What can you tell me about KW Variant 3 coilovers?

[Michael Wood]

title says it...thanks.

[Steve Ekstrand]

I ran them on my STU Neon SRT-4. The shaft seals started leaking in about 3 months of use. I drove the car on the street, but not a huge amount of miles. I viewed them as a costly mistake.

The stainless steel housings are nicely made (heavy). But they certainly didn't transform the car like my Koni 2812's do with the right valving. Whether the KWV3's would have been better performing with different valving I can't say. The North American operations were willing to work with me on some valving options and rebuilding, but I gave up on the car.

In talking with them, they felt my spring rates were WAY to much for their standard V3 valving range. I was running 500F/600R springs on the V3's on the Neon. I didn't think that was so extreme?

[Toby Larsson]

I have no experience with KW, but with the support we get localy from Koni, Penske and Bilstein I don't understand why anyone would look elsewhere. Unless it's Ohlins or Motons of course ;)

[Stephen Yeoh]

I second Toby's comment. We have local support for some of these shocks, why would you look at another brand? Jeff's support for Koni's is great!

[Daniel Y.]

I run them on my STX WRX.

They off-the-shelf spring rates are a bit soft for auto-x (in my application at least), with 8kg-mm front and ~6kg-mm rear (progressive) springs. They're not bad for daily driving (which I do with my car). The range of damping adjustment is noticeable, but I have yet to properly dial in my car.

I had them rebuilt after 40kmi because I broke a shaft (due to a bad custom camber plate setup; they don't come w/ upper strut mounts). Their customer service was just awful. It took 8 weeks and a lot of badgering to get my coilovers turned around. At least they were located in Bakersfield and FedEx ground only took 1 day each way.

I had these on my car before I started auto-xing. If I could do it again, I'd probably go with a custom Koni setup.

[Michael Wood]

Thanks for the comments.

I'm looking at them for a car that prioritizes commuting, with Solo being kind of secondary. I figured at around $1800 for a true DA with Koni internals (so I hear) they'd be good bang for the buck. Also, I can get them with whatever spring rates I'd like from the vendor. In my application, I'd probably be looking at only 300-350# front and 400-450# rear, so the valving (I'm told) is fine ots.

I know all the great high end options we have here in California, but am not looking to spend $4000 on just dampers for a car that I don't see running at a National level...guess I'm just a cheapskate. Maybe I should just build up a set of SA Koni coilovers....

[John Coffey]

Maybe I should just build up a set of SA Koni coilovers

Ding, ding, ding! Winner winner, chicken dinner! And you can later have those Koni's revalved to try out some damping rates before spending the big bucks.

[Michael Wood]

OK, so say I do go the Koni yellow route,with the Ground Control coilover bits...I wonder if the ots Konis for Mr. Two require some cutting, grinding etc. to work in coilover application?

I cant' find any MR2 owners (searching on the 'net) who have done anything besides going the "plug and play" route with BC, Cusco, Tein etc as far as coilovers. That's one of the challenges with this car for STR, there really isn't any proven set up.

[John Stimson]

1) Have you gotten in touch with Tim Aro? He might know something about shocks for MR2 Spyders.

2) If the Spyder is anything like the first and second generation cars, you will want to trim the original spring seat off the strut housing, leaving just enough for the threaded sleeve to sit on. The seat hangs out over the tire and can be a limiting boundary in terms of tire width, height, and wheel offset.

[Michael Wood]

Thanks, John.

I think I'll work on the rest of the set up (spring rates, bars, alignment etc) first and keep my eyes, and ears, open before I swap out the dampers.

The beauty of ST is that there's enough stuff to play around with to be interesting...the bad news is there's enough stuff to play with to spend more time and money than might be intended...