[jcgt]

Hi all

Just wanted to share my problems with fitting Koni FSD dampers on my GT 3,2. First the decision was to mount original springs with the FSD's as Koni says this is the best solution. Once mounted i had a bit of a shock. The front was suddenly raised about 15 mm compared to the back. Not a pretty sight and not good for the driving pleasure. After measurements was taken, i found out that the springcup on the frontdamper was mounted 13 mm to high compared to oem damper - thus giving the raised front of the car. My first attempt to fix this problem was to lower the car with eibach at the front and keep the original springs in the back. Now the car sits even, but the drivingexperince suffers from the two different types of springs used... understeer, loose backend and so forth. Now i have talked to koni akbout the problem and they gave me the following answer :

"Regarding your comments about this matter:

Just wanted to let you know that this difference is height of the spring seat is a specially made decision made by our engineers. This to improve the poor OE driving quality of the front side of the car itself with the original setting. This to stop the car from getting on “block” which is a well known problem for this Alfa model. As a damper builder, we know that a small difference in ride height of the car won’t effect the driving qualities of the car at all, this is only a visual difference which is only to find out with a measuring rod.

So if we speak about poor engineering you should give your comments thru to Alfa Romeo. They should have done the job right in the first place."

If koni had raised the cups on the back that would be fine. .. but now it's a big problem.

Had any of you guys had the same problem, then please let me know ....

Kind Regards, Jeppe Carlsen
Alfa Romeo GT 3,2

 

[shiny_car]

interesting. i hadn't realised that (but will definitely know to advise others who consider the FSDs). i presume it's the same for the GTAs?

i figure you drove around with the factory springs for a period, to see if it would 'settle'? regardless, you found the reason anyway.

photos? and are you fitting Eibach Pro Kit rear springs?

i have KONI Sport + Eibach springs fitted. i must say, the front did not lower at all in the end. and perhaps it was the combination of 'higher dampers' with 'lower springs' (sic) that resulted in an overall 'no drop'. i never did lay the two dampers side by side (factory vs KONI Sport). i always presumed the Eibach springs didn't lower the car at all, because it's already considered 'low enough' by engineers, and there were issues with the front repeaters/indicators being as low as possible, to comply with Regs.

because i wanted the front lower, i had the suspension modified.

 

[Pascs]

Interesting, my 156 was definitely lower with the Koni FSD's and Eibach springs - about 5-10mm lower at the front than my sport pack springs and giving the expected -30mm drop. I actually wish the front was a bit higher

 

[Stori]

What about 'standard' Eibach springs on the rear if there is anything such as Standard non lowered Eibach. In any event it is about spring rate which you obviously realise from your post.
However My complaint to Koni would be that I want my car with the same stance as original even if they have raised the front and not Front end high. Whilst it is ok for their "engineers' to do it, they should also have told the customer what would happen. Ask for you money back

 

[GavinH]

Interesting.. not sure what they are on about re. the car being "on block"? Is this the sump hitting the ground ??

My 156 v6 sits fine on Eibachs and FSDs. I didn't measure it, but visually the car is proportionally lower than the sportspack, both on front and rear axles.

Thought the GT was a very similar design to the 156, why does the FSD kit for the GT need to be so different.

 

[paullec]

Im more surprised by the comments from Koni, what kind of Customer Service would tell a customer to go back to a car manufacturer and say the design is crap lol

Id fit the rear eibach if i was you tbh

 

[GavinH]

I wonder what experience other folk have had when fitting FSDs to the GT? I did a fair bit of research about them before buying and never came across any issues like that..

 

[jcgt]

I did hope that the car would settle down after a few months but that never happended. Thats why i changed the springs in the front. Think i'll go for kw2 coilovers or bilstein b8 and try to get my money back from koni. ps.

 

[paullec]

eibach do their own dampers.

 

[GavinH]

Took a look at the Koni website. Seems that the same part no. (2100-4027) is common to all 147, 156 & GT models (excluding GTAs).

It's a bit odd that the kit would have such an extreme effect on the GT and not on the other cars! Unless the standard GT damper is much shorter than the 156/147.

You sure they sent you the right parts?

 

[TribesMan]

When I fitted Eibach ProKit and Koni FSDs I noticed that the drop on the rear axle was bigger than on the front.
Around 10mm less on the front. But it was fine with me, because my car was always looking a bit high on the rear, so the lowering fixed that and made the car look more "even".

 

[jcgt]

yep - tjecked - right parts ...

 

[RossoGT]

Koni fsds and eibachs dont lower enuff for me either on the GT. Im gona go for coilovers even though the ride will be slighty harder than the fsd eibach combo.

 

[shiny_car]

agreed. i had my KONI Sport front dampers and suspension forks modified so that it would sit lower! i suppose other people could have it done, if you have a place that will happily do it (fortunately, the Oz KONI distributor did it for me).

 

[cadimar]

eibach spring

How much does really lower the eibach pro kit spring for the GT 1.9 jtd they say 25-40 but what the real diference in the real world

thanks

 

[AlfaGTDan]

Ive got Eibach Pro springs on my GT JTDM and it dropped it way down, especially at the front.
I would say about 40mm at the front and 30mm at the rear. It looks spot on though, as the rear was higher than the front with the standard springs anyway.

Ive had them on about 18 months, and am considering some FSD'd or Billi B6's shocks to go with them, as the ride is a bit crashy and bouncy due to the car being under damped due to the stronger springs.

Anyone selling any????????????:lol:

 

[RossoGT]

Try KWs Sports dampers :thumbs: they have improved comfort on mine going over crap roads and the handeling is amazing!

 

[AlfaGTDan]

Thanks for the info Rosso, are you using Eibach sports springs too like me???????

 

[Peter K]

Just to let you all know what a pain in the Neck this Koni issue have been. As Jeppe says, his car was not a pretty sight after he had the FSD's fitted. (which we had supplied) After going through all the motions of verifying that all the parts he had was correct, we had to look for physical differences in Damper Design. We finally found the significant difference in Spring seat hight.

We presented this to Koni. As you can imagine, I was not impressed with the reply we got. After much debate they agreed to let us return the parts to their distributor (at our expense) Jeppe got his money back, and he kindly let us supply a set of Z9 coilovers, which he has been very happy with.

In the end, this mess cost us +90 euro in transport costs alone, (Holland-Denmark-Holland) many hours of work, and still no decent explanation from Koni. In fact it took them 3 months and god knows how many emails, before they finally repaid the distrubutor, who in turn could refund us the price of the dampers.

My personal opinion, is that the GT 3.2 should get the GTA FSD's, since it has the same front suspension. I also suggested this to Koni, but was brushed off..

All in all i found them arrogant and totally unwilling to admit to error. Not impressive, and needless to say, after this experience, we no longer carry Koni products.

rgds

 

[guiliasuper]

I know this is an old thread , but.... I had FSD's fitted to my 2.0 147, when I sold it they were fitted to another members GT 3.2 ( after checking on Koni's website for correct part Nos. )... no raised nose:thumbs: Could this be the answer ? ( not a techie, I just drive them ) :lol: