Replacing my front 2 first, anyone running these? I plan on using some drop springs in a few months. But for now my passenger front is blown and I can feel the car bouncing on the spring over road imperfections.

besides just the shocks, anything else I need for installation ?

 

Koni has a GREAT reputation. you probably couldnt go wrong with any colored Koni.
I ran the yellows myself.


if the Orange follows the Yellow in any way, shape, or form....the shaft is a little larger in diameter than stock OEM.
Bumpstop is rubber/spongy and you can just PUSH it through.
if you upgraded to type-s top hat bushings, you'll need to drill through the washer to make way for the larger shaft
But Koni could have solved this issue by using a smaller diameter shaft than the yellows. dunno

 

Tein SA's are under $600.

Koni oranges and lowering springs are like $600-700?

Koni oranges are non adjustable, stock length shocks (unless im mistaken and they're shortened?) They'll support lowering springs that are about as low as Eibach Pro Kits in most cases. But...just like yellows, they are not for dropping a car agressively.

Yellows will definitely support a higher spring RATE, however.

Koni Yellows are certainly great shocks. But I don't know how much DNA the Oranges share with yellows. And I don't know where the Oranges are manufactured, if that is of concern.

Are you doing the labour yourself? Or are you paying for a shock install...then another lowering spring install down the line?

If you're doing this yourself...do you have a proper spring compressor? The parts store rental "claws" are a bad idea for this. The stock front springs harbour a whoooole lot of energy via preload.

 

i never liked those stupid spring compressors from autozone....
had a buddy who owned a shop that had a wall mounted spring compressor. MUCH easier to use!

 

They're also like 700 bucks

https://www.amazon.com/Branick-7600-.../dp/B00MMLG9ZU

 

LOL! i threw my buddy like 20 bucks a day. OF course it was multiple days, because I kept fucking up.

 

Yes I'll be doing all myself and some help if needed from my buddy who is a professional mechanic.

From what I can see they are the same as the yellow in all respects , except that they aren't adjustable.
Im not possitive on springs yet, but likely s techs, or Tanabe . 1.5ish drop. Money concerns have me doing this in stages. Struts are 75ish each. Figure around 400 for the struts and springs.

 

I have a hydraulic floor mounted one. Would recommend highly. For me, it offered more flexibility than a wall mounted one.

I'd rather use the car's weight as a spring compressor than use "the claws". I've used the car's weight a bunch of times before I had the hydraulic compressor. Ultra sketchy.

 

Before I bagged my car, H&R Sport Springs (Type S Spring Rate, Model # 50106) with Koni Yellows were and still are the best combo for daily driving.
The spring rates of the springs and using 1/2 turn from full soft front and rear for the shocks = almost same ride as Stock Type S.

 

I have a set of oranges on a 2001 accord so this may or may not be of any use to you but I have them with a set of neuspeed springs I loved the way it rode, I loved them then a year in both fronts were toast they were leaking and the paint was coming off in sheets they were rusting away granted they went through an Ohio winter still I was disappointed

 

They're both two great sets of shocks. As far as the yellow V.S. orange goes the major difference is the yellow has an adjustable spring seat and the orange does not. The orange would be best for a "set it and forget it" type setup since they're fixed and adjustments on the yellow can be difficult if they are not a externally adjustable set. The non-externally adjustable yellows will require them to be pulled off the car and compressed before adjusting. I'll attach links to both so you can have a look:

Yellow (externally adjustable): Koni Shock - Sport Series - Excelerate's Honda & Acura Store - Japanese Performance Specialist

Orange: Koni Shock - STR T Series - Excelerate's Honda & Acura Store - Japanese Performance Specialist

Feel free to PM me if you have any questions and good luck!

 

okie dokie.
Smh.
Wanna run that back and try again?

 

Pardon me, I was looking at the wrong series shock. Dampening is adjustable on the Koni Yellow's without them being removed from the vehicle.

