Hotchkis springs & sways + Koni inserts = Stiff a fuq!

nodestiny · Post by **nodestiny** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 10:53 pm

Wow.. I just got done installing my rear (and rear only thus far!) SRT-4, koni inserted struts, and replaced my eibach rear springs with the Hotchkis rear springs. I already had both front and rear hotchkis sways on (which made a huge diferance alone). After pulling both rears off, installing the koni's*, and re-installing them with the hotchkis springs, i decided a small test. Push down on the rear end to see the diffferance. Origionaly, it would be pushed and rocked fairly easily. With full SOFT setting on these new struts, i could BARELY move the car. On full stiff? I cant move it AT ALL! Ill have more tests done on the road this weekend. Ill also be installing the front end monday if all goes well! On full soft, the ride quality on normal roads seems about the same (will take some break in time to tell for sure!) but full stiff is a differant world for the quality...

*= While one stock strut and one koni inserted strut was about, i pushed on both, with koni at full soft, to see how much differance there was. The stock strut moved in quickly, not taking much effort to move it. The Koni, though, took a lot of effort and moved in very slowly!

sullygully · Post by **sullygully** » Sat Feb 04, 2006 10:14 pm

Welcome to the world of Koni!

I have the inserts as well, and as much my friends say they feel like they are getting punched in the kidneys(medium setting), i still love them!!

nodestiny · Post by **nodestiny** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 3:11 pm

Seems kind of rare to find other koni users

sullygully · Post by **sullygully** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 3:29 pm

Probably because neons owners are cheap. Koni's are the best strut available for the neon. Tokico Illumina's have nothing on these.

INVUJerry · Post by **INVUJerry** » Sun Feb 05, 2006 10:07 pm

How do inserts work?

Floyd · Post by **Floyd** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 7:18 am

ive asked before and ill ask again, where can i buy these?

nodestiny · Post by **nodestiny** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 9:22 am

And ill answer again! (might not have been you)

Tirerack.com

Expect to pay around $600 shipped or so...

I bought all 4 of mine off srtforums brand new off a guy for only $375 shipped! Though, i didnt have the money... it was well worth pulling out of the savings account!

yea yeah, ill pay it back sooner or later...

Wisher2 · Post by **Wisher2** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 10:56 am

Koni's are really good.......H&R race springs are also good with Koni's for a really tight suspension

grambo · Post by **grambo** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 11:49 am

Uh, I've used Koni for years on my old VW autoX cars and they are great. I like my ACR dynamic struts too. VERY, nice. Not cheap either. $450+ MSRP when new.

Floyd · Post by **Floyd** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 1:49 pm

nodestiny wrote:And ill answer again! (might not have been you

na i dont think so...

nodestiny · Post by **nodestiny** » Mon Feb 06, 2006 2:34 pm

Floyd wrote:
nodestiny wrote:And ill answer again! (might not have been you
na i dont think so...

Probably somebody else on the other dot org (as people seem to often ask where to buy them from!)

INVUJerry · Post by **INVUJerry** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 11:14 am

Well, I will ask again.

How do inserts work? Are they regular struts, do they go into struts? I DONNO HELP ME OUT PLEAAAAAAAAASE.

dblsg · Post by **dblsg** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 11:57 am

invujerry wrote:Well, I will ask again.

How do inserts work? Are they regular struts, do they go into struts? I DONNO HELP ME OUT PLEAAAAAAAAASE.

this might shed some light
http://forum.2gn.org/viewtopic.php?t=6502

sullygully · Post by **sullygully** » Sat Feb 11, 2006 3:38 pm

yep. as long as you got a die grinder, its not to bad. A hacksaw works, but takes a hell of a lot of time and energy.

Expect a full days work doing all this. Its best to clear your weekend for this project, in order foryou to take your time and do it right.

I will give you a very good hint. DO NOT HAMMER THE TOP OF THE STRUT SHAFT, when installing this. You run the risk up fucking up the the strut.

What i did was take some pvc piping that has a smaller diameter of the strut cartridge.
I slid it over the strut shaft, and rest it on top of the cartridge.

Then while nice and secure in a vice, mallet the sucker down into the strut housing until you can get the screw to catch.

Make sence? You betcha!

Make sure you got a bucket to catch the oil that comes out of the sturt housing when you slice it open.

Bye

nodestiny · Post by **nodestiny** » Tue Feb 14, 2006 10:17 am

Another cool trick for installation (Which worked AMAZINGLY well) is to quite literaly THROW the insert into the stock housing! Basicly, lift up the insert before putting it into the housing, till the bottom of the insert is barely in the top of the housing, and THROW is strait down. I did this on the rears and required NO hammer time to get the struts in all the way. It went in ALL the way!

BTW: With the right tools, it should take no more than 4 hours total for all 4 struts to come off the car, get the koni's installed, and re-install the struts.