minkl81

iTrader: (2)

I finally decided to go with Eibach Pro & Koni Yellow setup for my suspension. Eibach springs are already here and waiting for Koni Yellows to arrive (expected to be Thursday).

What'll be the optimal damping and perch setting with Koni Yellows?

260 HP

iTrader: (3)

If you're buying Koni Sport, leave the spring perches alone.

I'd start from 1 full turn for the fronts and 1/2 turn rears.

rodneyc77

iTrader: (1)

My question would be...

How do you want it to ride???

'cause the Koni's have the ability to be very soft or very firm...

I personally have them at one and a quarter (1.25) turns from the softest setting... all around... basically... not too soft and not too firm... perfect in my opinion...

Good luck and enjoy...

minkl81

iTrader: (2)

in the line between sport and luxury. don't want it to be too harsh

rodneyc77

iTrader: (1)

the settings I mentioned above should accomplish that...

to be safe... install the shocks and springs... don't install the back seats or the strut bar... take it for a test run... and see if you like it... then adjust from there...

minkl81

iTrader: (2)

so set perch as it is and at least 1 full turn for front and rear..

thanx for the info.

maybe i'll try 1.25front and .75rear for now as it gets installed later this afternoon.

MrHeeltoe

iTrader: (1)

Many times I find that Eibach springs do not have an even tire gap front and rear. I generally recommend going with a little lower perch in the front. This works well with the comptech coils, which I believe are the same. But you will need to install everything and take a gander before making the decision yourself.

Marcus

minkl81

iTrader: (2)

front seems fine but rear sits way low (tucking in) and i'm thinking of raising up a perch.

compared to just h-tech springs alone, it reduced brake dive, lift under accelaration, and reduced body motion during cornering.

i need to toggle with the damping setting now. it seems to ride little rough or i'm too used to soft tein h-techs.

minkl81

iTrader: (2)

i did one full turn on all four corners and they are damn stiff. every small potholes and uneven surface can be felt in the cabin. maybe i'm too used to the soft h-tech springs that i had for about 4k miles

260 HP

iTrader: (3)

Reduce the rear first, you'll see big improvement.

MrHeeltoe

iTrader: (1)

It is possible to adjust these shocks TOO stiff. They are designed to work with a variety of springs, some much stiffer than what you have. If you feel the car bounce at all like the sus is not absorbing bumps then it is too stiff, especially in the rear as mentioned.

The eibachs are not all that much stiffer than h-techs...it all felt soft because of the shocks. Teh shocks impact the ride more than the springs...to a certain extent.

Marcus

minkl81

iTrader: (2)

i was thinking to reduce the rear to 1/2 turn whenever i have time to take the rear seats out.

i thought h-techs were pretty low compared to the specs but the prokit came out to be lower than the h-techs. h-techs were low enough for me and now i'm thinking about changing it to aspec suspension.

i have koni shocks with five perch setting. is this a neuspeed version? also will raising up the perch will raise up the car a bit?

MrHeeltoe

iTrader: (1)

Heh, I wouldn't use "low" to describe either spring personally....but that is a difference in opinion. Low for you and low for me would always be different.

What are your tire gaps?

Yes, raising the perches will raise the car, but the car will still be lower that stock by about an inch, I expect.

minkl81

iTrader: (2)

i don't know how much it'll settle but i have a feeling that front is very close to the h-techs. its the rear that got lowered more than my taste. i'll give few more days to settle and find out the gaps.

italian_spak

Ok im new to these performance struts, but i heard the konis can lower your car 0.6 inches, now when u guys talk about softer or stiffer, would lowering it to 0.6in be on the stiff side or it has nothing to do with it?

260 HP

iTrader: (3)

The height has nothing to do with the stiffness (actually rebound) adjustment.

italian_spak

ok so i lowers the car 0.6in automatically when installing em?

260 HP

iTrader: (3)

No, if the spring seats are on the original position, they're at the same height as the stock shocks.

If you want to lower it, you have to move the spring seats to the lower position.

trancemission

Well doesnt that depend on what springs you use? I have mine on the original spring seats and my car sits much lower...

260 HP

iTrader: (3)

Oh, I was assuming italian_spak is going to use the same springs, whatever they are.

Yo Ethan, wanna buy my car? It'll be your car's twin.

italian_spak

right now i have the progress springs sitting 1.3 in lower than stock but i heard that if i install the koni they will lower my car 0,6in more than the actual height, i wanted to know if it an adjustable height? so i can raise it back up for the winter and lower it back for the summer?

topckret

I believe the spring perch on these yellow Konis can drop or raise about 0.6" in addition to your spring drop...correct me if I'm wrong guys. And earlier in the thread they're talking about the dampner control on the Koni strut, where you can control the compression rate (stiffer or softer shock setting.) These Yellows have two different adjustments. One being the spring perch which controls the height of the car and second, the dampner control which controls the ride firmness. BTW, how much are you guys paying for the Konis? And are they lifetime warranty? If not, are they rebuildable? Thanks in advance.

