stock suspension from the car seen in the A-spec installation link and you should be fine. You should have a svc manual too.

2. Yes. Leave the spring perch clip in the "stock" position which is the middle of the 5 height settings.

3. Most people seem to be running at around 1 full turn counter-clockwise. I would recommend not adjusting the damping until you have the spring/shock assembly put together. For the fronts, wait until they are completely in the car as the adjustment is easily accessed from the top. For the rears, you may want to adjust them right before you put the spring/strut assembly back on the car. First, put the adjustment knob on top and gently turn clockwise until it can't go any further. Do not force it too hard as there is a definite end to how far you can turn the adjustment knob. At this stage, turn the knob 360 degrees counter-clockwise. Then put the spring/strut assembly in the car. You can still access the rear adjustment, but you will need to trim down the adjustment knob as the rear parcel shelf is in the way. Here's the info from Koni's website pertaining to our shocks (pn 8041-xxxxx):

*********
Adjustment Procedure 8041, 8042, 8241, 8610, 8641, 8742 Series

Rebound Adjustment Procedures

Externally Adjustable. These dampers can be adjusted, literally at the turn of a knob, a technique borrowed from Formula-1 racing where KONI dampers have dominated the field for years. One can switch back and forth, in most cases in a matter of seconds, from a comfortable "touring" setting to a more firmer setting for a sporty drive. By means of a knob damping forces can be altered to driving conditions or personal preferences.

REBOUND ADJUSTMENT DIRECTION

Clockwise = Softer
Counter Clockwise = Firmer
COMPRESSION ADJUSTMENT DIRECTION

Clockwise = Firmer
Counter Clockwise = Softer
*********

virtualbong

Thanks AlterZgo! Alright, so the height adjustment can only be down before installing the system back onto the car. The dampening adjustment is the only thing that you can adjust after its been installed. Check!

Alright, I'm still going to see how much a shop would charge to install everything before I make my final decision. If I can get it professionally installed for a decent price and save an entire day's work on my own, then I'll go that route. I most likely won't adjust the height so I won't need to uninstall it again. I just think that I'll be playing with the dampening a little bit to find what's best for me.

Again, if any Massholes want to help me out, let me know.

AlterZgo

With respect to height adjustment, you don't need to completely disassemble the whole thing. You just need to compress the spring enough to lift the spring perch and switch the C-clip higher or lower.

Personally, I don't think this is possible with it installed in the car, but it may be. But, once the suspension assembly is out of the car, you just need to compress the assembly enough to adjust the clip/perch - no need to take apart the whole shock/spring assembly.

virtualbong

Well, I just called two places to see how much they would charge for the install and one was $300+ and the other close to $500! I am definitely not spending that much for them to install so I guess I'm going to do this myself.

I hope you're near your computer alot during the day AlterZgo, I may have some questions, LOL.

AlterZgo

Are you installing this weekend? I'll be at the So Cal TSX Meet from about 12PM-4PM Pac Standard Time. Hit me up with questions tonight. I'll try to think through my install again to see if there are specific pointers.

virtualbong

Actually, I'm going to take my time to review everything so that I'll be ready in two weekends to install this. So I guess I'll be asking you questions in 2 weeks.

virtualbong

Alright, I'm doing some pre-install review and I have some questions.

1. Look at the red circled areas. What the deal with 2/2X and the other one. Is it saying use either/or kinda deal?



2. What is going on here?



3. When I'm changing the spring perch by moving the C-Clip, can't I do it before I put the shock/spring assembly together? And what's the easiest way to move the C-Clip? Just get a good grip and remove it?

Well, I guess this one ain't that important since I'll most likely be leaving them at stock height



Sorry about the newbie questions, but this is my first shock/spring install so I want to research as much as I can before I even jack up the car and go at it this Friday.

JTso

iTrader: (2)

The first picture basically telling you there are two configurations. Just follow the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Ignore the steps in the second picture as it only applies to shocks without the top adjustment.

