BCouz

I just purchased Koni adjustable shocks with Vogtland springs for my 98' E430 sport via KWIK group buy and Pure Motorsports respectively. I am keeping my 17" wheels and am putting on a set of Pirelli PZero Neros; thanks Luke @ Tirerack. It is my understanding that the rear Koni shocks are only adjustable when not installed. I would like to set them once and be done with it. I am looking for recommendations for the settings on the Koni's. I would like optimum performance however, I do not want an extremely harsh ride. Any thoughts?

nukblazi

The Koni rears need to be off the vehicle and fully extended to be adjusted.

If I were you, I would contact Ground Control and ask their opinion. They have an extremely knowledgable staff and are always willing to help out.

If you wanted to wing it. I would just set it to the middle setting. Do you know the strut length and spring rate of the Vogtland's?

TNblkc230wz

Are they Koni Reds or Yellows?

Nukblazi probably has the best advice.

If they are Reds, full soft is about equivilant to stock shocks. I ran the Reds at 3/4 hard with Neuspeed springs on Hondas.

If they are Yellows, 3/4 hard is pretty stiff for everyday use on rough roads.

tommy

OK, dumb question of the day (and since it's from me, that's saying something).

I've seen several times on here (in older threads) that you have to have the rears removed in order to adjust. Since the ones I received last night all have nice little adjustment mechanisms on the top, I'd assume that Koni fixed this problem, and they rears are like the fronts - adjustable by hand from the top. If anyone with them could ease my mind about this, I'd appreciate it.

Looked at rear strut tower accessability at lunchtime; looks like the driver's side is easy when you remove the first aid kit door and push out the trim piece. The passenger's side looks a little harder - looks like I'll have to remove the "subwoofer" (if you can call it that) to get access to use the provided knob on top of the strut. Now, I could use pliers or such to get the adjustment from the side, but don't think that's a great long-term solution. Besides, I'll probably just adjust the rears once, if at all. Looking forward to a tighter suspension tomorrow (and I don't mean the Hyundai Accent from Enterprise that I'll be renting).

hcoronado

I thought the rear shocks were supposed to be adjusted before installing them. Someone here had a way to adjust them by locking the bottom part with a set of pliers ( I guess to avoid movement) of the shock and adjust from the top. I had mine installed by a friend and I missed the whole process of the adjusting.

tommy

That's the part that's confusing to me. When I go on Koni's website, it gives me the "externally adjustable" spiel, here:

Koni's rear adjustment explanation

To me, that says that they've worked with the adjustment mechanism and have made things easier.

splinter

My rears weren't externally adjustable.

Finally ditched the flaccid ‘sport’ Koni’s for suitably re-valved Bilstein’s.
They were a noticeable and worthwhile upgrade over OE damping though. ymmv

lefty tighty:

tommy

OK, just got official word from Koni on them (main office is in CA, but technical asst is on East Coast, open 9-5 EST, so couldn't get an answer yesterday afternoon), for the ones I have, the 8041-1319SPORT model, they ARE adjustable on the car, from inside; basically same as the fronts. So that makes me a happy camper.

They're at the shop now, getting installed. Out of the box, they're on the minimum setting, so I'm sure I'll be adjusting them tomorrow.

Oh, and if you have a coupe, on the inner lining on the passenger's side - if you want to remove that to get at the top of the strut tower to adjust, there's a little push pin just a bit further forward of the access door; removing that will make access to the tower easier. Or, if you're like me, you'll push a little too hard on the lining, and pop the lining off the pin. Oops.

Splinter, I guess they've just updated the rear, like JLo did.