BLACKURA_NY

iTrader: (6)

is the height adjustable while the the koni's are on the car?? similar to teins?

260 HP

iTrader: (3)

To adjust the height, it's much easier to remove the suspension assembly from the car because you'll need to compress the spring. You don't have to disassemble it though.

The height adjustability differs between Koni Sport and SP3. The Sport front shocks only allow 2 positions, stock and 0.6" lower. The Sport rear shocks allow 3 positions, stock, 0.6" lower, and 0.6" higher.

If you have Koni SP3, the front and rear shocks have 5 height positions: stock, 0.3" and 0.6" higher, and 0.3" and 0.6" lower.

260 HP

iTrader: (3)

Both Koni Sport and SP3 only allows REBOUND adjustment and have fixed compression rate.

Another thing, Koni doesn't recommend lowering the Sport spring seats if you're already running lowering springs. Koni doesn't advise anything against it for the SP3 shocks.

I believe they have limited lifetime warranty, check koni-na.com for this. I believe they are rebuildable but you'll have to ship the shocks to Hebron, KY.

Prices should be around $600 for the set.

edsfedup

what's up everyone. my first post btw. just thought id add some to the discussion.

i just received and had a shop install my eibach pro kit and konis today. i was only able to snap 1 pic before i had to go.

here are the retainer ring and slots for the front (left) and rear (right). they're currently in the postion they were shipped in. by eye it looks like the front & rear can be lowered 20mm (as quoted by koni). i was surprised to see the highest rear setting to be grearter, closer to 3/4 inch.

as far as the rebound setting, i settled on 1.5 turns from full soft front & rear. (thanks to you all!) i tried 1.75 turns in the front and started noticing some "bounce" and backed off a little. very close to stock ride, just a little more responsive w/o ride suffering.

the drop wasn't so dramatic. initially i had about an easy 2 finger gap. now i can barely fit 2 fingers (pix to come). i didnt make initial measurements but im guessing the drop is a solid 0.5 inch. maybe the old stock springs sagged? wondering if i should got the h&r's instead... even if they have higher spring rates, i think it's the shocks that determine ride quality (talkin about progressives). comparing the ride/handling to stock, i was also suprised at how good the stock suspension was, but the new setup is definitely an improvement. i can now make the tires work (howl) with less effort. i actually had to go check the part numbers on the old stuff to make sure it wasn't an a-spec to begin with. i bought the 04 NBP 6MT with an aspec kit installed. dont know if the suspension was replaced too.

so...id say that for those of you that would like a moderate drop, just swapping out the shocks with konis and lowering the perch height is defintely a viable solution.

edsfedup

forgot to add... the alignment numbers at the front didnt change much. at the rear, camber is at -1.7 deg (right), -1.9 (left). so the mechanic recommended a camber kit. maximum camber spec is -1.5 according to the shop's printout. the weird thing is, the stock suspension had the same camber!?

edsfedup

oh and another thing. it's saturday night and im on AZINE and drunk.

BLACKURA_NY

iTrader: (6)

x2 on the drunk postings lol

edsfedup

haha

not to encourage DWI, but i just came back from a cruise, saw too many cops on the road, so to my better judgement i came home. more cops than usual, maybe cos of the holidays...

edsfedup

blackack, i'm originally from jersey city, nj transplanted to san diego. not much going on out here, but havent checked out LA area yet. kinda miss cruising up the west side hwy!

italian_spak

Prob a stupid question, but do you have to go for an alignement when replacing struts?

edsfedup

yes. the fronts were no problem. rear toe was out about 0.5 deg both sides. thats about it.

Red Voodoo

Resurrecting this thread for a moment....

Has anybody done this? I don't care to go with new springs, and this sounds like it might be what I'm looking for to close the gap between the tread and fender. I had Koni Yellows on my M1 Miata, and liked the adjustability of the height and the ride.

Pictures would be nice if any are available...

I hate cars

This is what I did. Koni Sports with stock springs. It's a perfect drop for me. It got rid of of the horrible stock gap but doesn't look non-factory if that makes sense. I've had fellow TL'ers ask me if it is lowered. It looks much better than stock. Even my friend with an IS350 who never has anything nice to say about the TL loved the subtle drop.

There is a nice handling improvement, and much less weight transfer for better off the line traction.

I have pictures but I can't access them from this computer for some reason and can't get them at work either. I'll have to wait until I'm at the parents' house to post them.

ssmtl2nv

iTrader: (2)

Pics would be awesome. i ran koni with s techs and the ride was horrible

Red Voodoo

Pictures would be great! I'll be keeping an eye out for them. I'm really leaning this direction instead of going with the higher rated springs, or the more expensive coilovers. After all, it's much more for aesthetics than anything.

Excelerate

iTrader: (1)

Yes this a great idea for those who don't want to lower the TL too much but want improved handling. I believe the lowest perch on the KONI shock lowers the car 20 mm.