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Koni's in Stock springs - how much ride height drop?


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05 OBXT, bone stock except 235/55/17 tires. Rear struts are blown, want to move to Koni's all-round on stock springs, but I also want to maintain stock height.

 

Haven't been able to find a whole lot, but one guy reports 1" drop front and rear with that setup.. so that could easily be made up with strut tophat spacers.

 

But then I saw another guy who ran the rear Koni's with OB height Kings standard height springs and dropped almost 2"

 

Does anyone here know how much drop to expect using stock OBXT springs all-round with Koni's?

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just so we are on the same page,

 

Koni makes front strut inserts for the Legacy shocks. I don't think you can put them in the OBXT shocks. So all else being equal, if you use your Outback springs and Koni inserts front / koni shocks for Legacy rear. The Outback struts are physically longer than the Legacy struts so that's where some (most?) of the extra height comes from.

 

You can expect to be slightly higher than a stock Legacy due to tire size and more spring shoved under the shock.

 

If you want to maintain stock height I think the best ride is typically new OEM replacement KYBs front, new OEM replacement KYBs for 00-04 Outback rear + King or Ralitek overlord spring.

 

Unfortunately nothing (except a kit from Japan) exists for upgraded shocks that keep the OEM ride height.

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The Koni inserts can fit into OB front struts, you just have to cut them shorter - they will end up the same effective length as the legacy struts, but the spring perch is higher so I can keep my tire clearance.

 

I know of 3 people who have used the Koni inserts and ended up with 1" or less drop in the front. Less drop was had when the donor struts were OB. 1" is no problem - just pop strut spacers in.

 

I'm concerned about the drop in the rear. I've seen only 2 reports of doing this.

 

The first, the guy said he used all his stock hardware and just swapped out his stock KYB for the Koni rear, and dropped 1" This is what I'm hoping for.

 

The second fellow did the same except used a OB Kings spring and he dropped more - closer to 2"

 

I just want to know if there's anyone around here that knows about this or has experience with Koni's in the rear.

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Do you know where he got his King springs? I have KSRS-29 and they raise the rear .5- 1inch? Is it possible he used a low version?

 

I also ran 1.5 inches of strut top spacer for many rears with no problems. So, worst comes to worst. You can just keep adding spacers until you get to the height you want.

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Right, that's why I was confused.. username lufusol at the subaruoutback forum. He said they were KSRS-29.

 

As for spacers, I thought about purchasing a 1" set of paranoid spacers for the rears and then using them as a template for a thinner sheet to shim up, maybe 1/4"HDPE....

 

but I don't know how I feel about stacking that sort of slippery material in layers. I know people have done it, but it doesn't seem very stable laterally and it could introduce slippage and shear across the top mount bolts. Do you think it's safe?

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The Koni inserts can fit into OB front struts, you just have to cut them shorter - they will end up the same effective length as the legacy struts, but the spring perch is higher so I can keep my tire clearance.

 

I know of 3 people who have used the Koni inserts and ended up with 1" or less drop in the front. Less drop was had when the donor struts were OB. 1" is no problem - just pop strut spacers in.

 

I'm concerned about the drop in the rear. I've seen only 2 reports of doing this.

 

The first, the guy said he used all his stock hardware and just swapped out his stock KYB for the Koni rear, and dropped 1" This is what I'm hoping for.

 

The second fellow did the same except used a OB Kings spring and he dropped more - closer to 2"

 

I just want to know if there's anyone around here that knows about this or has experience with Koni's in the rear.

 

No ob and lg fronts are not the same, the OB front has a longer housing below the bottom spring perch. That's why the OB guys are only getting less than a 1in drop in front. The konis stroke is still the same as an LG, so you're effectively running a spacer in front with OB strut housings. The rear konis, which as lg length, need such a tall spacer (at least 1in with overload springs) to even out with the front.

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Yes, I'm not too worried about getting the fronts up to stock height. I'm just trying to figure out my strategy for getting the spacing right... I suppose the best thing to do is just install without spacers and measure. Then tear down a second time to install the proper sizes. I'd rather have them at the ready beforehand and do it all in one shot but it looks like I really won't be able to anticipate what's going to happen.
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