Bootyologist

I used the eibach pro springs with a 1" strut spacer to retain ride height or most of it. I lost about a half inch probably a bit less. But the car handles much better.

how did you go about removing and reinstalling the studs? I tried pounding one out of an old mount just for shits and giggles and it wouldnt budge.

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Good work guys, this is awesome, but if there are some of you who want to jump on Konis now, don't be afraid to go the full WRX route with front spacers or lowering rear Spring perch. I see no reason to wait and the full assemblies are waaaaay easier to deal with than Inserts I assume and less margin for error!! Love my KONIS

Did you ever get a bracket fabbed for the sensor cable?

whelp. THMotorsports canceled my order on the AVO front LCA bushings cuz they didnt have it in stock like their site said and I guess they couldnt get any more in at the price they were trying to sell it for. I tried to save a few bucks and didnt go directly through AVO. I've got a new order in with AVO TurboWorld this time..

They cancelled my order of Koni inserts back in September even though their site said they had a bunch. They offered to get me them from somewhere else for substantially more. Uhhhh, no.

I haven't finished dialing mine in, I really only got a couple week of driving with my summer tires once everything was settled and aligned. The spring and the spring rates are going to make a difference.

 

I currently have mine at 3/4 in the front, 1/4 in the rear. I have been meaning to adjust them further to dial them in for the colder winter temps, but I misplace my Koni knob and the other 3 knobs are in my garage attic. This means I have to move my stored truck & boat around to get access.

I keep one in my glovebox for on the fly adjustments

Oh man, I'd be paranoid that the vibrating cable on the metal bracket would eat through the cable jacket and cause some issues.

I'm going to tear the struts apart when it warms up and make sure there isn't any play in the bolt holding the insert into the donor. Also might replace the kyb mounts with OEM even though they're brand new. End links have just been replaced, still rattles.

My independent mechanic and Subaru have both looked at the car. They both say the rest of the suspension is fine and they can't find where the rattles are coming from.

Much frustration.

So first thing guys

So how did you attach the abs sensor cable and brake lines? My noisy Koni inserts are driving me absolutely insane. I'm contemplating getting the WRX struts or holding out for a legacy specific version.

These guys going in today on Whit's Wed

Just curious, what type of spring compressor are you using?

 

Edit- forgot to mention I planned on using spacers but didn't want to deal with changing studs or buying more expensive top hats with longer studs. So if I can get some 1/8" - 1/4" spacers should get by without using new studs. Haven't really researched the studs yet because I'm still not quite sure when I'll get to do suspension with a wedding planned for later this year it's hard to set aside finances.

Subtle solutions has 1/4" spacers for $25 and you don't need to use longer studs with them.

Are you worried this intake might damage your engine in anyway? I am looking at this intake myself but am not sure if i want to pay for the part and the dyno/tune. Is a tune even completely necessary?

I'll sell you mine. It was only used for 6 months. Maybe put 5k miles on it.

If you left the donor struts tubes too long, the Konis wouldn't bottom out in the strut tube. The Konis flare out wider at the top and won't go in all the way if the tubes are left too long. Are you certain that's correct?

When I installed the inserts, I used a set of longer bolts to pull the inserts all the way in. I made sure they were bottomed out inside the donor. I might have to rip them apart in the spring to check them out. Man..

Edit... Derp, I don't need to take the struts apart. Just need to remove them in order to get the bottom bolt out to scope out that situation.

What bolts are you using to hold the inserts into the struts? I hope the ones that came with the Konis.

Absolutely. I made sure they were tight when I put on the eibachs on in November. I read somewhere that the bolts could be too long so they bottom out inside the insert before they actually tighten everything down. I can't imagine Koni would provide bolts that are too long though, which makes me think this isn't the source of the rattles.

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I wouldn't think so. Lots of people are running coilovers with higher spring rates and the instance of end link failure doesn't appear elevated.

We'll, replaced my end links with Moog's. Still got rattles. Gonna wait till spring to take the konis off to swap out shorter bolts that hold the inserts in.

Any other ideas on what else to look for? Seems too loud to be worn caliper slide pins.

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There are so many sharp bits inside that seat!

I was going to do the bungee cord thing, but my wire support was already attached to the seat back foam with some sort of metal hoops that I couldn't figure out how to remove. (I should have taken pics) Didn't poke around with it too much since I didn't want to tear the foam.

Because of this, I wasn't able to completely remove the metal wire support structure when stuffing the seat. I had to disconnect the lumbar cable hooks then shift around the back wire support. Wasn't a big deal at all, just different than what was shown in the original post. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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I just did this. Holy effing crap this might become one of my favorite mods! Especially since it was free. Used an old memory foam mattress pad we no longer had on the bed. Minivan seats be gone!

