What is the difference between Koni red and yellow struts/shocks?

 

Reds are single adjustable and yellows are double adjustable. Yellows are better but cost more.

 

"double adjustable"?

 

Yellows have a higher damper valving range than the reds. Yellows are more oriented for autox and performance street driving, reds are a step up from stock and still are not valved high enough to damper performance or racing spring frequencies (a.k.a.- rate of spring recoil. Stiffer springs need higher rebound force to counter act the frequency of the recoil)

Page 4 of this PDF file shows an example of how the reds Vs. Yellows damper forces overlap and compare. Both are adjustable, but Yellows are a stiffer range of adjustments. Reds are not worth the money you pay for the perfomance levels you get- Yellows are. IIf you want reds, I would recommend just buying KYB's.
Click on the technical catalog after clicking on this link.
http://www.koni-na.com/display.cfm

 

So the reds I bought (cheap) to compliment my Eibach sports are better off replaced with Yellows for primarily street use (some road course use though)? Damn!

 

On the softest setting, my Reds in front are ten times better than the KYB GR-2's I had. That was with stock springs. Now that I've finally put my my lowering springs in, I upped the settings to right around the middle and the car handles well. I now need to replace my rear shocks with something better. I put some Bilstein HDs in but they seem pretty worn out (traded them used for some other stuff), so I'll need to pick up some new shocks.

I did not pay new prices for my Reds either, they had like 1k miles on them and I paid $175/pair. I'm very happy with the results. If I had the money to spend, I'd have gone yellow, but I'm not disappointed at all. For mostly street use, I'd stick with the red ones. If you want things REAL stiff for road-racing/auto-x primarily, then go for the yellows.

 

I think I will take your advice. Reds first, maybe Yellows later. I got my NOS reds at a very reasonable cost on "the" auction site. I am still not too sure of how much adjustment to use for my application, or to just install the as is?

 

You can't possibly compare Koni reds to KYB's! The reds are very good dampers, the yellows are more oriented towards autocross and track days. The reds more the street / autocross. The yellows have more compression damping than the reds (compression on konis is not adjustable, only rebound is) and a higher range of rebound damping. They ride very rough on bumpy roads (i.e. streets) but of course give more control on a track and can damp very heavy springs.

 

The Reds are not as bad as some people make them out to be. Whats weird is people that bash the Reds in the past on these forums haven't even tried them! They have Yellows so they just say the Reds suck based off a PDF file and they arent worth it. Its a load of BS. I'm running them on my Z28 street car w/ stiffer and shorter springs than stock and they are working out great. The Reds are for the street (mild), the Yellows are for the track (extreme). The Yellows are all around better dont get me wrong, but the Reds aren't crap. They work great.

 

I have reds on a truck of mine because Koni does not offer a Yellow for that application- They suck for this application, I question about others as well..

 

well I think my KYB GR-2s seem to work just fine..?? better then the stockers I replaced.. (keep in mind I'm a 100% streeter here)

 

Anyone use the reds/yellows with sportlines? I'm looking to get new shocks...

 

One of the motorcycle suspension companies (Race Tech) has a slogan, "The best you've ridden is the best you know". Not to sound like a snob, but i don't consider KYB, gabriel, or monroe to be worth a penny. In my experience, they do more harm than good. One of the most enlightening experinces i had with shocks/struts in volved my fathers 86 (flying egg) taurus. At the time it was a good handling and riding sedan, somewhat of a breakthrough for american sedans ( I KNOW ITS A TAURUS-UGHH) but it did have a nice taught ride and stiff chassis. After a few years i felt the factory shocks going off so i talked him into Tokico's (hp, non adjsutable) and some goodyears. The difference was amazing, the car was much more responsive, had less brake dive and felt firmer, but you could pound over bumps with out really feeling them, and turning over rough roads, the wheels stayed planted. Very impressive. Fast forward several more years, he gave it to me, i was broke, and about to change careers. It needed struts so i cheaped out anf got gabriels. Literally ruined the car, they road soft and sloppy, the nose plummetted under braking (really bad in a FWD ) and you could have gotten a better ride over bumps with table legs in the wheel wells. With the Tokicos the car was fun to drive, much safer, and performed remarkably well. The Gabriels killed it. None of my non car friends ever believe me when i reccomend certain parts, premium tires, premium shocks, premium brakes, especially when they are hauling their families around, it drives me nuts. My 83 year old father dosen't question me anymore. Because he knows first hand the difference.

 

Yes, I share laiki's experience here, and he's right. Gabriel, monroe and the likings WILL "destroy" your cars handling if you ever had any really good shocks on it before.

My setup was a little different, although the results exactly the same. I had a R-sport (roadcourse) factory prepped volvo (don't laugh)240 with bilsteins on it. I drove that car REALLY hard, and I mean literally jumping the car off a cliff (for unsaid reasons) and thus managed to bend the shocks and struts.

Replacing them with new ones was too much for me at the time, and I went with gabriels up front, monroes at the back, and the cars handling was all gone.

This car had the handling none of the registered road cars at the time could match, in fact there used to be this challenge to try to beat this car on a certain woundy road, none could. Not even the cops with their excact same police packaged volvos, but without the R-sport treatment who often followed us could.

Good shocks is so insanely much better than run of the mill ones. It's not even funny how big the difference is. I'd trade 100 hp off my engine anyday to get the added handling, since your capaple of keeping your speed for so much longer around the turns it don't really matter.

I vote for Bilstein.

 

Does anyone know if the koni's will fit on an 84 trans am? The catalog ends at 81 and starts again in 85. Will the 85 onwards fit or are there suspension mods that rule this out? Thanks