Ordered a KW V3 Kit

Marcoose

Senior member
San Francisco, CA
Definitely the HR springs are far too harsh, totally incompatible with the stock shocks.

The KW came to US$3,000 plus postage. Ouch. 8-10 weeks for delivery. A Christmas gift. :lol:

Can’t wait.
 
WIll be interested to see what you think :thumbsup:

I've gone with Ohlins as they have a higher ride height and get a good press from many for their capablities foremost on road rather than track..
 

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I went on my indy’s recommendation. He’s got KW on his 600 and swears by it.

The KW brochure says
Front Lowering: 0.6" to 1.6"
Rear Lowering: 0.4" to 1.4"
I'll probably set to the minimums. I don’t like too low ride heights.

Are the Ohlins easily adjustable ? My indy says KW are easy to adjust, even without a lift. How much yours cost ?

BTW, former 126 owner here. :driving: :rofl:
 
Marcoose said:
I went on my indy’s recommendation. He’s got KW on his 600 and swears by it.

The KW brochure says
Front Lowering: 0.6" to 1.6"
Rear Lowering: 0.4" to 1.4"
I'll probably set to the minimums. I don’t like too low ride heights.

Are the Ohlins easily adjustable ? My indy says KW are easy to adjust, even without a lift. How much yours cost ?

BTW, former 126 owner here. :driving: :rofl:

On the Ohlins its a 5mm drop on the front only.

Like a lot of A versus B discussions there are protagonists on both sides.

I and no-one I know has ever had a bad thing to say about Ohlins products, whereas there have been various comments on the KWs..maybe people didn't know what they were geting into..

Damping is easy to adjust on the roadside..views are that once you've dialled it you tend to leave it alone, not because its difficult to adjust but the factory settings tend to be spot on..alledged to give a much more compliant ride compared to KW, but maybe not the ultimate smooth track option...here in Scotland not many smooth tracks..

They were about £2k with a bit of negotiation.

Are you going to code out your adaptive damping or use dongles?

Ref Fiat 126..yes 62 mph flat out..hand throttle as well (better than cruise)..took me 50 miles to overtake an artic (semi) once on the freeway, everytime I came alongside the wind of his nose blew me back..happy days..
 
The 126 was all frisson in the twisties of the Mediterranean coast.

I’m going to use a dongle, or ‘idiot delete’ as the indy calls it.
 
Marcoose said:
The 126 was all frisson in the twisties of the Mediterranean coast.

I’m going to use a dongle, or ‘idiot delete’ as the indy calls it.

Ohlins offers a similar option but I’m going to try the disconnection of the hardware ECU and then re-program it to remove it from the vehicle order.
 
B21 said:
Marcoose said:
Two weeks gone. Six to 8 to go.

Indy got his in 5 or so.

Can’t wait.

My Ohlins being fitted now.. :driving:


Be careful with the VO delete if you do, i'e seen a few people having issues with it, i think there was a thread on spoolstreet about a proper way to do it, disconnect two wires by ecu and then code out in kombi rather than VO. however could of just been those individual cars.

With my KWV3's i got the delete kit, but will be getting rid of it at some point as parts had been damaged in fire and just repaired them slightly to avoid constant errors for now.

One less thing to think about going wrong under the car to be honest if you just code out and tape up / silicone up the end of the connectors or even remove all the way back to where it connects.

As for performance my KWv3 along with H&R ARB's on track have been a hugeeeeeee upgrade and phenomenal.

Would be interesting to see a side by side comparison between the ohlins and KW's though.
 
Heres the thread about coding them out from spool street chaps:

https://www.spoolstreet.com/threads/diy-coding-out-edc-on-e89-z4-with-protool.5719/
 
Out of interest..on the KW 'coilovers' are the rear set 'coilovers' or are they a damper and separate spring?

Have to say I felt slighly conned when I discovered after the event that on the Ohlins 'coilovers' the fronts are 'coilovers' but the rears are a pre-load adjustable spring that fits in place of the stock spring..