AlterZgo

1. I don't relaly know what the diagram is trying to say with respect to the top circle. But, basically, remember that any number with a circle around it is a part supplied by Koni which you will use to *replace* the stock part with. Any part w/o any number beside it is a stock part which you will re-use in your install. In this first diagram, the stock parts you will need are the 2 black rubber busings (one right below washer #4 and right above the cylindrical part #3), the upper mount itself, the dustboot and the bumpstop (rubber part right below item #1).

You will definitely need to enlarge the hole on top of the dustboot, but not too much - only like about 1/8" max. Do this with a hand drill. No need to be precise.

I also found it necessary to enlarge the hole in the bumpstop. I did this by just scraping along the inside of the hole w/ a steak knife. Doesn't need to be enlarged too much. You may not need to at all if you are able to muscle the bumpstop on.

For the 2nd red circle below, disregard the split washer part. Your shocks came with that white plastic cap. You will just need to slide this over the shock piston and onto the top of the shock body. *Remember to put the spring perch on first before you install this plastic part as the spring perch will not fit once you put the plastic part on.*

One stock part that is not listed in the diagram is the plastic or rubber gasket that sits at the bottom of the stock spring perch. Make sure you transfer this stock part over onto the Koni spring perch. This part will help prevent some noise as it prevents metal on metal contact btw the bottom of the spring and the spring perch. THis part is also designed to lock onto the bottom of the stock dustboot which will prevent debris from getting onto the shock piston so it's important.

2. Disregard this diagram completely. These are instructions for damping adjustment on Koni shocks w/o the adjustments on top of the shock. Since ours can be adjusted with a knob on top of the shock, there is no need to do the adjustment per this diagram.

3. Yes. You can adjust the C-clip right now. It's a bit of a pain. I used a flathead screwdriver to wedge under the clip and a plier to pull the clip higher or lower. Just work your way all the way around. You're not going to pop the whole C-clip off the shock. Just pull the C-clip out enough to move it off the groove and towards the next groove.

Remember that after you move the C-clip to where you want it to go, the next item that needs to be installed is the spring perch itself. It obviously won't lock into place, but it just needs to be put on before you install the round white plastic cap (the in your lower red circle).

Also, make sure you put the spring perch on the right way. It is shaped like a bowl w/ a wide lip. The perch should be installed as if the bowl was upside down like this: _/ \_

Later tonight, I'll upload some pictures I took which may be helpful.

virtualbong

Thank you for clearing all this up guys!

Pics would be very helpful AlterZgo!

AlterZgo

OK Virtual. I uploaded the photos. Since JTso already posted excellent instructions on basic disassembly of the suspension assembly from the car, I'm going to concentrate mostly on taking apart the spring/shock assembly.

One thing I'd add to taking out the suspension assembly is that there isn't a lot of room to maneuver the assembly out. I found it helpful to step on the brake rotor to give a bit more room to maneuver the suspension assembly out. **needless to say, make sure the car is properly secured on jack stands and front or rear wheel blocks are in place before you start pushing and pulling hard on the suspension components!**

AlterZgo

Once you get the suspension assembly out of the car, make sure you take a good look at how the components are lined up. In this picture, you will see that one of the top bolts (1) lines up directly with the notch in the spring seat (2) which lines up directly with the notches on the bottom of the shock (3). You will want to maintain this same alignment when you put together the Koni shock assembly. It is a bit more difficult because item #2, the spring perch on the Koni shock is not static. It will rotate so you will have to adjust it and hold it in place when you decompress the spring compressor.

Another thing. I found it helpful to put a piece of tape near the bolt on the top mount which lines up to the other areas of the suspension. I put the piece of tape where the yellow "X" is.

AlterZgo

Here's another picture of the stock suspension assembly. I drew a red line again showing how the top bolt lines up to the notch in the spring seat to the notches at the bottom of the shock.

AlterZgo

Here's a close up shot of the bottom of the stock and the Koni shock. You can see the matching notches and grooves (items 1 & 2). The #2 notch is an alignment tab which will need to slide into a notch in the fork which holds the bottom of the shock.

