KSport Coilovers: All About 'Em

[der Geist]

Originally Posted by chris7676

Is there an easy way of accessing the camber plate adjusters once the coilovers are on the car? I have a very similar setup- Cross Coilovers and the access is quite hard through the small top-mount hole where the strut bolts to.

you can get to them but not easily with an "L" shaped hex wrench. If you grind a little off the short side it's a little easier. The guy who did my alignment was cursing like a sailor the whole time but he was able to get it all dialed in perfectly.

[Bigsmoothlee]

Great old thread, I just read the whole thing. What is the max front camber possible with the k sports set at the maximum position? Can I get at least 3° without gt3 lower control arms?

[RandallNeighbour]

OK Ksport fans.

I think my coilover top mounts or worn bushings are creaking/rattling on our crappy Houston roads. Anyone else with a couple of years on their Ksports experience this? If so, what was the cause?

This is driving me crazy and I don't want to disassemble my entire suspension on a witch hunt...

[der Geist]

Hey Randall-

My Ksports are still going strong. I have had to replace a couple of the hydraulic pistons but they are pretty cheap and not too difficult to do with an impact wrench. Make sure that you haven't blown a seal they'll make a racket when you hit a bump if they have.The pillow ball mounts are still in great shape and I average about 4 DE's per year and those are pretty tough on them. Plus the Ohio roads gotta be worse than whatever you have in Houston.

I get some creaking from the springs but I don't think there is much you can do about that. I replaced the nylon washers and that did help a bit but I will still get an occasional pop on a combo incline/extreme turn like when pulling in my driveway. If you have lowered it take into account that will stress the hydraulics quite a bit more. Less piston travel and more pressure. Replacement parts are pretty cheap though and the guys at Ksport on Phoenix are very helpful. I would recommend that you give them a call and discuss the problems you are having, I'm sure that they can help you pinpoint it. If it's a loud "thunk" when you hit a bump or dip the piston is probably bottoming out and will need to be replaced. I think new ones are about $100.00 each. They have redesigned them and the newer black ones are much better than the ones I originally got.

Happy New Year Randall

Edit-
I forgot to mention that you might want to check your lower control arms as well. I just replaced mine with the Vertex rebuilt ones. Very happy with them and they have replaceable ball joints. I also did all the sway bar links. Best price was on Amazon. That surprised me.

[j.fro]

Lee,
I'm at -3.4 up front and -3.2 rear. The rears are about maxed out, but the fronts could go a lot farther.

[The Radium King]

quick question - you folks getting an adequate track alignment on a lowered csr with these things without using adjustable rear toe control arms? thanks.

[Brad Roberts]

Your answer depends on ride height

[Bigsmoothlee]

Originally Posted by j.fro

Lee,
I'm at -3.4 up front and -3.2 rear. The rears are about maxed out, but the fronts could go a lot farther.

Sounds like I can avoid buying GT3 lower control arms this autoX season. Thanks

Originally Posted by Brad Roberts

Your answer depends on ride height

I dont plan to go very low at all, maybe 1/2"-3/4" lower than stock. I prefer to sacrifice the benefits of a lower ride height for tires that stick out of the fenders, in this case, 275s on 17X9s on all four corners (Im running old cup1 rims).

[Stroked & Blown]

It looks like the installation PDFs Insite attached back in 2008 have disappeared.
Does anyone have copies that they can re-post?

[j.fro]

I did have to get adjustable rear toe control arms. The front worked out fine. I'm about 1.5" lower than stock, riding on 275 35 18 rear and 245 35 18 front NT01 tires. The car was aligned using Smart Strings with zero toe up front and maybe 1 mm total toe in the rear. Have a look at my solution for front adjustability...

I should probably be concerned with how OK I am with using a die grinder on my car, but I'm not.

[Bigsmoothlee]

Hahaha, you're nuts! I did the same thing on a friends VW MKV GTI, it looks like the only way to adjust camber.

[RandallNeighbour]

Got this response from Ksport about my rattle/clunk when I asked how to best troubleshoot the source of the noise.

The boxster has a pillowball upper mount on front and back. The biggest chance for noise would come from the pillowball center bearing, a loose camber adjustment bolt, or sticking spring sliders. Look at your springs and see if they are covered in junk or crusty grease or dirt. Take them out and see if the pillowball top hat moves easily or is really firm to rotate and move around.

[Jamesp]

I should probably be concerned with how OK I am with using a die grinder on my car, but I'm not.[/QUOTE]

+1!

[insite]

how do i upload a PDF? i only see gif/jpg option. i will repost the files if someone can tell me how. i think we had a mod do it before?

[seningen]

Originally Posted by j.fro

I did have to get adjustable rear toe control arms. The front worked out fine. I'm about 1.5" lower than stock, riding on 275 35 18 rear and 245 35 18 front NT01 tires. The car was aligned using Smart Strings with zero toe up front and maybe 1 mm total toe in the rear. Have a look at my solution for front adjustability...

I should probably be concerned with how OK I am with using a die grinder on my car, but I'm not.

Any cost in rigidity here?

just picked up an S for my drive to the track car.

Looking for economical improvements without getting too radical.

thx,

Mike

[LowFlyR]

Greetings everybody who knows me. I've been back in Finland since fall 09 and got a update on this posting. No Porsche nowadays, but I'm working on it

Take care buddies!

from somebody who looks for a new used 986S

[j.fro]

Tower integrity did not change from the cuts. The KSport hat is a pretty thick piece of aluminum, and all of the stress is distributed away from the cuts.

[rionhosaki]

I contacted K-sport and they refused to give me a 5.3 spring.


"Regarding spring rates, they advised that a 5.3kg up front isn't doable as they don't offer any springs in this design with that rate. "

"They did mention that is only a very small difference from the 6kg that the kit comes with. Regarding the rear, they said they could do the 7.5kg rather than the 8.7 if you'd like. They did warn that the warranty on the struts portion of the coilovers would be voided due to this. They advised that they spring rates offered on this kit were chosen for a specific reason and that by going softer on the spring rate, you do risk possibly damaging the struts that are included. If you'd like to proceed, it is an extra $12 per corner to change to a different spring rate. "


Should I go with 6kg front and 7.5kg rear? and void the warranty or go with the 8.7 rear?

i don't want the ride so rough that my teeth gets rattled out or destroy my wheels.

[Jamesp]

Originally Posted by j.fro

Tower integrity did not change from the cuts. The KSport hat is a pretty thick piece of aluminum, and all of the stress is distributed away from the cuts.

I'm not so sure. Round holes are much more structually efficient than square due to stress concentrations at the corners of square holes, not to mention the corresponding reduction in material. Bolt holes should have a minimum of 1.5 times bolt diameter to edge distance for similar reasons. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for owner inspired redesign, I've drilled holes in my intermediate shaft, but the modification should take into account engineering principles. So +1 on stepping out and making the mod. Just the same, the big square hole with the limited bolt hole to edge dimension is outside my comfort zone. I do give seningen props for making the mod. I hope it works well.

[Bigsmoothlee]

Question, I just got a set of Ksports from Ebay.

I dont plan to lower my car much, maybe 0.5". Can I max out the camber in the rear without needing adjustable toe control arms?