Koni Racing strut conversion...

MWP

New member
Sooo this didnt end up working out so well :(

The 8611's worked great up the front until they didnt.
They lasted about 12 months before the developed some shaft play and started leaking oil.

My guess is that they simply aren't made to take the side loadings that the heavy car and mcpherson strut setup is putting on them.

So... next up will probably be Bilstein 46mm universal struts, and possibly the Prius upright conversion at the same time.
 

flyingdutchman

New member
Sorry to hear that! I was really looking forward to hearing how this build rode.
Have you reached out to Koni at all? Their site says the 8611s are for strut suspensions
 

MWP

New member
The car handled really nicely until they failed.
Quite a shame really.

I have talked to the Australian Distributor, and they said they can rebuild them and help prevent it happening in the future.
I rather doubt thats really the case though. Even if they last twice as long, it'll only be 2yrs, and i dont want to be paying for rebuilds that often.

Where those inverted bilsteins should be bullet proof in comparison, and I can service them myself.
 

diceman

New member
That sucks - sorry to hear that. I have seen similar issues on the Koni yellows and they ed sonner than I would expect for a road based product.
I kept coming back to the Bilstein universal motorsport strut myself but the costs started rapidly increasing (partly as they are not sold in the UK and shipping from USA was proving difficult/expensive - already had one set of struts returned to seller as the freight company had pressurised cansiters on the prohibited items list). Once you add up the machining, re-valving and welding of lower ears costs it's a bloody expensive project for a non-adjustable but bulletproof construction. I then figured I'd be better just buying DMS coilovers but still they are a chunk more money.

I suspect for your use only an inverted tube will deal with the sideloading so sensible options are few and all costly.

I know we chatted earlier in this thread and I've ended up specifying my own spring rates & digressive valving for some BC 46mm piston struts. These are however non-inverted so I suspect would fail very quickly under your use but for my road tyre/road use hopefully will be OK. Part of the attraction for me was being able to rebuild them myself with Bilstein 46mm digressive valving at a later date but it really isn't in the same league. I assume you have looked at the BC inverted but I've recently pulled a used set partially apart to inspect and they use a smaller valve that is not replaceable by any Bilstein parts.

Please keep us posted on your future journey and hopefully it will be better news next time.
 

MWP

New member
Normal OEM replacement Koni yellows/reds last a decent amount of time if they are not abused.
Given the size of the 8611's, i think they were mainly aimed at small'ish club/track racers.

Today pulled down a front corner to start measuring everything up again to work out what length Bilstein 46's i'll be after, and to also work out exactly what will be involved in doing the Prius upright conversion (if i go ahead with it, i need to have the car back on the road in 2-3 months).
Doing it all should vastly improve front suspension performance, but it's a decent amount of work and $$s.

DMS's actually have a rather average reputation here in Aus.
Out of the Aussie damper/strut manufacturers, the order of preference seems to be: MCA Golds, Supashock and MCA last.
MCA had a bad run a few years back of having weak lower legs on the struts, and havent really been too popular here since.
Both MCA Golds and Supashock are about $10k AUD for a full setup. Very expensive.
https://mcasuspension.com/suspension#golds
http://supashock.com/aftermarket-suspension/

That's interesting about the BC's, i hadn't heard that about the piston sizes before.
 

underscore

Well-known member
diceman":h1ikxrgg said:
I kept coming back to the Bilstein universal motorsport strut myself but the costs started rapidly increasing (partly as they are not sold in the UK and shipping from USA was proving difficult/expensive - already had one set of struts returned to seller as the freight company had pressurised cansiters on the prohibited items list).

This might be a stupid question, but can't you get them from Germany?
 
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