How's it going everyone. Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas/holiday.

I'm posting for a friend of mine who has been having major suspension issues. I don't have all the details from him but the general background is as follows:

Issue: Gone through two sets of yellows through 2-3 years. Blown front shocks on both sets. Can't figure out why this is happening.

Car: 2002 RSX Type-S
Suspension: OTS Koni Yellows, OTS Ground Controls
Shock setting: Approximately full stiff
Ride Height: Don't know exactly but not very far from stock
Alignment/camber: no adjustments made (all stock components)
Tires: Azenis 615s

I know this is really general and not all factors can be accounted for but let me know your thoughts. Hopefully some light can be shed. Thanks in advance.

 

You'd probably be better off contacting Koni USA. There's really NO information in that post, other than the parts on the car.

FWIW, I've known of a good number of OTS Yellows blowing with regular track use. I think they just might not be 100% up to the task.

 

spring rates?

 

2 main factors that can contribute to this.
1: Spring rates
2: Top hats/camber plates. If they are stock, you might want to consider a spherical top hat. That will decrease the side loading of the shock by quite a bit.

 

I'm assuming "OTS Ground Controls" mean something relatively soft for spring rates.

 

Thanks for the reply guys. I actually don't know what the spring rates are for RSX OTS ground controls. From what I searched, they could be 375f/450r, which sounds a bit high for OTS rates.

 

Stinky, I actually thought at first that the rates were too low and he was bottoming out but from what it seems like the OTS rates are high enough. I'll look into the rates to get a definitive answer.

 

Your best bet is to call Koni or a Koni distributor such as True Choice, that can offer you some good possibilities as to what is going wrong. The off the shelf ground control springs are actually pretty soft for the 8610-1415 fronts and 8010-1050 rears.

There has been rumours but the rears are actaully pretty agressive and can handle 800 lbs springs. I had 650 lbs springs on off the shelf rear Koni yellows for 12,000 miles one season of auto-x, and about 10 track days with no problems. These were ots rsx konis 450lbs front, 650lbs rear.

Of course if the car is lowered they will blow regularly, also if the plastic ring is installed incorrectly during an impact the shock will blow through its travel hit the bumpstop to the base of the shock and blow too.

I think the ground control front spring is too low for the rsx, i think the front comes with a 6" spring and the rear is a 5" spring. That is too low, just to get at a decent hieght to correct your roll center you are basicly maxed out on the ground control sleve. I run 8" front springs and 6" rear springs.

Go ahead and call around, that must be a pain in the *** it go through konis like that.

 

Spring rates definately have a lot to do with the failure of the shock.
Anything over a 500lb spring is considered a progressive rate, and I have seen many OTS Yellows blow that way.
If your going to run a spring rate higher than 500lb, the race valved and shortened shocks will do the trick.
Running your shocks full stiff leads me to believe that combined progressive spring rate and the stiffest setting is wearing them out.
The bumpstops... have they been altered? Id never put anything less than the ones supplied by koni.
Has anyone checked the Shock bottoming measurement?
Like Jeremy said ... top hats might be needed to get extra travel and keep the shocks from bottoming.

 

Wrong, a progressive rate is a spring with an increasing spring constant. For example, if the first inch of spring motion requires 100 pounds of force, the second inch would require more than an additional 100 pounds, and the third inch would require still more. Progressive-rate springs become stiffer as they are compressed, unlike single-rate springs, which have a fixed spring rate. There is nothing magic about over 500 lbs that converts a fixed rate spring to a progressive rate spring.

 

Gotta go with Marc on this one. Linear = linear, progressive = progressive. I've never heard of a specific weight rating changing that.

 

Maybe meant "aggressive" instead of "progressive"?

 

That makes sense, never considered it might be a typing error, dirty19 is usually on the ball and I have never read any other posts where he is spouting mis-conceptions so this is likely what he intended to write.

 

maybe what he meant was that higher linear rates can make your car progressively handle like pooh.

 

I willing to bet that the car is just too low. Get some 8" springs and that should help a lot. Also, the most you want to be dropped is 1" lower than stock, any lower than that and your suspension geometry is shot.

There is a suspension set up thread in the RSX/EP3 section, you should post this question there and I am sure you will get a lot of your questions answered.

 

I've seen so many RSX and EP3 blow shocks...it's scary.

 

Thanks for all the input guys. I haven't really had a chance to follow up with my friend but will do so over the next few days. I wouldn't be surprised if stiffer front springs coupled with raising the car more does the trick. It's interesting though because his car is practically at stock height.

 

Yea thats what it was. Was I spouting??? Do I spout? The OTS arent meant to handle the aggressive spring rates.
To spout or not to spout?

 

Marc is saying other people spout, not you