Mike J

Ok, put in a set of V3's in the Turbo early this year, the stock shocks were clearly on their last legs. The installation went well. One nice feature is the top of the shock rod is a nut, not a hex socket, so its much easier to hold and also much less prone to stripping.

Anyways, the design has the dust shields that are made of hard plastic. I seem to have shattered both of the rear ones after a few months driving, the bits that I managed to salvage are pictured below.

I have been talking to KW. They first claimed that they shipped the wrong dust cover with the shocks, and shipped me the "correct" ones. What arrived was identical (to the part number) to the shattered ones. I suggested the design sucked, since putting brittle plastic as a shield does not make sense. I suspect that, on both sides, the shield hung up on the top of the shock when the car was lowered, and split up.

I asked them a few things:

• If it shattered the first time, and this is exactly the same part, what makes them think it will not happen again? - NO RESPONSE
• Who is paying for my time to install it, and the $300 alignment when I do it over again, assuming it works? - KW SAYS TOO BAD, SO SAD

Basically, the last response was like this

"I will forward this information to our Technician and Research and Development department so they are aware of this issue and can take it into consideration.

I have attached our Warranty information for you to review to see what is covered under warranty. In this situation you should not have anymore issues with the dust covers you received because they are designed for the kit you have installed. As I had mentioned before we do not normally replace dust covers under warranty and I would not be able do to so again. I understand that the there will be a cost for you to replace the dust covers however if it repeats again we would not be able to cover any costs for alignment or repair as stated in our Warranty information."

So basically they are telling me to bugger off.

Ok, I also have seen this happen on another 993 that was in the shop recently, on shocks that I did not install. That should reduce the chances that I screwed up on the installation. Same problem, one side totally broken up, the other cracked. I am an engineer, and this smells to me like bad design, but they are totally ducking. Not a happy camper.

Has anyone with K3's seen this happen?

They are supposed to look like this:



I checked it after a few weeks driving, and got this:



Cheers,

Mike

Vandit

I never liked the idea of these dust shields instead of dust boots.

My daily driver Toyota has Tein coilovers that have these types of dust shields. They've been on the car since '03 and have never given me issue, but i'd prefer boots.

Like you suggested, i'd be hesitant to install replacement parts that might fail again. Perhaps find some generic dust boots (maybe the OEM pieces will work) and install those instead of these shields.

If you're going to use shields again, perhaps file the leading edge at the bottom to give it a bevel that will prevent the coil from catching on the shield and just slide over.

RichPugh

I slid all of mine down and rested them on the top of the shock body before driving... fwiw. They'd just bump up as far as the suspension travel will push them up but they still sit around the shock body. Havent seen any problems.

gruppe75

I just went and checked mine, and they are all fine

tcsracing1

A friend of mine had KW suspension on a 997RS and they dicked him around with the warranty and the shocks did not have a whole lot of use.
It was totally a failure of the shock and they weaseled around with it. Not impressed.
Chitty experience for him and what also appears to be the same situation with you.

Too bad because KW are supposed to be a decent shock design. Supposedly same as JRZ?

Knight

That's what I thought as well, looks like you can add poor customer service to the list now too!

CarreraX

Mine have been installed about a year and a half and I haven't seen this. That said, I have only driven the car about 2k miles and honestly haven't looked closely back there. Ill let you know what I find out.

gruppe75

Just a suggestion, maybe it has something to do with the purple collar between the two springs.
When I installed mine I rotated the springs so that the coil ends were offset. In your picture the collar
looks a little skewed.

Mike J

The picture is off their installation instructions.

sfl993t4

Hi

Yes my dust shields were broken like yours when I recently serviced the suspension (new bushes etc.) after 3 years with the KW's. I left them off. Shocks were in good condition though and work well.

Steve

RichPugh

FYI, just noticed my left rear boot broke like this... not sure how long it's been like that but I'm just gonna pull the pieces out and ignore it, LOL.

P-daddy

I had this happened too, on a non P car. Drove for years with no issue, fwiw.

Jay J

Did you call KW direct to help replace them; who was your reseller?
KW's are basically Koni dampeners if I remember right...

trophy

I have 2 broken on mine as well...

Nope, completely different

Jay J

http://www.m3forum.net/m3forum/showthread.php?t=226669 -

http://www.motoiq.com/MagazineArticl...ur-part-1.aspx
I guess they were Koni's at one point but not any longer,
So its only TC Kline that uses Koni Internals now.