GT 3.2 with Koni FSD's & Tarox 401s

Having posted a thread listing 2 of the main faults with my GT 3.2 I decided to put my money where my mouth was, and after some help from the forum and speaking to Chris at Gazzella I decided to go ahead and purchase some uprated dampers and front break pads.

As I don't go on track days I wasn't looking for a suspension setup that would be suited to a smooth race track, but at setup that would be more at home on your average 'A' or 'B' road. I wanted to concentrate on addressing the poor dampers and hopefully get away with keeping the stock springs, so after speaking to Chris at Gazzella I was seriously considering buying the Koni 'Yellow' top adjustable dampers. They didn't lower the car very much but enabled me to play around with harshness of the dampers. Apparently the softest setting was equivalent to the standard GT suspension. But after a quick glance in the boot of the GT it occurred to me that there would be no way of gaining access to the top mounts inside the boot to adjust the rear dampers once installed, meaning that adjustable suspension on the GT was a bit of a waste of time (correct me if I'm wrong). So non-adjustable suspension it had to be and the latest FSD dampers from Koni seemed a worthy alternative after all has been written in this forum and elsewhere on the net about them.

The other area I wanted to improve was the brakes. The Brembos were a big disappointment to me and I knew I had to get better pads to get the best out of them so after considering Pagid blues (which some have said are a bit harsh on the discs) and the Ferodo DS2500's (£152+vat expensive!) I decided to go for a pad that was 30% cheaper, Tarox Rallye+ 401's and as I don't do track days all I was after was some better brake feel and bite.

I went ahead and checked around on the net for the best deals, initially Gazzella seemed competitive but after checking a few other websites, Awesome Gti came up trumps with the cheapest set of Koni FSD's at £424.18 inc vat and delivery which was by far the cheapest I had found. They could also supply the Tarox pads for £95+vat which was also the cheapest I'd found. So £535.80 all in seemed a good deal for new shocks and pads.

Next was finding a garage to get this lot fitted and since I live in Edinburgh I had 3 main options Arnold Clark main dealer, Edward Labinjoh Alfa Specialist and McLennan’s Garage also an Alfa specialists. I had previously asked at Arnold Clark how much they charged to fit front pads on the Brembo calipers and they seemed to think they were a pain in the arse to fit so quoted me a whopping £250 including standard pads!! Considering that the pads cost about £76 from a dealer that meant they were charging £174 just to fit them, they also quoted £129 inc vat for fitting each damper a total of £690 to fit 4 dampers and the front pads. Next stop was Edward Labinjoh who is based in the city centre and they quoted £50+vat for fitting the pads and £380+vat for the dampers a total of £505.25. McLennan’s though, were by far the cheapest and I also got to speak to Stuart who displayed quite a knowledge of working on Alfa Romeo suspension. He suggested getting a full 4 wheel alignment done after fitting the shocks which costs £52+vat. His quote, to fit the front pads, 4 dampers and 4 wheel alignment was £256+vat which came to £300.80p an absolute bargain in my view, which roughly works out at £50 for each damper and £50 to fit the front pads.

The GT is booked in next week to have the work done so I shall be posting my opinions once I have been out for a good drive...

It'll be very interesting to hear your opinion on the dampers, I will be holding on to my GT for a bit longer it seems, I may look at this route for me, my AD setup is harsh, always has been and I've never been convinced it was 100% right anyway, rear damping rate wasn't enough, now after 44k on them the car has deteriorated, I'd be looking at a more stock setup, see if I can get the GT to handle well without shaking my man-boobs off

Typically the rear Koni yellow'adjustables are left on soft setting and only the front adjusted to remove the 'bounce' in the suspension when going over speed humps. I would have gone for the new FSD when I got my Koni yellows but they were not available!!!.

Originally Posted by Stori

Typically the rear Koni yellow'adjustables are left on soft setting and only the front adjusted to remove the 'bounce' in the suspension when going over speed humps. I would have gone for the new FSD when I got my Koni yellows but they were not available!!!.

^^^ ditto. i fitted KONI Sports, but really like them (3rd set in 3 cars). FSD's were only just being released locally when i bought them, but not for the GT at that time, so wasn't going to wait.

no regrets with the Sports; hopefully your FSD's are even better.

also interested to hear your thoughts of the pads once you get them installed.

£174 sterling just for fitting front pads - thats outrageous from Arnold Clark!!! Perhaps worthy of a complaint to Alfa UK??

Uno problemo

Well 2 problems actually. I was expecting to be collecting my GT with new shocks and front pads on Monday but Stuart McLennan phoned to tell me some bad news. Firstly, one of the Koni dampers (n/s front) had discharged all of its fluid as soon as they had set the car down on the ground. Stuart took down the details of the supplier (Awesome GTi) from me and took it upon himself to arrange for a replacement damper to be sent out. Unfortunately it looks likely to be a 2-3 week for the new front pair (they only send them out in pairs) to arrive. So it looks like I will have to wait a little longer to see if the FSD dampers are any good. This is quite worrying that a brand new Koni damper should fail like that so I will be keeping an eye on them to check for any further leaks.

