View Full Version : Time for new coilovers
Ok, had the suspension apart today and refitted the exhaust system.
Guess what? Yea, the AVO's have started to leak again. This is the fifth time now. They've been okay for ages but have decided they want to go back to AVO for a holiday and refurb again. Little ****ers.
I think it's time for a change, maybe keep the AVO's and send them off to get done again, or sell them, not sure yet.
So, I have been considering buying a set of AST Sportline's, a monotube damper at about £1200.
Another option is one I would never consider normally but they seem to have picked up their game with these: GAZ Gold's for the Willy. They are twin tube, but less pricey at about £816 delivered.
Two more I am thinking about are the H&R's and the KW V2...though there seem to be two versions of these, which I guess are set for road or track use. The prices are all sub £1k.
The AST's would be nice but are pricey, and after my recent spending spree chasing big BHP figures I am thinking of curbing expenditure and saving up for trackday fun instead.
If youve spent about 20k on the car you may as well put some proper suspension on. I had some avos and I didn't rate them.
Maybe would have bid on the ohlins on the bay the otehr day, but had no idea the AVO's were failing at the time other than shit handling.
them ohlins went for a ridiculous price, £1400 on used suspension for an old car no thanks :roll:
out of the ones you've listed i would go with the kw v2 with rear shocks , a friend has the kw v3's on his car and the handling is superb but they are bloody stiff lol :D
btw the 2 different versions of the kw's that are available are prices with or without rear shocks :D ( go for the ones with matched rear shocks :wink: )
H&R are non adjustable and dont come with rear shocks either....
Hey Jay mate, thanks for the info! Need to get the best price for the KW's then...oooh fun fun. It's Xmas come early for Wobba again :)
http://www.motorsportworld.co.uk/detprod.asp?productcode=KW-15290012&PID=236603 :D
Hhehee!!
http://www.lkperformance.co.uk/Coilover_Kits/KW_Variant_2_Coilovers/KW/237420
that's a good price mate, probably the best your gonna get on the v2's :D
I've got KW V2 and really rate them even though they are twin tube. The damping/spring stiffness really suits fast road/track day use. Body roll has been greatly reduced and turn-in response is better, but I had a very tired suspension before so I had silly body roll, proper side mirrors almost touching the tarmac...
They don't have to be super stiff, I find that if I set them to the minimum they are quite comfortable, even with a full Powerflex black kit (hardest compound) and solid top mounts.
My car is in Portugal so it doesn't really make a difference for me, but they are made from stainless steel which, considering the weather in the UK, might be a good feature.
You should bear in mind that the rear shocks that come in the full kit are Koni sports. They didn't even bother changing the sticker on them in the kit they sent me. But so far they have performed faultlessly.
One thing you should consider is that they are only one-way adjustable, whereas the GAZ Gold are two-way adjustable. Depending on what you're going to use them for might make a difference.
Hope it helps :wink:
them ohlins went for a ridiculous price, £1400 on used suspension for an old car no thanks :roll:
out of the ones you've listed i would go with the kw v2 with rear shocks , a friend has the kw v3's on his car and the handling is superb but they are bloody stiff lol :D
Not a rediculous price when they cost 4500 grand new..!!! KW's are good but no good for a competition car not being monotube. Well unless you get the KW monotube's which are 5k.!!
BTW those Ohlins are as good as new after having the dampers tested on the dyno.. :D
Nice Evo, did wonder who got them.
I don't really need rears right now. The AVO ones have been fine, so I may get the Koni rears separately at a later sate and try some new Hankook RS2's as well with the savings!
I've seen the rears for about £85 each delivered.
them ohlins went for a ridiculous price, £1400 on used suspension for an old car no thanks :roll:
out of the ones you've listed i would go with the kw v2 with rear shocks , a friend has the kw v3's on his car and the handling is superb but they are bloody stiff lol :D
Not a rediculous price when they cost 4500 grand new..!!! KW's are good but no good for a competition car not being monotube. Well unless you get the KW monotube's which are 5k.!!
BTW those Ohlins are as good as new after having the dampers tested on the dyno.. :D
haha, i did wonder if it was you who bought them :D i will agree that for a competition car like yours then suspension of that spec will be beneficial but for wobba who isn't competing and just wants to get a few trackdays under his belt the kw v'2 will fit the bill perfect without needing any regular attention etc . interesting that they come with koni rear shocks , i bet the fronts house konis as well in that case making them the same as the fk's..... ( just slightly better build quality probably :lol: )
http://www.ast-suspension.com/images/products/sportline1.jpg
The AST's may be the last word in suspension without having them specially made though, and I hate compromise...so may order them. Will think on it tonight.
http://www.ast-suspension.com/images/products/sportline1.jpg
KWs are just Koni damper revalved, Just like H&R are Bilsteins revanved.....
Personally get the Bilstein / HR coilovers, fit and forget on a roadcar...!
99% decided on a new set of front and rear KW V2's.
They have great reviews and although I hear they can be a bit soft for hard track use, I am not often on track and I can just put these 350lb springs on I happen to have here when needed anyway.
Will get the AVO's refurbed. They are not leaking as bad as I thought, it just looks like a gradual thing, but will probably keepthem in the event I ever need a straight swap out to get the KW's fixed/refurbed.
Was going to getthe AST's but I've read some stupid build times and refurb times and I can't be having that. One good thing about AVO is they always fixed them within 2 days for free so far as well.
stevie_b
28-03-2011, 09:33
Personally get the Bilstein / HR coilovers, fit and forget on a roadcar...!
I'm pretty happy with the Bilsteins I have on another (non-Clio) car. However, just to share experiences, they may not be completely 'fit and forget' as mine have a small leak now. 20-odd k from new (so not leaking as quickly as those AVOs seem to need redoing!) and that's with mainly road use (the odd track day and a few dozen laps of the 'Ring). They can be rebuilt though for around £100 a corner.
