KONI vs BILSTEIN

[jlevie]

Konis will not last forever. no way.

no such thing as lifetime. you can compensate for some wear but they will blow out eventually. by 100k mine were completely toast.

The longest I've run a set of Koni SA's, on a car with OE springs, has been 150k. The adjustments still weren't maxed out and the shocks weren't leaking. I call that pretty close to lifetime, but the car was totaled while it was parked by a hit-n-run driver. The greatest mileage I've gotten from OE shocks has been 50k and the greatest from Bilsteins has been no more than 70k. And this is on pretty good roads. But the life of those will be a function of the springs used and the initial adjustment.

On my Spec E30, Bilstein Sports are pretty far gone after two years. That isn't much mileage and tracks are generally very smooth.

[Varinn]

With all the experts chiming in here, I want to add a little more to this to try and get a better understanding of the general concensus. How do you strike the balance between stiffer springs/shocks, swaybars, etc. For example, on a DD/autocross car with H&R sports and wanting to combat bodyroll do you upgrade to race level springs or install larger swaybars? If stabilizers, how big? 22/19? 21/14? 25/22? Do the types of shocks help to control over/understeer or is this handled more by the springs and sways? Street cars have obviously different requirements than autocross, which has different requirements from track cars.

I see that the popular choice with the experienced techs/track guys is that Koni is a better shock than the Bilstein for either reliability or smooth action. The tradeoff being that for someone who isn't comfortable, or is TOO comfortable adjusting their own dampers can actually make things worse than the Bilsteins.

[woc]

I just bought and installed Billis on IE stage 3, with 25mmF/22mmR sways, and I'm not sure if IE re-valve their shocks to match their stage 3 springs, but the car rides stiff as hell, and I love it (no homo). I think I need to call IE and see if they re-valved my shocks, cause I bought it as a combo with sways. If in case they weren't revalved, where can I take'em to to be revalved to match my springs?

[Northern]

Billy sports should be pretty well valved to h&r race/ie 3's as they come.

[bigdrick323]

I'm not sure what I'm going to do still, only a weekend cruiser.

I am away from my computer, being lazy!

[yeaseth]

Get what your e30 tells you to get

[franken325i]

ive never did much suspenion work and by that i mean setting shit up im building my car for a weekend or friday car/ a track car "road course" what would you guys recommend for a suspension set up im already doing z3 rac, m3 5 lug conversion and ill be getting sway bars from ireland enigineering and poly everything.

[graphikg]

I'm also not an expert, but I ran non revalved iX billies on my GE coil overs 450/650 and my billies were blown in less than 6 months. Who knows why. Then I made the cheapest choice from there - revalved to the specific setup. Supposedly these new billies have been specifically designed to what I have and they honestly feel the same. Before I installed them on my car - I pushed down the shock with my arm usinthe ground and it still seemed soft. When I tried that with my camaro rear shock - I couldn't compress the shock with my arm worth a darn. I'm sure it's not a proper test but my shocks don't seem much stiffer. I think I need someone to ride in my car and tell me how it feels in their perspective.

[nando]

I'm pretty sure pushing down with your arm isn't how you measure shocks. lol.

[nando]

I just bought and installed Billis on IE stage 3, with 25mmF/22mmR sways, and I'm not sure if IE re-valve their shocks to match their stage 3 springs, but the car rides stiff as hell, and I love it (no homo). I think I need to call IE and see if they re-valved my shocks, cause I bought it as a combo with sways. If in case they weren't revalved, where can I take'em to to be revalved to match my springs?

bilstein in california. cost is about $65 per shock.

[Earendil]

I'm pretty sure pushing down with your arm isn't how you measure shocks. lol.

Depending on the setup, you can sometimes tell if they're blown out by seeing how much the car bounces on the springs. But otherwise you're right, ability to push a corner down and how "tough" that is is a function of the springs, not shocks.

[graphikg]

^^^ I agree; but just to clarify... I pushed down the shock OUT OF TEH CAR. So I just pushed down the shock's shaft between my hand and the floor. It was vary soft and easy to compress compared to the camaro shock.

[woc]

Something wrong with the shock, maybe not enough nitro (or what ever gas they use). my shocks are hard man. Billies sports. front of my car does not move it pushing car with your hands, the rear will move more, (spring rate I guess) and I don't have sway bar installed in the rear yet, i don't know if that makes any difference.

[jeffnhiscars]

Keep in mind that dampers are rated as lbs\m\sec so the faster you try to mover them the firmer they will be. Meaning that the "bumper test" only is useful if you give it a firm and fast shove. I put my knee on the bumper and then quickly shift my entire weight to the car and lift off as fast as I can to see if the just returns to normal (good) or bounces a couple off times (not so good).

Pressing down on the trunk with 2 hands is like checking tire pressure by kicking the tire. :-)

[gtdragon980]

I dunno about you guys but I used to DD my e30 on H&R races with bilstein sports, I found it to be quite comfortable. Sure it was stiff, but not bouncy, hit pretty hard on bad bumps, but dampened very well to smooth it out. I find that bilstein's ride quality is much better than konis. That said, I did have one rear shock go out in less than 10,000 miles. I was quite upset about that.