Item #3 is the stock spring perch gasket which you will need to transplant onto the Koni spring perch. This is an item that is not listed at all in the Koni instructions. I will have a better picture of this in the following pictures.

AlterZgo

Here is an exploded view of the stock front suspension components and the Koni components. The items with a yellow line shows stock parts that are to be replaced by Koni supplied parts. The items with a black line shows stock parts that need to be re-used. Again, starting from the left of the picture, the stock parts to be re-used are:
1. top rubber bushing, 2. upper mount, 3. bottom rubber bushing, 4. dustboot, 5. bumpstop, 6. bottom spring perch gasket.

AlterZgo

Here is a closer picture. The components should be installed in the following order.

1. Spring perch - notice the direction the spring perch is installed. See what I mean when I called it an "upside down bowl"? Make sure you have it on the right way.

2. This is the stock spring perch gasket which you will transfer onto the Koni spring perch. It is not a perfect fit, but it's close enough. You should definitely use this part even though the Koni insturctions don't tell you to because this will help prevent noise from metal on metal contact. This gasket will also lock onto the bottom of the stock dustbook which will help keep water, dust and grime out of the shock piston. Very important especially in your neck of the woods.

3. This is the pastic part which you had circled in red. This part goes on AFTER the spring perch because the spring perch will not fit over it.

AlterZgo

Here's a close up picture of the upper mount and the 2 rubber bushings. I include this picture b/c another forum member had mentioned he had some trouble with these bushings.

1. Here's the piece of tape I attached to remind me of which bolt on the upper mount matches up with the alignment tabs on the shock body.

2. This is a picture of the top rubber bushing. Just pry it out of there with your finger.

3. This is a picture of teh bottom rubber bushing underneath the top mount. I have already pried it out of the bottom of the top mount. Note that there is that cylindrical metal tube attached to it. Just pull the tube out and replace it with the Koni supplied slightly larger cylindrical tube. I used a bit of WD-40 to slide it on.

Once you have installed the Koni cylindrical metal tube back into the stock rubber bushing, put the cylindrical metal tube back through the middle of the upper mount. Shot a bit of WD-40 onto the top rubber bushing and push it right back onto the other end of the cylindrical tube. You will also be wedging that top rubber bushing back onto the top part of the upper suspension mount. When the top and bottom rubber bushings are properly installed w/ the cylindrical tube in the middle, everything should hold together fairly well.

JTso

iTrader: (2)

Nice detail pictures!

AlterZgo

Thanks!

rmpage

Wow. Those are some excellent instructions.

virtualbong

WHOA! You went far and beyond what you had to do. I really appreciate it! I briefly read thru your posts, but I'm going to reread it thoroughly before I begin the install Thursday night. I'm going to try to do the front shocks Thursday night and then the rear Friday night. Gotta have my weekend to test things out and relax a little bit. THANKS AGAIN!

AlterZgo

No problem. Good idea to spread it out over 2 days. Don't want to rush any of these types of jobs.

PixelHarmony

How many hours do you think it would take for a shop to do this job?

AlterZgo

I'd say that a competent mechanic at a shop w/ all the right tools should easily be able to complete the job in about 2 hrs. This is w/o alignment.

virtualbong

I just reread your whole post and I feel much more confident about the install now. I can't thank you enough for posting the pictures and giving such a detailed step by step. I walked thru the entire install in my head and now I feel confident that I could do this on my own even if my bro isn't there to help out with removing the assembly and installing the new one back in. :gheywave:

AlterZgo

Great. Be careful and let us know if you run into any issues.

drunkenbuda

Post PicS!!!!! I wanna see how this drop will look!

virtualbong

Will do. I am going to start the install Thursday night and hopefully finish everything by Saturday morning.

virtualbong

Quick question for the suspension experts. Is there a difference between the front right and left shocks? One had this L shaped thing at the bottom of the shock while the other one didn't. And the rubber stock perch piece doesn't fit perfectly for one side, so should I just trim off the extra rubber. Quick answer would be greatful since I'm installing the suspension right now and taking a break to ask this question.