As far as the adjustable perch/spring seat on the yellow shock body goes, it does come with 2 different groves for 20mm in height adjustability.

Hope that clears it up!

 

Yep! I believe that any and all Koni Yellows are externally adjustable in terms of damping. I know for sure that all the Honda/Acura versions are.

The height adjustment is typically 20mm at the shock, and is not adjustable without removing the load from the spring....which usually means disassembly.

However, 20mm at the shock does not mean a ride height change of 20mm. The car would have to have a true 1:1 motion ratio. The rear of the Accord/TL/TSX is close to 1:1...but not quite, I don't believe. The front looks like ~1.6:1 (wheel:shock), not including shock angle. 1.6 is a guess based on eyeball spec memory.

Anyway, including motion ratios and loss of spring preload, it is signifcantly greater than 20mm.

Koni STRT (orange) is a non adjustable shock in terms of damping or height.

Both are stock length (I think). So...you really shouldn't lower the car agressively with either. Yellows can accept a stiffer spring...so in that way, they can accept a lower ride height. Not because of travel or shaft position...but because of spring rate increase.

I would not recommend taking your stock spring or a lowering spring and then putting it on the low perch of a set of yellows.

 

Words from Koni's mouth at SEMA. "Orange STR.T [pronounced "street"] shocks are yellows set to full soft."

I also use a lot a caution when calling Koni Yellows "adjustable." Most people don't realize that the awesome Euro-tuned Koni damper is also rather IKEA-like from an external standpoint. The perches can be moved to varying degrees but a cautious observer notices that the fronts (for this application) have two height settings and the rear has three (!)

What for? The reason being, in our estimation, that the Koni Sports (Yellows) are broadly used across varying applications. The adjustable valving allows them to use the same front damper on these applications:
2g TL, 3g TL, 2g CL, 6g Accord, 7g Accord, 1g TSX.
The rears are more focused as fitting the 3g TL, 7g Accord, and 1g TSX.
Don't forget Accords come in all combinations of I4/V6 and 2dr/4dr.

The different height levels of the Konis are there because these dampers can be adapted to various preload levels to compensate for the changing loads these different cars have on them. We believe this because when installing Konis on all these cars you will note that the standard dampers' spring perch heights moves. So to set a car at "stock height" you pick the perch height that corresponds with the stock damper.

In summation....
Koni Orange are great. We like them paired with Eibach Sportlines as a great "A-Spec alternative." And NO, strictly speaking we do not sell Koni Yellows as "adjustable height" even though customers have occasionally found ability to adjust height to their benefit.

 

In our general experience, with threaded coilovers, there is a linear correlation between perch height and car height, preload notwithstanding. Is it exact, no, but for the purposes of this group it is pretty much "linear".

 

Are these Koni's a good replacement for stock height though?

The roads are pretty rough where I live, so I'm looking for a stock replacement that can handle ruts and rough roads, but somehow still provide adequate shock absorption and maybe a tad better handling than stock. However, simply replacing my shocks might improve handling if the car is at 100k in miles.

 

Yes, oranges are meant as a OE replacement with some performance benefit.

At stock height, they will ride very well. I would wager they would ride better than stock, and definitely all the car to handle better than stock.

 

Perfect, thanks!

Do you speak from experience? Or is there other threads discussing this?

 

A bit of both.

https://acurazine.com/forums/3g-tl-tires-wheels-suspension-97/do-i-have-right-struts-964137/

 

I think the 3 notches on the rear are simply there because the shock is TALLER The front shock is shorter and can only go so far. But the rear is taller by design. Like, in order to drop a similar amount as the front, the rear has 3 notches to dial it in

 

Have these on my TL-S, with stock springs for 2 years and the driver side front is already blown. Getting a new one from Koni for 87 bucks but I got to ship out my old one and they'll refund me that $87 after they evaluate it When they receive it. They ride like absolute crap in my opinion. Plus the rears were supposed to come with washers due to the rear knuckle clevis is thin. So the bracket on the strut had to be bent when torquing bolt down