ehall

on my 86, I ran 550 springs with no t-bars and escort cups.
Girls loved to get in my car, but they ADORED geting out!

333pg333

Not sure on the "Off the shelf" V3 Variants but on mine they certainly asked what size T bars I was running back when I ordered them. I'm sure they are catering for a spring with a T bar in concert. So the quoted spring rates in this case are probably just for the coil itself.

Techno Duck

Chris that is an interesting question. They are listed as 86+ 944, 951, and i believe 968 also (all the same part #). So my guess is either for a 23.5 or a 25.5mm rear bar.. stock turbo is 25.5 or is that only the M030 cars? I dont even remember.

Also regarding the effective weight at the rear, that is also an interesting point that it would be something around 500lbs at the shock either way. All this suspension geometry stuff makes my head spin

jasonlp

Any update? I plan do the same changes this winter.

sm

Bump for any new reviews, and information regarding the valving and customer service in the US.

docwyte

By far the wost suspension and customer service experience I've ever had. I had a set of KW V3's on my 2001 Audi S4. The rear springs kept sagging, so I continually had to run the adjusters up. The left front strut blew after 6 months.

I called KW, send them my receipt verified warranty coverage. I told them the car was my daily driver and offered to pay for a new strut and have them refund the charge when they received my current blown one.

They refused (!!) and said I had to send in the blown strut to have it rebuilt by them. It took them a MONTH to fit it. Needless to say, I couldn't have the car down for that to happen, so I bought another complete suspension and when I got the rebuilt strut back I sold the KW's.

I've blown up Koni's, Bilsteins, Tokico's etc. All of them were happy to send me a strut/shock in advance so my car wasn't down. Many times they did so without charging me anything but shipping. I was very disappointed both by KW's customer service and their performance. There's NO way I'd ever buy that crap again.

KLR

I've had the v3s on my 951 for 5 years now and would do it again. I haven't had any reason to seek post-sale service, so I can't comment on that. My 951 is just a hobby car, so I figured when I bought them that it wouldn't be a big deal to park the car for a couple of months if I needed warranty work. The ride quality on the street is very similar to the koni yellows with stock springs and TBs that were on the car previously. The v3s were immediately worth about 2 seconds on tracks with roughly a 1:30 lap time. My only gripe is that even with the ride height maxed out, the car sits about 1/2 inch lower than I would like for street use. I don't scrape in most driveways, but I certainly worry about it and avoid anything that looks challenging.

Techno Duck

Three years with the V3's on my car, probably only about 5k miles on them. No issues to report. Though the car has been sitting for almost 2 so who knows what they look like now!

The ride is good on them, in my opinion way better than a Koni yellow setup. Koni's i found extremely harsh over bumps even with the stock springs. The V3's are firm but dont make it feel like my windshield is going to crack. I did maybe 2 or 3 DE's with them and they felt great for a compromise setup that is catered more towards street usage.

I have been considering going torsion bar delete in the future and dont plan to try and run these in that configuration.. so i will probably make the switch to Moton's as my car is more track than street now.

Just bought a set of the ST coilovers (a branch of KW) for my E36...basically the V1's with galvanized steel bodies rather than stainless. Looking forward to putting them on .

Darkstar1

I came on this thread to check out the V3's and found it funny that DocWyte complained he blew shocks out in 2007 and went to other suspension and then here on the last page complained he did it again in 2010. Same car, same instance? Can't let go?
Everyone else pretty much happy with them?

ehall

Uhhh no. Someone came back and dug this thread from the graveyard and asked for revues, so he gave his. Same car, same instance, same experience. Simple as that.

333pg333

I get the impression that it's KW US that are giving them a bad name. The only two people who've complained pretty much mirrored the same lack of service. Pity, as they seem to receive good reviews from most users.

zeusrotty

I bought DVC's car and the V3's are still just fine. I recently contacted CS a few times and they have been pleasant. I did talk to them a few years ago and they were ****ty... So maybe it just depends on who you get.

BikePilot

Thanks for the update! Any idea how many miles are on the suspension now?