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Ktec coilovers to bouncy! how to stiffen up?



  Clio 172 ph2
hiya running ktec coilovers but on the rear they seem to be really bouncy so over bumps my wheels catch a little any way to stiffen them up so not so bouncy?
 

Daniel

ClioSport Moderator
  Whichever has fuel
Buy better ones?

There's a reason they're cheap. And it's not because they're a bargain!
 
Aren't 'Ktec coilovers' them old Raceland ones that were about £180 for a set - just rebranded and had about £200 added to the price?
 
  Clio 172 ph2
there 350 quid lol, not cheap to some cars but yeah i know what you mean. could buy some new rear shocks what do people rate best?
 

Daniel

ClioSport Moderator
  Whichever has fuel
there 350 quid lol, not cheap to some cars but yeah i know what you mean. could buy some new rear shocks what do people rate best?

It's all budget and application dependant.

Why don't you want standard ones?
 

Daniel

ClioSport Moderator
  Whichever has fuel
As long as they're not s**t euro car part copies and they're not leaking, yes!
 
  172
To cut a long post short: my money is on failed/failing dampers producing only a fraction of the damping force that they were designed to.
 
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  Clio 172 ph2
To cut a long post short: my money is on failed/failing dampers producing only a fraction of the damping force that they were designed to.
cant be mate, my friend fitted ktec coilovers as well and had exact same problem. id say just because there cheap
 
  172
1 other person in the entire world having the same problem as you is not conclusive proof LOL. In the same way as plenty of happy ktec customers (I gather they all exist on this Renault UK club thing) doesn't prove that you're not having issues.

But that's irrelevant because I still kind of agree with you. "Cheap" doesn't necessarily mean the manufacturer can't do the maths/theory to pick spring/damping rates just as well as AST (gold dust as far as CS is concerned). The Engineers at Renault will be no less qualified or experienced than the Engineers at Aston Martin for example. They just have different budgets to make the same thing. Cheap just means they have little control over the damping rate that the damper actually produces. Whether that's poor manufacturing tolerances, seal packs that are prone to leak, a batch with not enough gas pressure blah blah blah you end up with an "under damped" rear suspension.

Out of curiosity, would you call it "skittish"(cause = springs are too hard) or does it just "continue to bounce for ages" after hitting a big bump (cause = not enough damping or too soft springs + sensible damping)?


Sell them to someone who thinks "lows" are "sik" and buy some low mileage second hand Bilsteins, Gaz, AP, BC etc :)
 
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BoatNonce

ClioSport Club Member
1 other person in the entire world having the same problem as you is not conclusive proof LOL. In the same way as plenty of happy ktec customers (I gather they all exist on this Renault UK club thing) doesn't prove that you're not having issues.

But that's irrelevant because I still kind of agree with you. "Cheap" doesn't necessarily mean the manufacturer can't do the maths/theory to pick spring/damping rates just as well as AST (gold dust as far as CS is concerned). The Engineers at Renault will be no less qualified or experienced than the Engineers at Aston Martin for example. They just have different budgets to make the same thing. Cheap just means they have little control over the damping rate that the damper actually produces. Whether that's poor manufacturing tolerances, seal packs that are prone to leak, a batch with not enough gas pressure blah blah blah you end up with an "under damped" rear suspension.

Out of curiosity, would you call it "skittish"(cause = springs are too hard) or does it just "continue to bounce for ages" after hitting a big bump (cause = not enough damping or too soft springs + sensible damping)?


Sell them to someone who thinks "lows" are "sik" and buy some low mileage second hand Bilsteins, Gaz, AP, BC etc :)

I'd say because there's excess suspension travel that the issue is with damping rather than the spring rate being too high, so basically as you've said it could be crap dampers by design or by damage. Probably a bit of both.
 
  172
I'd say because there's excess suspension travel

Is there though? (I don't know either, I just play devils advocate in all the really vaguely worded threads.)


I'm out on the basis some things are best kept simple.

Buy some new coilovers and hope that one of the hundreds of differences between the new & existing (not just the damper units, but the long term build quality, how the interact with your specific car blah blah) ones just happens to be the root cause of your problem.
 


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