Koni Touring Shocks 82-2610

[jengum]

I ordered the touring shocks with my complete MK4 kit after reading about the stiff ride characteristics with the red colored Koni's. The touring shocks shipped with the kit are silver bodied color, koni number 82-2610 and labeled as adjustable on the shock body. I wanted to check the as shipped settings for all 4 shocks prior to installation and reached out to koni product support for adjustment instructions. They advised me that these shocks were internally adjustable by removing the upper shock components, bottoming out the shock and engaging the internal adjustment mechanism. I verified this with one of the shocks from my kit and counted 2-3/4 revolutions from the full CCW stop to full CW stop. So my question is does anyone have any real world adjustment settings for these touring shocks if they ordered these as an option in their MK4 complete kit? My current plan is to keep a stiff rebound setting and back off 1/4 revolution from the full CW stop for all 4 shocks. The coil springs shipped with the kit are 400# front and 300# rear and I'm not planning to install stabilizer bars. The car will strictly be street driven. I could not find much discussion in the forums about the touring shocks option for the MK4. Thanks.

[jengum]

Thought I would check again...anybody running the touring shocks with some mileage on the road? I was interested in some tuning settings.

The shocks were all shipped at the full CCW position for softest rebound setting. I changed plans and set them at the mid-range position (1-1/2 CW turns from full CCW position). Thanks in advance.

[Jeff Kleiner]

The rebound setting regulates how quickly the shock is allowed to return to it's "neutral" (i.e. neither being compressed or extended) position by the spring pressure. If the rebound is slowed too much (by going up from the softest setting) the shocks will actually be able to "jack the car down" on rapidly repeating road irregularities because they won't allow the springs to get the shocks back to "neutral" before they get compressed again. Generally we only up the rebound settings when going to higher rated springs...for example when I changed to 750# front and 500# rears on my Mk3 I bumped the rebound higher. I'm not familiar with the valving in the touring shocks but given the soft springs I'd suggest keeping the rebound on the lowest setting, at least as a starting point until you are able to drive the car and determine if you have a need to increase it.

Jeff

[CraigS]

Have you called FFR? Reason I ask is I remember when FFR brought out the red Konis they actually worked w/ Koni on the springs and shocks tuning. I don't know if they worked w/ Koni on the touring shocks but I am pretty sure they at least have their own experience running them.

[PMD24]

I spoke with FFR tech about this when I was doing my shock installation. They advised that the shocks are intended as only adjustable on compression. based on that input I elected to not mess with the rebound.

Pat

[jengum]

Yes I called FFR about the touring shocks since the shock body said adjustable on it. They started explaining the adjustment procedure for the red Koni shocks with the clicker setup and I explained again these were the silver bodied touring shocks. After a brief hold the tech came back and said they were not adjustable and I questioned them why the shock body would say adjustable on it. I didn't get any further so I got curious and went to YT and found the Koni adjustment procedures for all their shocks. The red Koni's are externally adjustable versus the silver touring which are internally adjustable. I followed the Koni instructions and found the full travel stops from CCW to CW. I was hesitant to call FFR back about the tuning settings after their initial response. My touring shocks were shipped in the full CCW stop position for the softest rebound setting. I'm not clear if they came that way directly from Koni or if they were placed in that position by FFR.

[CraigS]

That is disappointing.

[jengum]

Here is an update on the touring shock package after further investigation with both FFR and Koni shocks product support.

The FFR touring shock package was developed in collaboration with Koni shocks.

The touring shocks are shipped from the Koni factory at the softest rebound setting as per Koni's recommendation. End users may wish to check the as shipped setting prior to installation.

Koni product support also mentioned that if the vehicle is driven on track or the driver wants a more aggressive handling package, most people find the optimum setting in the 1/2 to one full turn from the full soft range.

HTH