I just opened up my Koni shocks and noticed that the front shocks have two slots to allow for two different spring perch height adjustments. They are maybe .25" inch apart. They came stock in the lower of the two grooves.

Has anyone moved these to the higher groove? Or has anyone else had their Konis come set to the higher groove by default?

I ask because one of the things I don't like about the Z is that it is slightly lower in the front than in the rear. (Just a tiny bit.) It's not bad, but I certainly don't want the front getting any *lower* in relation to the rear when I install these shocks. The trick is that the setting on the shocks looks like *too* much lift if I move it up. I don't want the front end suddenly higher than the back.

 

I sorta recall that someone may have touched on the issue, but to find out would require searching a mountain of Koni posts from the past.

IMO, I would use the lower position. But I don't know if your self installing, if your not and you don't like it, it would mean $$ to reinstall.

 

I'm having a buddy install it has his shop. I get a great deal, but it still costs me.

I'm only concerned because of my prior experience installing aftermarket shocks on my last car. I had Bilsteins, and they also had those spring perch adjustments on the front and rear shocks. (The Z Konis only have them on the front.) Anyway, the factory setting on the Bilsteins dropped the front end like crazy, and left the back end up high. Looked stupid. Had to remove the shocks (which involved removing the entire suspension again), adjust the fronts all the way to the top and drop the rears all the way down to get it even! Needless to say, I was frustrated.

 

I wrote up a Koni install article back in June when I installed mine. It's really an easy install, even point out something that I f'd up and had to go back and fix!

http://www.solo2.org/blogs/christoc/...06/08/374.aspx

 

If I remember my install correctly you can only use the lower position. If you reverse the ring you can't get the shaft nut on.

 

Really? You mean if you use the higher groove rather than the lower one? I just want to use the one that doesn't change the perch height compared to stock.

 

Excellent, thanks for the link. I'll keep that with me with we do the install.

 

All I can remember is that when I slide the perch over the strut on the first one I did it upsidedown and was no longer able to get the nut on without having to compress the springs. This wasn't necessary when I put the Eibach springs on with the OEM struts so I figured something had to have raised the spring. The logical change was the perch position so I flipped it and that solved the problem.

 

I think I might be misunderstanding what you're saying. Did you actually have the spring perch itself on *upside down*? Or did you have it correct side up the whole time, and only experimented with the two spring perch height grooves? I think what is confusing me here is your use of the word "flipped."

 

The spring perch was upside down. I left the "grove height" as it came from the factory and I believe it was in the lower setting.

 

Yeah, installed the springs and shocks tonight. I wasn't aware of just how easy the Z's suspension is to work on, especially the rear. Compared to my previous Audi A4, this thing is cake!

But anyway, the lower groove does indeed appear to be right. The front and rear heights are about even.

 

Glad you got it all together. Enjoy the improved ride.

 

Definitely. I've only had it on since last night (and it's been raining), but already I can tell that it's more solid than stock. I set the Konis at 25%, so that's probably the biggest improvement to be honest.