Re: Koni returns

[Russ Southerlin <russell.s.southerlin@lmco.com>]

Neiln wrote:

>BTW, get Bilsteins from RD or whoever and I bet you have no warranty at all
>as they are not an offical US import item.  Like a "grey market" camera you
>have no recourse throught the US importer. Maybe RD would do something.

Having just spent the big bucks on a set of Konis I called them up
yesterday to get some damping info and to find out about their
warranty.   I talked to a tech. who gave me this info on warrranty.  You
must have original receipt (did not ask about a copy) a copy of the car
registration OR TITLE and you are supposed to be the origial purchaser. 
He said that if the car was not registered a copy of the title would
suffice.  The explaniation he gave for the registration/title was to
prove ownership of the vehicle the shocks were used on. He indicated
they do this due to the fact that someone could sell a blown out abused
set of Konis for next to nothing (garage sell, swap meet etc.) and then
the purchaser could just return them to Koni for replacement.  I do not
agree with their original purchaser policy.  I could understand a policy
on warranty only on the original car the were bought for.

Now I got two receipts for my shocks. I got one from RD Enterprises and
one directly from Koni.  It looks like Koni sold the shocks to RD and
they just had them dropped shipped to my house as the Koni receipt only
has RD's name on it. My name and car registration information does not
appear on the Koni reciept.  Only my name appears on the RD receipt. My
point is, if I sell my car  and give the receipts to the purchaser, Koni
has no way of knowing what the original car was.  The only way they know
who the original purchaser was is from thr RD receipt.  If you used this
to your advantage you could probably scam them into a new set.  Of
course this would be slightly less than honest!!!!

Koni also said that if you were not the original purchaser then they
would give 50% off the RETAIL price for replacements.

RD Enterprises indicated to me that both Bilsteins and Konis had a
lifetime warranty.  I did not ask the details, maybe I should have.

If anyone is interested in damping rates of the Koni reds for a 87 5KTQ
here is what they gave me: at full soft and at 75mm travel and 84rpm
(approximately mid point of the damping vs. speed curve) the
fronts=1050Newtons-rebound, 550N-compression. Rears=900N-rebound,
450N-compression.  The adjustment feature is esentially linear and will
give 100% increase in rebound damping from full soft.

Does anyone have similar info for Boge or Bilstein?

Just though I would add some technical info. to this thread!!!

Russ
87 5KCSTQ
Littleton, CO