The E36 vert needs some new shocks. Bilsteins have been good to me in the past but I am also looking at the Koni SRT units. Anyone have experience with the lower end Konis? This is for a dedicated street/commuter ride so no track/autocross intentions for it. Maybe I'm getting soft in my old age but I want to be comfortable on my way to work now! The price difference makes the Konis an attractive alternative.

Howdy!
I have Koni's on the front of the E30. Nice and easy to adjust.
Just replacing the rear tires on the E36 M3 today, and noticed some cupping on the inside right rear tire. The shocks/springs are origional(140kmiles yikes!). So I'm kinda hoping that replacing the rear shocks are the answer. (previously replaced mounts with reinforcing plates as advised, don't see any prob. there.) Sorry to hijack post, but I'd like to hear about shocks for street used E36 as well. Any expertise would be appreciated!

Ed

Just replaced Koni Sports I had on my 2000 Z3 2.3 with Bilstein Spoprts. The Bilsteins have a much firmer ride than the Konis, are not adjustable, and do not have a lifetime warranty. I wanted to try something different after the front Konis started leaking after 63,000 miles. I do not like the Bilsteins at all, I can feel every tar strip that I did not use to feel with the Konis and the car just rides too hard for my taste, sort of like I have way too much pressure in the tires (I don't). I will pursue the replacement of the Konis under warranty and swap them out at some point.

I had exactly same results as Ernie. The Billies were too harsh on street. Replaced with SA Konis. Love them.
Ken

I would go with Koni. I have Koni on my E46 M3 and i love them, the ones i have are alot more then ur looking for cuz mine are set up for track/street so their pretty stiff but they are very adjustable and afordable (depending on which ones u get) and if ur looking for a full set up i would suggest takeing a look at ground control.... but eather way i say koni.

When replacing shocks, is it advisable to replace the springs as well? I don't want to lower the car.
From what I see here and have researched, if I want to keep close to a stock ride, the Koni's apprear to be the choice.
Or get OEM from Autohause?
I noticed they are adjustable. I don't think I have access thru the trunk w/o "modifying" the interior liner (cut holes in it) which I prefer not to do. Any thoughts on set and forget?
Ed

Well, 1/2 a year and 12K miles later, I replaced all the springs and dampers this weekend. I went for the Sport Konis.
there was a 20% discount thru tire rack, so it was time and the price was right.
bit of a learning curve. both in how to use tools and how to do procedure.
Bought Stock parts thru AutoHaus.
First side took more than twice as long as second. I'm still not able to talk about it without my hand shaking!

Biggest problem was for an E36 M3 you have to modify the original damper housing to accept the adjustable insert. Side cutting tool recommended. my sawzall worked as well.
U-tube video very helpful and recommended. I owe this guy a beer or two!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzNZCnUYtzo

but did not show possible problems of insert hanging up inside stock damper and not seating.
(of course mine did)
Never worked with a spring compressor before so that had a learning curve too, as well as getting the old springs out and new back in.

I now realize I had a "lowered look" as the rear springs had compressed about an inch. front looks slightly higher too now. ride I think is better.
Note: rear koni's are adjustable only by releasing the lower bolt and compressing the damper, then rotating by 180' up to 720'.
Front adjustment tabs in engine compartment (E36) not readily accessible to stock plastic adjusting tool provided. It's too wide. I will have to fabricate a "fork" out of an old screwdriver as metal can be narrower and still strong enough. There are some other tricks I learned as well. If your interested, ask me.
See ya at the track! (If Michelle let's me drive the car!)
Ed

Great post! Glad you were able to DIY.

I'll hijack the thread with a follow-up to my comments about replacing the Bilsteins I did not care for. I wrote Koni asking them if they would honor their lifetime warranty. They agreed, I shipped the old ones to their headquarters in Kentucky (I fortunately kept the old ones after I installed the Bilsteins just in case I was not happy), and within a week or so I had a complete front and rear set of replacements. I am not sure why I did not pursue warranty replacement when the fronts started leaking after 63,000 miles - they would have sent me a replacement pair before they saw my old ones so that the car would not be laid up while waiting for replacements. If I recall correctly, they would have charged me if they did not find any defects covered by the warranty. Great folks to deal with.

My fronts adjust with the plastic adjuster tool, but I had to modify the plastic dust cover so the actual adjuster built onto the shock would fit through the plastic cover. The fronts are so easy to adjust! The rears on my car, on the other hand, are not so easy - you have to remove the shocks so that you can remove a rubber compression bumper from inside the metal dust cover in order to fully compress the shocks for the adjustment procedure. I guess I might be able to figure out a way to push the bumper from the top of the shock (there's two small holes that Koni recommends you push a screwdriver through to remove the bumper) but with a 3/8" air ratchet and a couple of minutes to remove the convertible top well trim I can do both sides in less than 30 minutes, including jacking the car up. I set mine on full "soft". As they age I will go up 180 degrees at a time.

Correction.
The rear Koni shocks must be removed from the car as the bump stop must be removed to compress the damper enough to engage the internal adjustment. Bit of a pain due to carpet/sound deadening/panels in E36 trunk. Leaving them set at "softest". Maybe make an "access panel" thru carpet and sound deadening material if it really becomes an issue.

Just advised that my E30 right rear (Koni) shock is "weeping" and probably blown. Interestingly, the E30 M3 need a slightly different rear shock compared to other E30s, to avoid the rear spring from falling out at full re-bound. According to an S14.net posting.
http://www.s14.net/forums/archive/index ... 54478.html

80 25522SP1 versus 80 25522Sport

Not sure which came with my car!, but since Koni has a sale on, I might as well "do it" I now have the experience

Fabricated metal adjustment knob. Hope Michelle will let me drive her car and "try out" different settings.

Ed

You're welcome to drive my car to see what a set of KWs feel like. I've been playing with the damping (rebound) adjustment.

This video isn't yet publicly available but the info might help: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLXIslLWMjI