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Coilovers

K

KBSVT

CEG'er
Joined
Jul 4, 2012
Messages
95
Location
Bowmanstown PA
I read through a lot of treads before I posted this and I think I have made up my mind but have a few questions. I am trying to figure out what my best option in. I had my mind set on a koni sport suspension kit, but they seem to be discontinued, so I was looking into coilovers, I am just wondering the ride quality between the D2, ksport and ground control with koni. I like the full threaded bodies the kpsort and D2 offer. I don't mind a firm or a stiffer ride, I just don't want them banging like I have heard other suspensions make on other types of cars. To give you an idea of ride that I like, I am used to the MK2 or MK3 style volkswagens with say, H&R or Bilstein give, very firm but not harsh over bumps. As far as the ride height, I plan on keeping it close to the koni sport height, probably just a little lower in the front. Forgot to ask one more question, is there even a difference between ksport and D2. Thanks for any advise
 
I love my d2 setup. Have them on full stiff front and back but it rides great. No banging around. I've got them pretty low, but I rarely have any drivability issues. You can find them on eBay with auction that say make offer, and you can work on the price with the seller.
 
GIT-R-DONE said:
I love my d2 setup. Have them on full stiff front and back but it rides great. No banging around. I've got them pretty low, but I rarely have any drivability issues. You can find them on eBay with auction that say make offer, and you can work on the price with the seller.
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Same for my D2s, I actually am incredibly impressed with the ride, there are almost no smooth roads around here and yet I get a worse ride in the Chevy Sonic we have as a delivery vehicle, you'll know they're stiffer than stock, but it's fairly subtle.

My only problem with them is the fronts are at the max height setting I can get them to and they are a good ~2" lower than stock which puts the sidewalls just barely clearing the fender arches. I contacted D2 to see if they could make me some in a custom rate and length but they told me they were only available as stock replacements. I'll keep looking around and try to find us a suitable replacement for those who don't want to be as low as I am. The rears could easily hit stock ride height BTW.
 
any pictures of the car at maxed raised height in the front. I plan on lowering it but not slamming it. I also plan on running a 17" wheel with a 225/45/17
 
There was a revision to the front struts from new to old. The old set has much lower capabilities then the new. The old bare aluminum are fully threaded you can lay it on the frame if you wanted.

I don't consider these high quality units, just 'okay' in my book. Not a big fan of the koni's quality either. Not too many options, if i ever get into racing more. i'll probably splurge on some KW V3's for the ford cougar, no ones ever done those to my knowledge. - Might be because they are about $2,000

Look for Striker 2's post he had his on max height.
 
Sure, this is my car on 17" rims at full ride height in the front, the rear could go up and probably over stock but is set to where I'd like the fronts, causing a rake. I can go lower than the chassis would allow, but I don't know why you'd want too. Keep in mind if yours are as low as mine at full ride height you WILL have a major negative camber problem and the camber kits are not recommended for coilovers because of the hollow strut tube, some have reported snapping it off due to the stress the camber kit puts on them. I have Stangkiller LCAs and was able to get a local mechanic to bend them slightly with a hydraulic ram on his alignment rack to fix my camber issue, but before he did that I was eating through front tires in about ~1,500 miles. PRT offers a really nice conversion kit to use s13 pillowball upper mounts that allow for camber adjustment on the top but the strut tower has to have the top cut off and the new one welded on AFAIK.

1268641_10100115583971027_279074631_o.jpg
 
so you had camber problems at that height? They are going on an svt and I was already planning on putting new control arm. Also, these sway bar links seem pretty long, are there shorter ones available or will the stock ones be fine. I plan on running it at about the same height shown above. I just want to gather parts to do everything at once
 
Yes, major camber issues, it was waaaaaay out of spec, and to give you an idea, spec for the car is -0.6 with a +/- 1.3 range, so mine was probably -2 or more, it ate tires like you wouldn't believe on the inside, you may be able to have someone do what Tommy did for me and bend your LCAs, but stock arms are very thin and I wouldn't trust them after they were bent. The stangkillers I have are tubular with rod ends instead of bushings so I wasn't worried about strength. Stock links should be replaced with adjustable pieces, avalable from Massive Speed Systems for about ~$100 for a pair, those also have rod ends with boots pre installed. D2's and KSports have an adjustable link bracket so you could set stocks to work with that more than likely, I just set mine to the stock setting and then adjusted my Massive links.
 
DanMyers said:
My only problem with them is the fronts are at the max height setting I can get them to and they are a good ~2" lower than stock which puts the sidewalls just barely clearing the fender arches. I contacted D2 to see if they could make me some in a custom rate and length but they told me they were only available as stock replacements. I'll keep looking around and try to find us a suitable replacement for those who don't want to be as low as I am. The rears could easily hit stock ride height BTW.
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The D2's use a tapered spring that was wound large at the top to fit the Contour front upper spring mount, right?

Could you raise the front ride height by swapping to a longer 2.5" ID barrel spring and use the race spring adapters I made for the stock front upper mounts? These sit right over and capture the stock turning bearing. I've had a few PM's about making a small quantity of these.

http://www.contour.org/ceg-vb/showthread.php?78179-Fabbed-up-a-front-coilover-spring-perch...

DSC03176_zpsead45df5.jpg
 
Gmorrell: Yes they use the stock size on top, only problem is they're progressive and the bottom is very small diameter, your solution is probably the best way to go about fixing my ride height issue and I will be contacting you within the next few days, thanks!

KB: You can try using camber plates, but again, there have been several reports of (Koni's honestly) snapping the strut rod at the top, those camber plates are just washers with offset holes so you put them on the strut rod where it comes out on the top then push it inwards toward the engine to fix the camber issues, however, this puts a ton of pressure on the strut rod, which is hollow to allow for adjustment. Put those 2 factors together and you're likely to snap it off and need an entirely new strut.
 
DanMyers said:
Gmorrell: Yes they use the stock size on top, only problem is they're progressive and the bottom is very small diameter, your solution is probably the best way to go about fixing my ride height issue and I will be contacting you within the next few days, thanks!

KB: You can try using camber plates, but again, there have been several reports of (Koni's honestly) snapping the strut rod at the top, those camber plates are just washers with offset holes so you put them on the strut rod where it comes out on the top then push it inwards toward the engine to fix the camber issues, however, this puts a ton of pressure on the strut rod, which is hollow to allow for adjustment. Put those 2 factors together and you're likely to snap it off and need an entirely new strut.
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gotcha, its not gonna be til spring til I do this. I am just trying to figure out my best option
 
I am surprised how little options there are for these cars. I have always driven vw's and audi's where the options are almost limitless, probably cause they are more abundant, its still just surprising to me.
 
The car went out of production in 2000, 14 years ago, and total SVT production over 4 years was 11,445, which is a drop in the bucket compared to Audi's and VW's. With just a few exceptions, much of the aftermarket you'll find for these cars is provided by folks on this list, and they're doing it because they love the platform, not because it pays the bills.
 
yeah I know. I'm used to cars that have interchangeable parts for like 3 decades. That is one thing I really like about these cars and this site, that people fab up their own parts to make things work, the info given is usually from personal experience rather than what somebody read in a book so to speak.
 
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