fasterplease

I've now blown a set of D-specs and now both the front Koni Sports. The former ran about 12 track days and the latter much less. When I say "blown", I mean a loud clunking from that shock.

What is everyone else getting out of their shocks before they go bad?

JThor

I have been doing track/AX events for 15 years. I have yet to have a (good) shock go out on me. There must be something wrong with your setup to cause good shocks to go so quickly.

darksky1984

I agree with JThor on this. They should last for a least a few of years before needing replacement. I have raced on my koni sports for the past two years. The first year was strictly auto-x with around 15 events. This past year was a mix of auto-x and HPDE events. I push the car hard on the track and the koni's have yet to disappoint me. The koni's do have a lifetime warranty on them as well, but unless something bad happens I don’t think I’ll need to use it for awhile.

proeagles

I have raced Bilstein shocks for years in both autocross and BMWCCA racing and never had a failure. You either have really bad luck or really bad equipment. Autocross is not hard on shocks at all.

Andy13186

I hit a speed bump at 20 mph twice , my right rear koni sport damper is tapping when I let the clutchout, I think.


clunking though, are you sure its the dampers?

fasterplease

OK, that is good to know about the guys who are getting years of life on the track.

Clunking...well take your pick of onomatopoeia, it could be a knock or a thunk when either that corner goes over a street gutter slow or loads up quickly when changing direction rapidly on the track. When the shock is actuating.

CMcNam

Are you sure it's not the strut mounts or your sway bar end links?

fasterplease

It totally could be the end links. In fact, I'm fairly convinced it is. I tried tightening them up, to no avail.

Jande063

The track probably did not kill your Koni's, mine survived a catastrophic rollover, and were swapped onto the new car. I have had a similar sound twice. The first time was because ford did not pack enough ball bearings into my driver side strut mount, and they shifted during cornering. The second time was the hardware on the sway bar.

Kotobuki

I had a lot of front end noise on my car, the cause was blown sway-bay bushings. Check there.