I could do with some good advice because with being away from Coupes for a while I'm sort of out of touch with the best way to go.

The car (20vt LE)is fitted with FK coilovers at the moment but if I'm honest I'm not struck on them for everyday use so I'd like to replace them but as the heading says, what with though.
The back ones are fine so I'm happy for them to stay which creates a little problem. If I put standard dampers on the front with standard springs, I suspect the car will sit to high at the front. Therefore lowered springs look to be on the cards.
Now how low springs do I go for and what make. What dampers do I go for and again what make. And were's the best place these days to get them.

I'm looking for sort of a standard feel but not to soft if that makes any sense.

Hope someone can help save me a bit of searching and time.

bisteins as in group buy with standard spring,complete package front and rear.good for day to day general road use and improved on standard kit £365 delivred for bilsteins

I take it that would bring the car back up to standard height.
It's only the front end thats bugging me as it bounces over bumps as though the spring is acting as the rebound rather than the damper.
I do like the lower look.

Presumably you've played with the damping settings on the FKs?

I can recommend the Bilsteins too - Eibach lowering springs are a very popular choice, especially when combined with the Bilsteins. Perhaps fit front bilsteins and Eibach springs all round?

No now if I'm honest I only got the car home last Thursday and it hasn't stopped tipping down since so I haven't looked at playing with the settings.

The standard FK's don't have any settings to play with except ride height. FK's are famous for the bouncy ride your suffering with and unfortunately its the same with most uprated springs, the firmer spring will rebound much quicker so unless your rebound damping is uprated then it will feel quite bouncy.

Standard springs and Billys work really well if you can live with the ride height. Eibach springs and Billys is another option if you want it lower - but again it will be a little more choppy although nowhere near as bad as FK's.

Unfortunately, you cant go lower without going firmer unless you spend lots of money.

Oops, sorry my bad - forgot I have the rebound adjustable (Konigsport) kit on my Alfa rather than the standard FKs

I used the stnd 80nm springs for a while and it was far too bouncy.

I uprated to 100nm springs and it was much better!!

Ross

But very firm !!

errr VERY firm no /yes

no/yes

Not unacceptable but I couldn't live with it like that.

After driving a mates coupe fitted with Eibach and standard shocks I've decided to go down the same route. His car was a Little firmer a nice height and nicely damped for daily use.
Ordered them off Alternative Autos so and they should be here next week sometime. When I get them I'll put up a report on fitting them over on my little site and once in will report on what the setup is like.
Thanks to everyone who took time to post to help me out.

I've got FK's too (I think, unless it was the other German outfit) and they're perhaps set a bit too low on my Coop, but didn't they come with the 100Nm spring as standard, with people changing to 80 or 90 as a better compromise, can't remember now

Go with the eibach and Bilstein groupbuy, i found it to look good and be comefortable!

i went in lukes coop on sunday with kw coilovers on and the ride was much better than i thought it would be and doesn't feel as harsh as any coilovered cars i have been in

Just fitted FK's and have exactly the same problem, too bouncy at the front, would like to know what rate the standard FK front springs are, what to change them to and where to get them please ?
Or do I just scrap the FK's, forget about the £450 and go buy Koni's or Billies ?
Really quite depressed about it at the moment.... :-(

I'm gonna play with the ride height on my FK's and might go for Bravo top mounts to make it less crashy although I think my ride height is too low and Jimbo thinks I might be riding on the bump stops especially at the front, but on the other hand it doesn't seem at all bouncy to me. Perhaps it will be if I raise the ride height?

When figuring out the ride height, I reckon a more precise measure is to look at the height of the top of the black bottom/centre sill at the front and rear edges each side, if you measure yours I'll measure mine...

IIRC the front shocks have two springs, the changeable one is FK 1768 as standard (the 80 Nm one) and others are available eg: 90 Nm (FK 1769?) and 100 Nm (FK 1700?)

FKs get quite a slagging on here, you should have asked a few people before forking out for them

The 100Nmm springs from FK will reduce the bouncing at the cost of a firmer ride.

90Nm springs work well.

Does anyone know if fitting the optional Koni inserts makes a significant improvement ? Would at least allow you to adjust the rebound...

Any recommendations for where to buy suitable springs?
Are they 2.25 or 2.5 ? Would save me trying to measure mine...

Cheers

Has anybody tried a softer spring ? Strikes me that if the damper is not up to it, then it is more likely to cope with a softer spring, something slightly stiffer than standard for instance..... I'm gonna measure a standard spring and buy a comparable coil over to try it :-)

The standard spring is progressive rate, you can't just buy a comparable coilover spring, you need to start looking at main and tender springs or main and progressive rate tenders to try and match it. Good luck, I've been playing with spring rates for a while, £2K later and I'm not there yet

Thanks Jimbo, I appreciate your advice, just trying to salvage something from the situation, probably end up buying Bilsteins in the end like I should've done in the first place

Ok I got to the bottom of why the front of the car has been bouncy,, BOTH the front FK's are knackered !!! completely shot.

