Hi all,

So I've been having a few VDC issues, where the car seems to fire off VDC when going through right hand corners. When doing an alignment to try troubleshoot anything that may be causing these issues, I found the front left coilover leaking. Quite a lot of old looking oil caked all over the gas charge canister on the shock body.

So again in an effort to try troubleshoot and give the shocks a refresh, I've thought I'd get the shocks rebuilt.
Trouble being that I can find barely any info about rebuilding them, and that every single shop I've called here in NZ has just refused to work on them. I can only find the 1 KW distributor here, and he has said "Oh it's just cheaper to buy a new shock.."

That can't be right. I mean if you buy a new shock, you're basically buying a whole new coilover set...minus the springs. And surely higher end parts like these are meant to be rebuildable?

Seems looking online people say "Yeah KW will rebuild them". But I've read they can be quite slow to service things like that. Which basically means I need to buy and install a second set of suspension for the months that may take being sent away.

Is there anyone that can shed more light onto this? Is there a rebuild kit available that a local shop can run with?

 

Check into local race shops to see if they will do KW rebuilds. Did you ask the KW distributor if he'll sell you a replacement shock? Otherwise you're SOL. Also, your VDC issues are most likely NOT related to the damper issue.

 

Yeah I've rung around damn near every shop I can find, but it's all the same, "oo nah, we don't work on their stuff, can't get parts, etc". Which I understand.

This is more finding out if overseas its a different story. Like is there an outfit who would sell a rebuild kit for them, or have people had them rebuilt somewhere other than KW factory, etc.

Yeah the distributor will sell new products, but...i mean that's most of the cost of the setup there.

I haven't had any other replies in the VDC thread I made, but the only reason I can think that the shock might be influencing it is its only RH corners and only if I'm off throttle or neutral where it might be loaded up more. Shot in the dark, but the shocks should be rebuild anyway because of the leak. I've no clue how much has already come out, etc.

 

Hard to believe that even in NZ there's nobody who can rebuild your KWs. To be honest, I haven't seen any KW specialists here in the States, but the seals and parts required s/b readily available. Have you statrted to expand your search to oz and nearby areas?

 

That's what's doing my head in too...this shouldn't be hard, it's not some ultra high tech electromagnetic damper or something.
Nothing on KW site points to spares or rebuild kits, their spare parts support page doesn't work for some reason.

The distributor is going to email KW and see if he can figure this out. He also does have an outfit here that rebuilds his race KW stuff. So fingers crossed this works out and they can do them here.

I also had the wheel off today checking wheelspeed sensors and the amount of caked on oil was pretty substantial. A good 5mm thick of dirt and oil and junk, couldn't see the valve on the gas charge canister. Looks like it had come from the adjuster on the bottom and worked its way all over the bottom of the shock.

 

If you’re triggering VDC only on a specific condition e.g., RH turns, good bet that you’ve got a misreading wheel speed sensor or a problem in the transmission of its data.

VDC is in no way influenced by shocks.

 

Oh I agree, I'm just trying to think of what would cause this. It's why I also wondered if the diff had something to do with it. A vlsd that isn't locking anymore, etc
The thought to the shock being a cause is more that its not from wheelspin, but only when that side is loaded up, and whether it somehow detecting understeer or something.

If it was a failing sensor, would the car not figure out its getting **** data and then trigger a vdc or abs warning light? I thought it does a check each time you start moving on startup to make sure things are OK.
Is there a way to check speed sensors? No fault code is given, and no warning lights. Would be nice before spending money on sensors, etc


Regardless, this is about shock servicing anyway, which I'm wanting to do because it's leaking and they probably all should be refreshed.