I went to install some used coilovers this weekend on a car and then they showed up, they turned out to be almost completely useless.

The guy has Koni Yellows and had picked up a used RK Sport sleeve kit to put on them. He clearly wasn't looking for a cheap solution and normally there's nothing wrong with used suspension parts so everything should have gone well.

Not knowing what to look for though, when they got to my place to the install, that's when it was discovered what garbage the parts were.

I'm making this post so people in the future can find it in a search and get an idea of what to look for when picking up used coilovers.

First off, make sure you have all the parts that are supposed to be included in the set. Generally, this means the following:

A pair of rear sleeves.
A pair of damper adapters for those rear sleeves. These are basically aluminum rings about half an inch thick that fits snug over the body of the rear dampers. The rear sleeves sit on these. They may be stuck up in the rear sleeves when you get them.
A pair of rear springs.
A pair of front sleeves.
A large thick washer that the front sleeve will sit on.
If you get the kit already on some struts, ensure that the front sleeves and the giant washer they're sitting on can be slid up on the strut body. The ones we were trying to remove were solidly corroded to the strut and after hammering away at them for nearly an hour, I managed to move them less than 2 mm.
A pair of top hats for the front springs.
A pair of brass washers about the diameter of the top of the top hat and about 2 mm thick.
4 thin washers the same size (these are bearing races and you need 2 on each top hat.
A pair of thrust bearings. These look like the thin washers but with little rollers set into them.

4 adjustable spring perches. And this is a key point... make sure you can loosen the bolt on each perch and freely thread it in and out. If the bolts are stripped or cross threaded then the perches may be garbage. On the ones we were working on yesterday, several of the bolts were completely rounded out and impossible to turn. Looking at the perches, you could see that they'd been previously torched to remove them.

Remember... if you're adjusting your coilovers, you should NEVER remove the bolt entirely from the spring perches and if ever you do by accident, be VERY careful to ensure you don't cross-thread it when putting it back in.

NEVER adjust your coilovers without cleaning them first. You don't want dirt getting ground into any of the threads. This includes the threads of the tightening bolts. Brake cleaner does a good job of cleaning things up.

Always make sure your allen key is properly seated in the bolts before turning them. Again, you want to ensure they're clean so they can seat properly. Shoot the brake cleaner right into the bolt head.

Never overtighten the bolts. Once you can't spin the perch by hand anymore, you really don't need more than another quarter-turn of the bolt to tighten it. Any more than a half-turn will probably start doing some damage.

Some of this was common Sense, but Awesome for anyone whose buying coilovers! Thanks Wiesel!

Sticky?

A lot of common sense only seems that obvious in hindsight.

No need for a sticky. If people looking to buy some don't do any searching first... well a sticky probably wouldn't have helped them either. At least now the info is here.

Unfourtantely this was on my car

I just want to say thanks to Weasel though for helping me out so much with all of this

Also, sorry for the double post, but just for dramatic effect:



One of the perches...

awesome post wease! still workin on that FAq i sent ya a while back?

also just catchin up, but congrats on making your engine "whine"

Yeah, I knocked a piece off that collar but it was already split apart from the torch.

Event: Thanks bro! And to be honest.... I'd almost forgotten about that page! I spent days editing and formatting it and then got too busy to keep at it. I'll dig into more this week and get it posted ASAP!

wow that sucks man


i did a suspension swap for a guy here , and the struts ended up being blown out , car rode like hell , and his g/f was about to kick his arse cause it rode so bad



sometimes used stuff doesnt pay off