I have now fitted Monroe dampers all round with Eibach 30mm lower front springs and kept the FK springs on the rear. The setup's perfect for me. Firmer for when I want a bit of spirited driving but on the right side of comfortable for everyday use.

Must admit I'm well pleased with the result. I'll be posting photo's etc over on my site about how I changed everything.

Thanks to everyone though that offered advice it was greatly appreciated

Hey Stuart, I'd be interested to know what a set of Monroe dampers cost and perhaps where you got them ?

Cheers

I got them from Steve at Alternative Autos http://www.alternativeautos.co.uk/

price list is on the site. Really nice people to deal with.

Yes, it won't.

One of the problems with the FKs is that they have bugger all compression damping. The Koni inserts are even worse IMO. Even as new the piston rod would rod would just fall into the casing. Probably why Stuart thinks his are knackered. No, they are all like that.

You can mask the problem by fitting beefier front springs but effectively they were never designed properly in the first place. The mild steel casings rust to shIt in a few thousand miles anyway.

Bilstein B6's are much better either with standard or Eibach springs.

Mine definately had the oil or something seaping out. They reside in the local skip now. I kep the springs out of them though if anyone wants them.

I'm confused. Do you mean that by fitting the Koni inserts into FK struts that the Koni inserts aren't secured? The FK struts have a screw cap on the top to hold the inserts in (I even removed mine and cleaned it all out).

Chris

No I'm talking about the compression rate of the damper itself (or lack of it). FK Konigsports have Koni inserts in them.

The damper rod drops into the case under gravity, nothing to do with how its secured. Most shocks will expand outward (pressurised) if not retained at both ends.

Cosmo, that sounds seriously bad mate, something wrong there..

Stuart, were your Monroe's marked as Reflex or Sensatrack versions ?

Sorry mate, I've no idea, I threw the box out. Next time I have a wheel off I'll check what it says on the damper.

I don't understand why this kit seems to pass most straight over most handling threads on this forum. Akeme took me out in his coop before selling it to Luke and I was HUGELY impressed

I've just been looking into them as I've finally had enough of the billy/eibach set-up. It's just too unforgiving, probably making the car slower on a bumpy country lane.

I want:
-The same ride height as the Eibachs (so -30mm to -35mm)
-Better damping /or softer springs

Is the KW kick the only on that can offer this?

Bilstein / Eibachs are very Forgiving IMO. Trying to get a coilover that is more so is going to be difficult....

Maybe something else is causing the harsh ride then. A mate of mine has a Pug 206 GT that is lowered to give around an inch clearance over the rear wheels and it's more compliant than mine

I'll get Rog to have a quick look or test drive if I pop over there in the minute.

What wheels and tyres are you using?

How did the fk's compare to the gaz stuff Simon?

No contest, the Gaz stuff I had whipped them in EVERY way possible.

nice!

The KW's use the Bravo top mount, I've talked about this many times but it always falls on deaf ears.

I'm using the Bravo mount with my Leda's as it improves the ride. The suspension is mounted to the chassis though a huge chunk of rubber instead of through metal as in other coilovers.
This rubber block makes them feel so much nicer.

so the best is the KWv2 whith bravo top mount???

No the best available at the moment is the Gaz kit.

Standard wheels with 205/50/16 tyres.

I'll have a look through your previous posts regarding the KWs and top mounts then Jimbo

Not completely! I bought a set of new Bravo top mounts from Alt Autos and used a "cup" fitting to secure the spring (kindly supplied by Jimbo via a scappy) and also raised the height of the FK's a bit, and I reckon it's so much better than the solid mounts that comes as standard with the FK's. For anyone with standard FK's who's become tired of the hard crashy ride, try the Bravo top mounts before dumping the FK's...

Ah yes, I forgot you'd done the swap Dave. Glad you found them better, it seems to iron out some of the crashing and jarring the almost solid coupe top mount creates.

Bump,

I intend to run some bravo top mounts with my FK's, do i need anything else bar the mounts.

Ben

i have bought a nicely modded 20 vt and it also has fk highsport coilovers and 100/nm springs and having had previous a std suspension set up and used at the nurburgring oct2008 i can say without question i prefer std when it comes to confidence and feel.. the fk's make this car bounce way too much although the car looks nice and low the suspension is 3yrs old and looking at receipts has done around 15,000 miles i prefer a more planted feel over bumps not crashy and on a few occassions already have nearly lost control plus the jaw banging that goes with it... i dare say the current set up on smooth roads would be best but i bought the car thinking upgraded suspension would be worthwhile if we chose to use it on track however i am not so confident now...
conclusion may want to retain lowered look but need softer damping as i value my teeth!!! anyone suffering front right side brake warp???[sorry no hijack]

You don't want softer damping, you actually need firmer damping to stop that bouncing !

You could try osrav dampers under Eibach springs to give you the lowered look but with much more control.

As i have'nt given the coupe a proper test yet due to tracking i cant really give a good report on the FK's.

The little driving i done today with them which included a little around town
and a blast along the industrail road was IMHO not as bad as i was expecting

Ben