Ohlins :wink:
Would love to have the budget for a proper set of tarmac spec ohlins for my car!
They list the B14 Bilsteins as being available for the Clio Willy
http://www.oreca-store.com/kits-suspension-bilstein-b14-pss-b16-pss9.html
This can't be right, surely?
Ohlins :wink:
Would love to have the budget for a proper set of tarmac spec ohlins for my car!
Will let you know...:wink:
Well, about to put my order in for a full set of KW V2's.
Got them down to £934.99
Got new inner and outer track rods to swap and wishbones as well. I am going back to Willy wishbones, not R19.
Got to get new sticky rubber too but Camskill are almost completely out of stock of trackday stuff :(
After this I'll get the tracking set up, then probably ruin it all messing about with the height etc again lol :lol:
Yay!
got them down to that....shit me mate, what was retail on them????
Think i will stick with my avos!
Retail is just over £1k I think, dunno. I see them for sale mainly at a slight discount so usually about £977 plus delivery.
The AVO's have been okay since their last overhaul, but they need another due to general wear and tear now.
I was going to sort the handling out next anyway, the AVO's showing they are leaking has just made me do it sooner.
When I swap them over I will do a little review for us and take some piccies of the kit :)
Why do you want to reduce your caster by going back to Willy arms instead of the R19 ones?
Thats undoing one of the best mods you can do for a clio IMHO
It's no huge loss. If I don't like it I can just swap them back and stick new balljoints on.
I also run solid adjustable top mounts to can mess about with caster and camber with them as well.
Ive got the AST top mounts on one of my clios but the amount of adjustment they actually give is pretty small, so I would hate to lose so much caster out the bottom.
Depends how you like your cars setup though, personally I like a LOT of caster.
£1k!??? your loaded Wobba!
£1k!??? your loaded Wobba!
Nah. I USED to be loaded :D
Ive got the AST top mounts on one of my clios but the amount of adjustment they actually give is pretty small, so I would hate to lose so much caster out the bottom.
Depends how you like your cars setup though, personally I like a LOT of caster.
I know what you mean but having run it max caster for a bit, then dialling it out again, I realised I kinda preferred it not wanting to snatch itself so violently back to the straight-ahead position all the time.
The fun thing with the AST's is you can try all the options to a slight degree to get a practical understanding of how it all works. I'm loving my negative camber tbh, can't do without it :D
By the way, for those of you who may be interested. I got a reply from Oreca in France regarding their listing for Bilstein B14 suspension for the Clio Williams, which I queried:
Hello,
We can supply B14 suspension for your car:
530EURE03 KIT SUSP PSS B14 REN CLIO I 2.0 16S / WILLIAMS retail: 897.99€ + VAT
Lowering is 20/40, and we have one kit in stock. Shipment to UK (assuming it is your location) is 34€ + VAT.
Cordialement / Best Regards
Xavier DAUPHIN
Export Sales
ORECA Group - The Motorsport Company
Tél. : + 33 (0) 494 885 793
Fax. : + 33 (0) 494 328 001
http://www.oreca.fr/
Ive got the AST top mounts on one of my clios but the amount of adjustment they actually give is pretty small, so I would hate to lose so much caster out the bottom.
Depends how you like your cars setup though, personally I like a LOT of caster.
I know what you mean but having run it max caster for a bit, then dialling it out again, I realised I kinda preferred it not wanting to snatch itself so violently back to the straight-ahead position all the time.
The fun thing with the AST's is you can try all the options to a slight degree to get a practical understanding of how it all works. I'm loving my negative camber tbh, can't do without it :D
If you run a lot of negative camber anyway, the caster is less useful to you.
You mean because of the extra camber generated by the caster when turning. Yea. I guess so.
You mean because of the extra camber generated by the caster when turning. Yea. I guess so.
Yeah the whole point of the caster is to introduce camber dynamically when you turn into a bend, if you have lots of neg in the first place, you can end up with too much as a cumulative effect between the two.
I like to run a lot of caster and not a lot of static neg, I prefer the feel of it that way and its better for straightline grip pulling out of bends and braking, especially in the wet.
If you have too much neg you end up not using half the tyre on the straights, with caster at least the neg only appears when required.
The KW's had to be made up and sent over from Germany. Should be with me in a week.
Not sure if too keep the AVO's or not. Always handy to have a spare set of adjustables in case one goes wrong.
KW's arrived yesterday.
Really nice piece of kit. The finish is top notch. Had issues with the Koni rears as the instructions don't mention how to adjust them correctly, but all sorted now.
There is a slotted top bolt hole for camber adjustment, which is handy, and they look like they can take a beating. Sturdy for sure.
I will try and install at the weekend, along with the other replacement parts I have.
KW's arrived yesterday.
Really nice piece of kit. The finish is top notch. Had issues with the Koni rears as the instructions don't mention how to adjust them correctly, but all sorted now.
There is a slotted top bolt hole for camber adjustment, which is handy, and they look like they can take a beating. Sturdy for sure.
I will try and install at the weekend, along with the other replacement parts I have.
KW's are Koni dampers, just revalved....
Just a quick note on these after a while playing with them: The main springs are too soft for me personally, exaggerated by the softer side-walled tyre I am now using. There is too much roll.
At some stage I will uprate the springs.
Another update. I am in talks (or emails) with a guy at KW about the performance of this kit. Although the springs are rated at about 340 lb, the car rolls a heck of a lot more than my AVO's on 350 lb springs. I've had to adapt the driving style to slow in, medium-fast out as the car is less stable if I throw it into a bed the way I usually did on the AVO's or J&R's.
With harder spring I think they will have much better performance.
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