Since by defintion a macpherson strut is a coil over there's a lot of hype and not much content on the 'coilovers'..
 
I reckon I know what you mean. I’ve seen an installation video, and if we’re talking the same stuff, I reckon you’re right.

The kit isn’t here yet. Here’s a marketing picture.

D75170A5-D504-45F1-B402-875F101FEFF0.jpeg
 
Ah yes..same basic picture as the Ohlins..

So that’s why the rear spring is not shown mounted over the damper…cause it’s not mounted over the damper :headbang:

We had all sorts of fun and games trying to mount the rear spring over the damper..none of the parts seemed to fit.. :tumbleweed:

A subsequent phone call to the vendor who said he didn’t specifically know about that Ohlins set up but made the observation that many coilover kits do not have a coilover on the rear suspension… :thumbsdown:
 
Six weeks down. Two to four weeks to pull.

I’ve phoned them last week. No particular delays due to the global supply chain disruption. And the kit will come from Germany.

Weird, the ill-fitted H&R springs don’t bother me as much anymore. I must be getting used to them. :lol:
 
B21 said:
Ah yes..same basic picture as the Ohlins..

So that’s why the rear spring is not shown mounted over the damper…cause it’s not mounted over the damper :headbang:

We had all sorts of fun and games trying to mount the rear spring over the damper..none of the parts seemed to fit.. :tumbleweed:

A subsequent phone call to the vendor who said he didn’t specifically know about that Ohlins set up but made the observation that many coilover kits do not have a coilover on the rear suspension… :thumbsdown:

Reason being that the body is not designed to take the spring load where the damper mounts. If you fit a true-coilover on the rear you would be advised to reinforce the strut tower or risk punching through it. Not many people want to do that hence why most 'coilovers', for these types of chassis at least, are damper/barrel arrangement.
 
TomK said:
B21 said:
Ah yes..same basic picture as the Ohlins..

So that’s why the rear spring is not shown mounted over the damper…cause it’s not mounted over the damper :headbang:

We had all sorts of fun and games trying to mount the rear spring over the damper..none of the parts seemed to fit.. :tumbleweed:

A subsequent phone call to the vendor who said he didn’t specifically know about that Ohlins set up but made the observation that many coilover kits do not have a coilover on the rear suspension… :thumbsdown:

Reason being that the body is not designed to take the spring load where the damper mounts. If you fit a true-coilover on the rear you would be advised to reinforce the strut tower or risk punching through it. Not many people want to do that hence why most 'coilovers', for these types of chassis at least, are damper/barrel arrangement.

TomK ..makes sense, at the same time I see kits with strut tower re-inforcing plates (maybe front only)..

Anyway had me and my tech fooled for a few hours..
 
Marcoose said:
Six weeks down. Two to four weeks to pull.

I’ve phoned them last week. No particular delays due to the global supply chain disruption. And the kit will come from Germany.

Weird, the ill-fitted H&R springs don’t bother me as much anymore. I must be getting used to them. :lol:

The good news is coming from Germany you will have very precise data and reasons why its going to be late!!

My TTE500 turbos arrived today direct from Germany. Ordered 13/11/2021..not too shabby..

Unlike my CF tail spoiler from China..no sign yet..
 

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B21 said:
makes sense, at the same time I see kits with strut tower re-inforcing plates (maybe front only)..
No, plates from underneath won't really help matters, needs boxing in from the top or tying into a cage really.
Front reinforcement plates do very little. They are used only to spread the load from shocks with solid top mounts (such as kw CS) which tend to be quite small relatively and obviously solid metal, they can cause issues for the strut tower tops.

B21 said:
Anyway had me and my tech fooled for a few hours..
Picturing it now :D
 
The bastards threw us with a fully threaded shock body and fully threaded preload adjusters..pity they weren’t the same diameters :headbang:
 
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