Kaolinte

I wonder what the difference in spring rate is between '04 &'01?

p0pe

Hmmm... probably buying some Konis soon. Can get them for $525 shipped from PerformanceCloseout.com.

spa-zz

I believe the 04s have lower spring rates than the 01s, at least in the rear. Which is interesting considering rebound is increased across the board. Granted the 01 shocks had some miles on them but not enough to cause the difference seen here.

Race Miata

Thanks guys for the excellent info.

It seems from the '01/'04 comparison chart that on the rear, MY01 runs a tiny bit more slow speed compress damping than the MY04. Interesting.

I'm not surprised that Koni is softer on the compress damping than OEM as can be seen from massive nose-dive during braking at some local autoX. This happens to not just the S. All my experience with the standard "yellow Koni" on any car is that they have soft fixed compress damping (people don't usually agree with me). Although soft compress damping may not be a good thing with stock springs (e.g. massive nose diving during braking), it's excellent OTOH when coupled with stiff springs, while the stiff rebound damping is able to cope with the stiff springs.

jguerdat

Since I have >50k miles on the stock '01 shocks, do ya think that '04 shocks would fit an '01? Of course, that depends on pricing, too, since I may be able to buy Konis for approximately the same price (right?). Basically, I'm just thinking that the newer shocks could be a low-cost alternative to adjustable shocks for regional autocrossing.

Or is this just another dumb idea?

spa-zz

I don't think that's a dumb idea at all; that's half the reason I went to Konis on my '03. I felt the stock shocks were showing their age. New OEM shocks are too expensive and I didn't want to take my chances with another set of used shocks.

Windscreen

I would certainly think they would fit, but I would pay close attention to the location of the lower spring perch, to make sure you aren't changing ride height.

Cost wise, it wouldn't make much sense. The OEM shocks are about $161 front and $195 rear per slhondaparts.com. You can probably do better than that, but not much, unless you want to take a chance on some junkyard shocks.

For the budget minded, the Koni sport probably makes the most sense. Given the lack of compression adjustment, they went safe and used less compression than OEM. It helps streetability at the expense of performance capability. I find that compression adjustment is a useful tuning tool for stock class auto-x, and in fact, my range of compression adjustment ranges from slightly stiffer than OEM to 2x.

Steve

MarchHare

Please forgive what may be a stupid question but when I look at spa-zz's shock dyno graph it looks like the Koni yellows have less rebound damping at all steeings. If negetive values on the graph are rebound this apears to be the case. I see that compression damping at soft setting starts greater then stock then becomes less then stock at higher velocity values, but that is on the fronts. This seems to be the opposite of the statement above the graphs. Please explain as I am very confused

P.S. As the happy owner of Koni yellows I want to understand these graphs since the reason I got these shocks was for their adjustability.

spa-zz

Rebound is at the top. That's why there's a "min" and "max." That's the range of adjustment from full soft to full stiff. At full soft, they are a little less stiff than OEM; when at full stiff, they are quite a bitt stiffer than OEM.

Cheers,
Ken

Orthonormal

I've got another set of stock 2005 shock dyno plots for you. A friend who drives a Miata went nuts on the shock dyno this weekend and tested every shock he could get his hands on -- he asked if he could dyno my stock shocks from the S2000. The results are posted to this thread.