I would like to take this opportunely to say how superb McLennan’s Garage have been over this. They have had to re-fit the original front dampers so the car isn't off the road until the replacement dampers arrive. Stuart has also offered to fit the new front dampers free of charge when they arrive! This has helped turn a potentially disastrous (and expensive) situation into just an inconvenient one, thanks to what I consider to be the perfect Alfa garage with the kind of customer service you would never even come close to with your average main dealer.

Well that was problem number one.

Problem number two: I had asked McLennan’s Garage to give me a second opinion on a knocking noise coming from the n/s front particularly when maneuvering at low speed while they had the car up on the ramps. Arnold Clark the main (and only) Alfa dealer in Edinburgh had dismissed this as just a very slightly worn lower wishbone ball joint that may be making this noise but wasn't actually a problem and would keep an eye on it as it wasn't deemed bad enough to be replaced. But McLennan's Garage came up with a totally different explanation, and one that anyone with a pair of eyes should have spotted. Where the trackrod end hooks onto the steering arm, the nut underneath that holds everything in place was at the point where a few more turns and it would have dropped off! This meant that the knocking noise was the trackrod end moving around in the steering arm and inevitably would have come free when the nut eventually dropped off, leaving me with front wheels pointing in opposite directions, maybe even causing a serious accident!

I cannot believe that Arnold Clark has missed this obvious and very dangerous problem. This has also caused the inside tread of the tyre to wear almost to the point of being illegal. The GT is going into Arnold Clark for a new trackrod end tomorrow and I will be writing a letter to them to highlight their incompetence.

Fortunately, I can report that the Tarox pads have greatly improved the bite of the brakes and is now a linear action, the harder I press the pedal the quicker the car the car stops, where as before the bite of the standard pads didn't seem to improve that harder I pressed the pedal. I haven't had a chance to put them fully to the test yet, because until the steering is 100% I am taking it easy.

I will keep you informed of Arnold Clarks response to my letter of complaint I will be sending out.

Thats a shame to hear about that on the FSDs, I am about to buy them for our 4 wheel jelly mobile (Stilo) as its needs some and I'd like to see how they work on that car before going the more normal route on my GT as I want more comfort for the daily grind even if it is at the expense of outright performance.

Interesting little report of the FSD here

http://www.tirerack.com/suspension/tests/koni_fsd.jsp

versus stock, koni yellows (on soft) and FSDs.

Having had Koni before on my Coupe when new the rear fully soft was pretty hard and I barely knocked up the fronts either so these FSD could be pretty good.

Originally Posted by sandys

Interesting little report of the FSD here

http://www.tirerack.com/suspension/tests/koni_fsd.jsp

versus stock, koni yellows (on soft) and FSDs.

Cheers for that Sandys, I've been planning the FSD route for months now, hopefully I'm going to get it sorted before the Aintree meet in June

Of course we don't know what the life span of FSDs are, my old Konis went soft in less than a year but at least I had the option to knock them up a notch (not that I bothered I just sold it )

Will the FSD still perform well after 20k? The biggest flaw of my AD setup IMO is that its not adjustable so I can't notch up the dampers to cut out some of the bounce, will these have that problem, I suspect not as these are probably based on the right car in the first place.

It has always been my suspicion in the case of my AD kit that as it wasn't perfect from day one, its good but there are some ride quality issues with the rear end, I reckon they probably based the GT kit on the 147 not taking into account the differing weight bias hence spring/damper combo not 100% and why I got the rear end movement from day one, still loads better than a stock Alfa .

Originally Posted by Carter

But McLennan's Garage came up with a totally different explanation, and one that anyone with a pair of eyes should have spotted. Where the trackrod end hooks onto the steering arm, the nut underneath that holds everything in place was at the point where a few more turns and it would have dropped off! This meant that the knocking noise was the trackrod end moving around in the steering arm and inevitably would have come free when the nut eventually dropped off, leaving me with front wheels pointing in opposite directions, maybe even causing a serious accident!

whoa, that sounds dodgy! glad it was picked up. i would have thought there was a retaining 'pin' (split pin or similar) holding such a nut in place. hmmm.

good luck with the FSDs; i hope it's sorted quickly. so much for quality control! but surely that can't be common.

so are FSD's not adjustable like the Sport dampers?

No they are not, they have some clever valving system that supposedly does a decent job of giving you want you want when you want it, its not focussed for track stuff more for giving you a better road car.

Totally ridicules that Arnold Clark would charge you £174 for fitting the front pads - its a 30min job max - the Brembos have got to be the easiest brakes in the world to work on - the pads are only held in place by a pair of pins. Not surprising that AC couldn't find the fault with your suspension.

Bit disturbing to here about the FSD's - I have Bilstein dampers and they have been great

Thanks for the link sandys, very encouraging to hear that FSD's do exactly what it says on the box! Its fair to say that the rear end of my car could well be out performing the front without me even noticing it...hope to get the front FSD's fitted soon so I can tell!

Hey Carter any news on the FSDs?

Motty156, I'm getting the replacement front pair fitted on Friday so will update next week

Cool, be interesting to see how they do