Koni FSD Dampers

[jediknight]

Anyone used these?

http://www.koni.com/FSD/index.html

Any comments or recommendations?

ta

 

[lox19]

I had a set of these on my old golf gt tdi and had them lowered on the eibach pro kit. I thought that they were very good as where I live there are alot of bumpy roads but there are some nice flat roads aswell and found that the dampers soaked up quite a fair bit of the bumps and holes .Round corners and along straight roads was a real smooth drive.

The only problem that I have heard which I didnt really notice with my set up as it looked pretty spot on look wise is that it does car seems to sit very nose down leaving the rear end quite high (Like riding on stilts!!) I think the reason being down to the fact that the dampers are only to be used on -30 drops as the pro kit i think offers up to 40 mm. I remember the guys where I got it all fitted warned me about it but I went ahead and It looked ok.
As I said above I thought they were good.

They are standard on the Gallardo me thinks!

 

[Tallpaul]

i'd have gone for them if i hadn't got such a damn good deal on my eibach dampers.

as above. they should only be fitted with a max of -30mm springs, they are actually designed to work with OE ones.

 

[leecs3]

after 3months on bilstein b8's, their too hard. Go koni!

 

[alexc]

You can't go wrong with Koni, H&R are also another quality brand as are KW!

 

[jojo]

after 3months on bilstein b8's, their too hard. Go koni!

I have Bilsteins on my S3 running 19" wheels, ride is firm but not too bad. In comparison to the Koni equipped car I took for a spin, it was on the softest setting and running the standard 17" Avus wheels, it handles well, but felt harder riding than mine... just my opinion on the case.

 

[Tallpaul]

FSD's and the older type Koni Adjustable Dampers are very differant beasts.

 

[Buster]

I'd be interested to hear from anyone who is running Koni FSD's and OE springs. How much better is the handling and the ride quality?

 

[Tallpaul]

not heard of anyone running FSD's on an S3 but there are loads of Golfs on them and a few Leons too. Have a search on uk-mkivs.net and seatcupra.net all the comments i've read have been positive.

 

[AndyM]

They did a group buy on TT forums recently, so you could have a look there as well for a lot of feedback.

 

[leecs3]

I have Bilsteins on my S3 running 19" wheels, ride is firm but not too bad. In comparison to the Koni equipped car I took for a spin, it was on the softest setting and running the standard 17" Avus wheels, it handles well, but felt harder riding than mine... just my opinion on the case.

i liked them when i first put them on, much better than standard equipment but thats hardly a great achievement. Not sure whether its the colder weather effecting the performance or i've forgotten how the car performed before and i'm no longer view the billys through rose tinted glasses. Either way i'm certainly interested to compare a different damper with H&R springs. As theres very few option Bilstein/Koni/Eibach from memory hopefully this should be possible at a show or meet if anyone else is interested in establishing the best combination??.

 

[evotista]

Jedi,

I'm now running Koni FSDs on my facelift 1.8TQ which is nigh on the same suspension as the S3...i've got these on with the Eibach Pro Kit springs and i've done about 1500 miles on them so far.

My comments are that the compliancy is excellent for around town (poor surface) driving...probably better than stock. When pushing on the dampers are significantly better ...it feels like the wheels are now properly damped....there is no float any more. It always seemed to me on undulating surfaces that the stock A3 TQ suspension (which i know has different rated springs and dampers than the stock S3) would get very bouncy (undamped)..which would cause me to back off....the Konis kill all of that.

the only thing that may be a concern is that the drop is minimal probably 15-20mm..and it maybe just a visual trick but it seems ever so slightly more dropped at the rear. However, i put this suspension on not for aesthetic reasons, purely for performance/around town practicality reasons...and so far i would say its a winner. I've still got to do some more "hard" driving miles on it to make some more judgements, but the fact that lots of the TT guys are singing it's praises on higher hp setups gives me confidence that i made a good decision.

HTH

 

[jediknight]

thanks for the replies... i might pop onto the TT forum and see what they think.

id be wanting to go with the H&R spring as ive had very good results with them in the past. would i also need to do the rear tie bar upgade though to set the rear camber back to normal?

 

[leecs3]

thanks for the replies... i might pop onto the TT forum and see what they think.

id be wanting to go with the H&R spring as ive had very good results with them in the past. would i also need to do the rear tie bar upgade though to set the rear camber back to normal?

You could try PI springs (if your uprating the ARB's). These were found by the guys on the corrado forum to be slightly softer than the H&R's and are supplied springs with koni's kits. I've had by rear camber set back to normal without using forge tie bars, took the car to Audi-Care in leeds and they did a full digital alightment for £67.

 

[jediknight]

how much were the tie bars? best i have seen is about £350.