Blklgt05, you're a freaking genius! Thank you so much for writing this up.

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I got the car new, I think it might be one of the first two dealership lumbar support repair. Looks like they removed that white protective cover. After that hook broker for the 3rd time I repaired it myself lol.

Lol that's fantastic. "how are we gonna fix this?? Uhhhhh, go grab that door mat.”

Oh I see, that's just part of the original cushion/support I believe.

That's a section of carpet. someone else must have been poking around in there before you

This is what it normally looks like.

Not quite understanding the object you are describing, are you talking about the leather seat gap filler that's between the seat and center console section?

This thing

What's with the section of shag carpet that you have in your seat??

Thanks for doing this, btw! Too bad it's freakin 4 degrees out right now. Might have to attempt this when we have a heat wave of 30 next week.

End links..

So does my theory of rock hard suspension and super rough roads leading to premature failure of endlinks hold any water?

End links. I had the stock end links on my Forester give out at about 55k miles. Switched to Moogs and it's been nice and quiet.

 

When you stiffen up the Koni's, its basically limiting, or slowing, movement. On soft the suspension can flop around more and shock the end links into making noise with the quick, undampened motions of the suspension on small bumps and alligatored pavement.

Awesome, that's what I was really hoping for. I'll have my mechanic do them when I go in for an alignment next week.

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So I've been trying to track down the front end rattles since I installed the Konis a couple months ago. I think they may have existed when I had the Bilstein/Black combo, but it was such a stiff setup that the entire car made noise on bumps. The rattle comes from both sides of the front end, and mostly only happens over larger bumps such as potholes. I can feel it in my feet when I hit bumps on the driver side.

Here's where I'm at with troubleshooting:

New tophats were installed with the Konis in September. Conical washers and top spring perch are in the correct orientation. The bolt on the bottom of the donors are tight. Donors were not cut too short as the nubs on the inserts are well below the top of the donor top. When I assembled the struts, I made sure the inserts bottomed out inside of the donor strut tubes.

A few weeks ago I made the switch from RCE springs to Eibach. When doing so, I inspected the area around the top of the donor to make sure there was no movement. The yellow paint on the insert was still in great condition and there was no evidence of the insert moving around inside the donor. (I recently found the post in the technical threads where the guy cut the donors too short and you can see that the paint on the Koni has rubbed off).

One member mentioned that the bolts on the bottom of the insert could be bottoming out inside of hole which would give the insert some vertical play inside the donor. The lack of paint scraping on the insert says this isn’t happening. I was going to get some shorter bolts when I had everything apart, but since there was no paint damage, I opted in not doing so, which was a dumb decision on my part. Since the rattles persisted after removing the struts and swapping springs, I can pretty much rule out loose bolts on the struts, top hat, etc.

I had the 14+ sway bar installed a year and a half ago with new bushings and new oem endlinks, so all of that is new. I’ve checked all nuts/bolts and everything is tight.

I have a set of new moog endlinks that I’ve thought about installing, but the current ones need to be cut off (thanks road salt) and I’m not about to crawl around on a slush/salt covered cold garage floor while it’s 5 below zero outside. I would assume that the rock hard Bilstein/Black combo on super rough roads could destroy endlinks rather quickly. Visually, the boots on the links are ok. No tears, no leaking grease.

My mechanic has looked over the front end and cannot find the source. I’m thinking maybe control arm bushings, but the car only has 59k on it. They still visually look ok. No deep cracks, etc. Would tie rod ends or ball joints make noise? Again, low mileage car, but the Bilsteins/rough roads could have prematurely killed suspension bits?

The odd part of all of this is that the rattling is much worse when the Konis are set to soft. If I go half turn and under, the noise is awful. I cranked it to 3/4 of a turn last night and the rattles are almost gone. Why would the noise dissipate when on a stiffer setting? That does not make sense in my simple brain. I would assume stiffer suspension = more rattling.

I’ve read through all of the Koni related posts and have not seen anyone with the same issue. So confused as to what to look into next. It’s insanely frustrating.

Congrats on your new car, again [emoji14]

 

How far are you from the lake up here? I might pickup the struts instead of you having to ship them to someone.

Shipping for just the fronts should be relatively cheap. I shipped my Bilsteins, front and rear, across the country for like $40

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Crap, I didn't know about this at all. Can you please explain exactly how you did it? Thanks

I've never heard this either. GTeaser, any insight on this?

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^^^ On those rubber sleeves, the end with the lip goes up, and the lip gets inserted in the little slot right under the cap on the top of the Koni insert.

crap, i have mine slid down as well. i bet i can get to them with the struts on the car...