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Hi. 
we run an A2 Golf in the Sports Car Club of VT autox and NE Hillclimb series. 
Have Neuspeed race springs in car and been running Koni yellow sport shocks. 
A few weeks ago a rear started weeping out from the adjuster area - replaced 
under warranty. Last weekend after the Ascutney hillclimb a front is leaking 
from the piston shaft. 
Are we using the wrong shocks? Is there a shock made for the shorter travel 
which the springs provide or are they just inherently weak? 1st season 
competing regularly. Would appreciate comments and shock suggestions. Thanks. 
Email direct or post to list.
Jeff 

Jeff,

I've been running Koni adjustables on my ITA car for 3 years now without any
problems - they're probably completely devoid of fluid and I just haven't
noticed <g>.  I'm running Ground Control coilovers which allows for more
travel but IMHO, you're probably just getting lucky in finding back shocks. 


Speaking of shocks, one of my buddies that runs an A1 in ITB has
experimented with shortened Tokicos without much luck - he's blown two sets
in the past two years.  He's currently trying a set of custom-made
Bilsteins.  

At 10:10 AM 9/23/99 EDT, you wrote:
>Hi. 
>we run an A2 Golf in the Sports Car Club of VT autox and NE Hillclimb series. 
>Have Neuspeed race springs in car and been running Koni yellow sport shocks. 
>A few weeks ago a rear started weeping out from the adjuster area - replaced 
>under warranty. Last weekend after the Ascutney hillclimb a front is leaking 
>from the piston shaft. 
>Are we using the wrong shocks? Is there a shock made for the shorter travel 
>which the springs provide or are they just inherently weak? 1st season 
>competing regularly. Would appreciate comments and shock suggestions.  Thanks. 
>Email direct or post to list.

I have the Neuspeed Race Springs and Koni Yellow's as well. Over the last 5
years I have replaced 2 front shocks and it looks like one of the rear's
need to be replaced.  They have always been covered under warranty, just
make sure when you send them in that you turn them to full soft. I have
heard about warranty's being voided if you send them in on full hard.  I
heard/witnessed the same horror stories about Tokico's in VW's so I avoided
them like the plague.  Bilstein's are the way to go if you don't need
adjustability, I have heard of a place in PA the is making adjstable
bilstein's however.

Shelbynut@a... wrote:
> 
> we run an A2 Golf in the Sports Car Club of VT autox and NE Hillclimb
> series. 
[snip]

My old A2 GTI 16V blew two sets of front Koni yellows in two years.
The second set were after temporarily moving to my parents'
mountaintop retreat, with 2+ miles of private goat trail to
get there.  One of the Konis actually imploded around the
piston, binding it up. The car had the factory springs, and never 
saw competition.  

I now rationalize the failure on driving with them cranked up
past 1.5 turns from full soft.  If you read the manual, it
specifically says that 1.5 turns from full soft *is* full hard.
The next 1-2 turns left in the mechanism is what I believe kills
them.  On my A3 GTI VR6 Konis, I run them absolutely full soft
unless I'm autocrossing.  I still will crank the rears up to
the hard end stop, but the fronts will never go past 1.5 turns.

To the person saying that somebody in PA makes adjustable
Bilsteins, pu-leeze get the info to us!  Thanks.....

-Arthur

I've Installed many sets of Tokico Illumina adjustables in lots of different cars
for myself and other people. I also know quite a number of other people who have
Tokicos on their cars. I don't know anyone who is unhappy with his Tokicos.
I do not like Konis. They cost too much. The "adjustment" they offer is vague
and a setting can't be recognized by looking at them. They only adjust rebound anyway.
Why buy crappy, primitive shocks from Holland? Maybe because they're so
Euro!

>I've Installed many sets of Tokico Illumina adjustables in lots of different cars
>for myself and other people.  
>    Why buy crappy, primitive shocks from Holland? Maybe because they're so Euro!


Two reasons...the same reasons NOT to buy KYB or GAB, ironically enough.
Koni's are more reliable than Tokico--just ask about 'em on team.net.
Second, Koni's are rebuildable by both Koni and many an aftermarket shop,
and carry a lifetime warranty.  You'll see many a roadracer on Koni's or
Bilsteins, but not so with Tokico.

-dave

On Fri, 24 Sep 1999, David Shreve wrote:

> Two reasons...the same reasons NOT to buy KYB or GAB, ironically enough.
> Koni's are more reliable than Tokico--just ask about 'em on team.net.
> Second, Koni's are rebuildable by both Koni and many an aftermarket shop,
> and carry a lifetime warranty.  You'll see many a roadracer on Koni's or
> Bilsteins, but not so with Tokico.

AFAIK, Koni only authorizes rebuilds (in NA) at Truechoice and ProParts
(www.propartsusa.net), and Koni NA.  If you got it done somewhere else, I
would strongly suspect that Koni wouldn't honor the warranty any more.

We've seen quite a few Koni failures (the right front on the Scirocco is
partially shot - little compression damping and not much gas pressure at
all, for some reason), but relatively few of them have been catastrophic of
the sort that Tokico (used to be?) is infamous for.  If you can afford to
get them revalved, do - there's actually a good story in GRM about why this
is a good idea (not sure which month, but it's on their website).  I'm not
sure that any off-the-shelf shock is going to be really suited to
autocrossing.  If you ask the manufacturer what exactly they designed your
particular shock for, you won't hear just "autocrossing" - and (for SP
people) they almost certainly didn't design it for a car with the same wheel
rates as yours!

Also, you can see a large number of IT competitors running Tokicos at any
random regional race (at least around here), so maybe they're worth
something after all.

Kevin Y. Wenzel
kwenzel@p...
Director of Network Operations, privateI, LLC
http://www.privateI.com/

 From what I've heard, the Tokico's used to have a problem with the seals on
the shocks a few years back.  However, that was fixed awhile ago and they
just have this bad rep staying with them.  Does anyone run Tokico's on a
Scirocco 16v?  I have Bilstein sports right now but am thinking about
getting some adjustable shocks for the front.  The car wallows a little bit
too much for my taste when you hit those dips in the freeway and I'm hoping
the Tokico's or Koni's might be stiffer.

Aaron..