Hi. I bought CHD03-AR kit.
They are described as:
Ksport Rally AR Spec Damper System is designed specifically for asphalt rally competition. It features extended stroke, heavy-duty internals, and simultaneous compression and rebound adjustment.

36 levels of dampening adjustment allow you to fine tune the ride to your handling and comfort needs. The dampening adjusts compression and rebound simultaneously for ease of adjustment. Pillow ball top mounts in the front and rear on some applications allow you to maintain vehicle manufacturer suspension geometry design.

I install coilovers on my car and go on a race track to try them. First laps were ok but after 5 laps they stop working. I had the same problem with yello koni, but they are street race. Is that normal? This coilover kit is named AR but work as street race koni. I paied 200$ extra for this AR kit and it don't work. What's the problem?

P.S. I forgot... They aren't with Pillow ball top mounts. Is that race?


Modified by PARADOX_sf at 10:27 AM 10/31/2007

 

what do you mean they stopped working??

 

Shocks stop working or/and overheat. The car goes soft, and shocks dampering become softer and softer after next lap.

 

are you sure it is the dampers and not the tires?

and what is the 'street race koni' you mention i have never hear of it.

there is the 8041, 8041_sp3 (nuespeed koni damper), and 8041_RACE

 

Yello koni... it is for street race not for race track, it stop working after 3-4 laps.
I paid extra $$$ to get AR because they are for race use only but they can't hold full race, they are crap.
I don't think that nuespeed is different from koni and ksport.
ksport just sell lies.

 

are you not a native english speaker? it is kinda hard to understand what you are saying.

you still didn't answer which koni you ran.

 

I find it hard to believe that Koni shocks would have overheated with just a few road race laps. Thousands of racers use the shocks for all kinds of autocross and road race use, and I've never heard of these sorts of problems, even with regular off-the-shelf Koni Sport shocks.

Now I didn't know KSport had a damper setup made for rally use, but in my mind KSport is a downgrade from Koni. I have nothing to back that up, though, other than all the problems people have reported with the regular street versions of the KSport coilovers.

 

I tried yello koni: 8041-1152Sport and 8041-1213Sport. For normal car they are ok but for race car with slick tyres they sucks! Car weights 950kg.

 

That just sounds very odd to me. Hopefully some others with race experience on Koni shocks can chime in. I know plenty of autocrossers use slick tires with Koni shocks, but of course that's only one lap at a time through the circuit before going again.

 

The koni is history for me. I am disappointed from k-sport. k-sport=junk.

 

ok you were running a STREET SHOCK. that koni number you listed is not for racing.

I have seen the sports over heat, but not in 5 laps, closer to 20 minutes on track.


If you post in the Road race autoX forum there are guys who rally and could tell you what a good damper setup would be.

 

do they return to the desired dampning when you re-adjust them?

 

Something to keep in mind about shocks and temperature changes.

As a shock increases in temperature from cold to hot the compression curve will naturally increase in resistance and the rebound curve will naturally decrease in resistance. There is no way to fully eliminate this effect as its caused by thermodynamics. What happens in a mono tube shock is the temperature increase causes the nitrogen gas to expand which in turn increases the compression effect and simultaneously decreases the rebound effect. Another area that also affects the rebound and compression curve ratio is the material used for the shim stacks. Using low grade spring steel will cause the shim stacks to actually heat form and bend causing the effective damping to be lost completely if the temperature gets too high. Yet another area that has damping effects with temperature change is the shock oil. All shock oils are not the same and lower grade oils will foam under hard use further causing the damping effect to be lost.

The low priced adjustable shocks on the market have to cut corners on materials to get the price lower, there's no way around it. As the Honda market has gotten pretty cheap in the last few years. for example by using a lower grade shock oil and spring steel shim stack in a shock you can as a manufacturer lower your cost by about 50-70 $ per set. vs using higher grade materials that will actually last beyond a few months to a year.

there is a big difference in price for shock oil and spring steel.

spring steel used for shock applications is generally one of the 3 listed below in order of highest quality to lowest quality.

SAE 1095 highest quality commercially available
1085
1074

the 1074 and 1085 spring steels can be up to 1/4 of the price or less than SAE 1095. when you have 40-50 shims in a set of 4 shocks that can be a significant way to cut costs to lure the thrifty consumer.

Almost always the younger less experienced buyer will be making his or her purchase based on price.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by omniman &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> Something to keep in mind about shocks and temperature changes.

As a shock increases in temperature from cold to hot the compression curve will naturally increase in resistance and the rebound curve will naturally decrease in resistance. There is no way to fully eliminate this effect as its caused by thermodynamics. What happens in a mono tube shock is the temperature increase causes the nitrogen gas to expand which in turn increases the compression effect and simultaneously decreases the rebound effect. Another area that also affects the rebound and compression curve ratio is the material used for the shim stacks. Using low grade spring steel will cause the shim stacks to actually heat form and bend causing the effective damping to be lost completely if the temperature gets too high. Yet another area that has damping effects with temperature change is the shock oil. All shock oils are not the same and lower grade oils will foam under hard use further causing the damping effect to be lost.

The low priced adjustable shocks on the market have to cut corners on materials to get the price lower, there's no way around it. As the Honda market has gotten pretty cheap in the last few years. for example by using a lower grade shock oil and spring steel shim stack in a shock you can as a manufacturer lower your cost by about 50-70 $ per set. vs using higher grade materials that will actually last beyond a few months to a year.

there is a big difference in price for shock oil and spring steel.

spring steel used for shock applications is generally one of the 3 listed below in order of highest quality to lowest quality.

SAE 1095 highest quality commercially available
1085
1074

the 1074 and 1085 spring steels can be up to 1/4 of the price or less than SAE 1095. when you have 40-50 shims in a set of 4 shocks that can be a significant way to cut costs to lure the thrifty consumer.

Almost always the younger less experienced buyer will be making his or her purchase based on price.
</TD></TR></TABLE>


so what you are saying is overtime on the track this effect will happen naturally anyways to any type of shocks or coilover system. wether its cheap or expensive.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by _oemek_ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">


so what you are saying is overtime on the track this effect will happen naturally anyways to any type of shocks or coilover system. wether its cheap or expensive.</TD></TR></TABLE>

If you put a damper on a shock dyno and run it through its paces on there, it will be warm to the touch.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by slammed_93_hatch &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

If you put a damper on a shock dyno and run it through its paces on there, it will be warm to the touch.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

I see. And on the track as well. correct?

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by _oemek_ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">


so what you are saying is overtime on the track this effect will happen naturally anyways to any type of shocks or coilover system. wether its cheap or expensive.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Like the brakes and tires, your shocks will also be come less effective over time at the track, that will happen with any shock, but the degree to which it happens will differ.

I also think it is your tires; are you sure you're not just over-driving the car? If it is indeed the shocks, most likely its a cheap oil with a low Viscosity Index losing its viscosity (resitance to flow) over time due to the increasing heat.

 

Making me think twice about gettin ksport