AlterZgo

YES. The front right and left shocks are specific. The front springs are NOT specific. The rear shocks and springs are not specific and can be interchanged.

The front Koni shocks came in separate boxes. One is marked with part# with an "L" in it and the other has an "R" in it. R is right and L is left.

With respect to the rubber spring seat gasket, no need to trim it. Just put it on as best you can. If you ever go back to stock, you'd want it to fit properly on your stock parts. Leaving a bit of the extra rubber off the spring perch won't hurt anything.

virtualbong

Oh No...I just finished up the front suspension and I actually did look for a Right or Left marking on the box, but I didn't find anything. I'll go recheck, but PLEASE tell me that the Left one is this:

virtualbong

I just checked and man did I luck out! Good thing I started on the Left side which was coicidentally the one I took out of the box first...phew.

Now, that I'm relieved that everything worked out, let me tell ya, the drop in the front looks fantastic! I'd say its around a 1.5 finger gap now. I'm going to check out where the bolts in the rear seats are and maybe unbolt those, but I won't start the rear suspension until tomorrow night. I'm exhausted right now...f'n spring compressors...

AlterZgo

Virtual,

No worries. The one with the L bracket IS the left front shock.

Get cleaned up and rip those rear seats out. It is literally a 5 minute deal. There is only 1 single bolt holding the bottom seat cushion in place. JTso's A-spec install thread shows you exactly where the bolt is.

After you remove that bolt, just grab the left bottom front of the seat cushion and pull directly up. Then grab the right bottom front of the seat cushion and pull directly up. It all pops out super easily.

One thing that someone else mentioned - when you remove the bolt holding the left and right side bolsters, you may want to consider just leaving them off for now. The side bolsters are still secured fairly well in place w/o these bolts. If you leave these bolts off, you will be able to pull off the just the side bolsters to get to the rear shock adjustment point w/o having to take out the whole rear seat cushion.

virtualbong

Thanks for the heads up. Since it'll only take a few minutes to take out the rear seats, I think I'll do it tomorrow then. Woke up at 5am this morning to swim so I'm closing in on 24 hours...not feeling too hot, so I'll hopefully be able to finish everything up tomorrow night or Sunday.

AlterZgo

Virtual,

If it's any consolation, IMO, the rears are a little easier than the fronts - especially when you get to the spring compressor. The rear springs are much softer and do not require all that much to compress compared to the fronts.

I don't know how the Neuspeed springs are, but with my Comptechs, I didn't really need to use the spring compressor to put everything back together. I could compress it by hand with a little force and, as long as you have another set of hands, they can just thread the top nut on w/o using the spring compressor. Of course, you still need the compressors to take the assembly apart! But, putting it back together was super easy.

Don't forget to adjust the rear spring perch down. If you're at 1.5 fingers front, you'll need to drop that spring perch at least 1 notch lower in the rear or the back will look too high. Also remember to fill the car up with gas to get a good idea of how it looks. With and w/o gas causes my back end to raise or lower by 1/4"+

AlterZgo

Funny you mentioned swimming. When I was installing my springs/shocks, my triathelete buddy had just completed a 1/2 distance ironman. He stopped by to visit and I recruited him to help w/ the install. Made him stay with me practically the whole 1st day. He was hurtin'!

virtualbong

Sounds like a good friend to keep, LOL.

Man, I really wanted to finish up my install tonight because this weekend is supposed to be gorgeous out. Ah well, might as well take it slow and make sure I don't mess up anywhere.

AlterZgo

Yeah. It was payback for when he made me help him assemble his road bike a few weeks earlier. He kept me up past midnight on a Sunday.

No rush. If you're able to have an extra set of hands and you can put the rear spring/shock together w/o the spring compressor, the install time will be less than 1/2 as long as the fronts.

virtualbong

For the damper settings, is it one full turn counter clockwise (360 degrees counter clockwise after turning it clockwise to the end) for all 4 settings?