[s-cars] RE: [200q20v] Need advice: Koni or Bilstein

[Bernie Benz]

All McPhearson struts, or their inserts wear out much faster than a single
purpose shock absorber, inasmuch as the piston rod bushing and the piston
wear rings take all the latteral suspension acceleration forces, cornering,
stop and go. Increased bushing clearances degrade the rebound damping.  The
Koni adjustment feature may be used to partly compensate for this rod
bushing wear and thus prolong rebound damping performance.  Further, the
Koni adjustment feature only adjusts the minumim cracking pressure required
to open the piston rebound valving, and has no effect or control on the
rebound valving open area, as Scott J. has, IMO, wrongly alluded to in past
posts.  In the first order, the shock having the larger piston rod diameter
and the longer rod bushing (larger total bushing effective area) is the
longer lived.  It is excessive bushing leakage that causes external rod seal
failures.

All shocks are hydraulic devices.  some are designed to operate at
atmospheric pressure and some at a higher charged pressure.  Trivial
differences in a well designed, tight tolerence design, IMO.

Bernie 

> From: "Fred Munro" <munrof at sympatico.ca>
> Date: Fri, 27 Jul 2001 21:31:39 -0400
> To: "Lee M. Levitt" <lee at wheelman.com>, "Chris Covington" <malth at umich.edu>
> Cc: "Martin, Gary G" <MartinGG at aetna.com>, "'200q20v'" <200q20v at audifans.com>,
> "'AUDI S Cars Discussion List'" <s-car-list at yahoogroups.com>
> Subject: Re: [s-cars] RE: [200q20v] Need advice:  Koni or Bilstein
> 
> I'm running Koni Sports in my '94 UrS4. Over the 15,000 km I've had them,
> I've adjusted wear out twice as they have gotten soft. They are now set at
> half stiffness. They work well, but the wear is a PITA. I've ordered
> Bilstein HDs, but they are back-ordered at Shox.com.
> 
> Fred Munro
> '94 S4
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Chris Covington" <malth at umich.edu>
> To: "Lee M. Levitt" <lee at wheelman.com>
> Cc: "Martin, Gary G" <MartinGG at aetna.com>; "'200q20v'"
> <200q20v at audifans.com>; "'AUDI S Cars Discussion List'"
> <s-car-list at yahoogroups.com>
> Sent: Friday, July 27, 2001 12:57 PM
> Subject: RE: [s-cars] RE: [200q20v] Need advice: Koni or Bilstein
> 
> 
>> So Konis and Bilstein/Boge are apples and oranges basically.  Hydraulic
>> vs. Gas, and if you go gas, might as well get Boges.  It seems like
>> everyone has already ruled out Konis for whatever reason (that I disagree
>> with).  But if you want to pay $$$ (which you will with Koni or bilstein),
>> might as well get the Konis.
>> 
>> Chris
>> '91 200q20v
>> 
>> On Fri, 27 Jul 2001, Chris Covington wrote:
>> 
>>> Doesn't Koni also have some sort of lifetime warranty?  What I'm saying
> is
>>> that Bilsteins and Boge Turbo Gases are basically in the same league
>>> (non-rebuildable gas pressure shocks), and Konis a bit higher because
>>> they are rebuildable, not simply warranty-backed.  I think you could get
> 2
>>> sets of Turbo Gases for the price of 1 bilstein set, so I'd rather pay
> for
>>> the Boge swap later down the road, if it's even necessary, rather than
>>> fork over a large bundle right away for Bilsteins just for the security
>>> of the warranty.
>>> 
>>> Chris
>>> '91 200q20v
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>> 
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> 
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