Rusted Koni Reds

eddie_1

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2004
Location
Hannover, Germany formerly Toronto & NY
TDI
Jetta Wagon 2003 TDI tuned to 170HP, A6 Wagon 2008 TDI 2.7L tuned to 340HP
Got these Koni reds a while ago. The rear ones were shot last year - no bounce. The front ones still work but have major rust. Anybody have these with the complete paint cracking and falling off with rust underneath? Does the tower etc. hold up despite the rust or best to replace? These Konis seem to be worse than OEM Sachs parts.




 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
I would warranty those. Recently another forum member had the spring mount break and it wasn't pretty.

You must have had these for quite a while. The Reds on my wagon have been through four winters and still look new. The FSDs that they replaced were on the car for 8 years and were still pretty rust-free when I swapped them out for the Reds.
 

eddie_1

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2004
Location
Hannover, Germany formerly Toronto & NY
TDI
Jetta Wagon 2003 TDI tuned to 170HP, A6 Wagon 2008 TDI 2.7L tuned to 340HP
I would warranty those. Recently another forum member had the spring mount break and it wasn't pretty.

You must have had these for quite a while. The Reds on my wagon have been through four winters and still look new. The FSDs that they replaced were on the car for 8 years and were still pretty rust-free when I swapped them out for the Reds.

Thanks for the reply. I got these from you about 10 years ago. :D

Were the ones that broke also Koni? You think they could go any minute huh?

It's surprising there's so much rust. Because they were in NY 2 years and since in Germany and here they hardly use salt.
 
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IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
The ones that broke were Koni FSDs. About 10 years old, IIRC. Odds are they're no longer damping properly anyway. Sometimes the change is so gradual we don't notice. Time for warranty or new.
 

KITEWAGON

Veteran Member
Joined
Jun 29, 2009
Location
Seacoast, NH
TDI
2014 Touareg Exec, 2014 JSW
They seem to be a bit hit or miss on the rust. My experience was closer to IBW's. I ran the Reds on my wagon for about 6 NE winters I believe before I sold it last year and the paint still looked fine. No rust. But I've seen others who reported rust more like yours. Maybe they made improvements in their painting process at some point.
 

eddie_1

Veteran Member
Joined
Dec 27, 2004
Location
Hannover, Germany formerly Toronto & NY
TDI
Jetta Wagon 2003 TDI tuned to 170HP, A6 Wagon 2008 TDI 2.7L tuned to 340HP
Ended up putting some Sachs parts in. The Koni red spring mounts definitely were close to breaking from rust. A hole was forming in the mount. See pic.

The parts went in quite well. A lot of the installation guides ask to remove the sway bar link and on the pass. side the even the control arm. I found if you compress the spring on the car you have enough space. Since most of the time is spent compressing the spring, I found a good trick is to use the floor jack and raise the control arm quite high and then put on the spring clamp. Then the spring is already quite compressed, so it hugely reduced the amount of manual compression needed. On my clamps I had almost 12cm clearance on the bolt thread below the compressing nut.








 

nitec

Vendor
Joined
Jan 30, 2006
Location
Ottawa, ON
TDI
1.9TDi PD
I`ll see your reds and raise you yellows...



bloody scary...never buying another Koni product ever again
 

chuckthemech

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 18, 2006
Location
Skook, PA
TDI
2001 Jetta GLS
Koni warranty

I would warranty those. Recently another forum member had the spring mount break and it wasn't pretty.

You must have had these for quite a while. The Reds on my wagon have been through four winters and still look new. The FSDs that they replaced were on the car for 8 years and were still pretty rust-free when I swapped them out for the Reds.
IBW,

How long is the Koni warranty good for? I have FSD's that my state inspector is threatening to fail, due to rust. I read the below as two years to the original owner. The below statement from Koni's site is this. Thanks.

The KONI warranty is to the original purchaser against defects in materials or workmanship for as long as you own that car (registered for street use) during the applicable warranty period of two years.
 

IndigoBlueWagon

TDIClub Enthusiast, Principal IDParts, Vendor , w/
Joined
Aug 16, 2004
Location
South of Boston
TDI
'97 Passat, '99.5 Golf, '02 Jetta Wagon, '15 GSW
I don't know what that two years reference means. Konis have a lifetime warranty for the original purchaser.
 

Chris B

Veteran Member
Joined
Oct 23, 2001
Location
N. central Illinois
TDI
2002 Jetta Wagon 5 spd
I have a set of the Orange units on mine and they look about like those Reds. They held up OK for the first winter or two, but after that the powder coat paint just started falling off in sheets. I don't think I'd trust them after this winter.

I've never liked them anyway as the fronts have all sorts of seal stiction (yes, that's a word) and make sort of a grunty squeak noise going over shallow dips at low speed. I'd have installed another set of Monroe Sensa-Tracs but the last time around it appeared they quit making the wagon rear shock and the Orange were allegedly the closest replacement.
 
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