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Koni Yellow Help. Blown, Worn, or Perfectly Fine? Bought used.

3K views 7 replies 5 participants last post by  ChrisRobin 
#1 ·
I bought a set of used Koni Yellows for my focus hatch. Something that i would normally never do. Buy used street suspension. However i couldn't pass the deal. i paid 650 for koni yellows, h&r race springs, LCR camber plates, eibach sways(fr/rr), 2 VF poly mounts, and a msd coil. It was on ebay. He claimed the setup had 20k on it and everything in perfect working order minus some paint flaws due to midwest salt. came from a performance shop. Of course the lcr's were over tightened and have bends.

The adjusters all seem to work perfectly turning left to right. Im a seasoned technician and normally i would say there is something wrong with them but my knowledge on Konis are absolutely zero. My only other experience with adjustables are DMS rally struts on my old impreza but they are way out of the koni league and incomparable.

Turning the adjuster fully left which i believe is the stiffest? i press the rears down its fairly easy without too much effort, not blown but almost feels weak. They retract equally at the same time but very very slow, all the way to the right they retract faster but still retain the same feeling pressing them down. This may be completely normal. But for instance if you take a normal strut or shock out of the box off a ford, toyota, honda, etc. its somewhat stiff feeling. IDK i might be paranoid. I haven't tried the fronts for the fact they are fully assembled with top hats.

Any opinions are appreciated. Sooner the better so i can contact the guy about the struts. nonetheless i still got a good deal however the deal goes south if the struts are in poor internal shape.
 
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#4 ·
I hope it works out for you. Probably wont know for sure till you get them on. I almost bought these. I was bidding on them and got a second chance offer after the auction closed. I backed out due to how rusty they were. If they're good, you got a good deal I think.
 
#5 ·
As was said, the knob is a rebound knob. What you do is compress the strut all the way and time how long it take to come out at various knob settings.

Long term, it doesn't matter. In my experience, you will need a rebuild for Konis sooner rather than later.

Adjustable
Cheap
Durable

Pick two.
 
#6 ·
bbcobra. I too was not going to buy these do to the rusting issue. I figured 20k on them if that is true wouldnt be too much. He said he gave a second offer to the highest bidder that was denied. i asked his bottom line and i just went for it. I dont regret it, i figured i could sell the mounts and maybe the camber plates to cushion the price. I already have all the mounts.

There is a definite change from soft to firm as far as rebound. So that is a plus. A couple of the adjuster seals are seaping whilst turning. Otherwise after playing with them and over inspecting them last night they seem ok. They definitely werent babied.

If i have to rebuild i will most likely just buy new as its a 25 dollar per corner difference. at least now i can buy the fronts and then the rears or vise versa in the future So its not one big price.

But thanks for the responses
 
#8 ·
Rebuilds on these things are about $175 based on what Performance Shock told me. Yeah I don't understand the high cost of rebuilds. You might as well buy new. In my case, I have really stiff springs and would also need a revalve. I'll be looking at $250 for a rebuild AND revalve. dayum.

You know, I thought the knobs controlled compression! Ah well.

I also read somewhere that according to Koni, as the shocks start to wear down, you need to stiffen the shock a bit to make up for the wear in the piston.
 
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