I hated the way my xB rode on the freeway with the sectional pavement and going over speed bumps the lunchbox seemed to hop. I did a search on SL and found that going with the Koni yellow shocks seems to fix the problem.

sohiperformance on eBay sells the shocks for just under $200 delivered. They provided me with excellent service and I highly recommend them. The installation was easy although the instructions were horrible. Total installation time should take maybe 15-20 minutes.

The one thing that was confusing for me was how to adjust the shocks. Turns out you just push the piston all the way in, then take an allen wrench and turn it counter clockwise for softer, clockwise for stiffer. I wanted as smooth a ride as possible so I went all the way counter clockwise. With the maximum stiffness setting, the piston will be very hard to pull back out as well as depress. By comparison, with the stock xB shock, you can easily tell that it's stiffer by the amount of force it takes to depress the shock.

I took my car out for a spin on the freeway and it was a LOT smoother. I think the fronts are still a bit on the stiff side but the difference is night and day.

Thanks to this jomo and thread below for the idea and advice.

https://www.scionlife.com/forums/vie...highlight=koni

Now here's the DIY

Tools needed:
1 - 14mm socket with wrench (deep socket preferably)
1 - 14mm wrench
1 - 17mm wrench
1 - 17mm socket
1 - Flathead screwdriver

It doesn't come with much. Just 2 shocks, 4 nuts, 2 plastic washers, and 2 Chinese menus. You can pretty much throw those menus away. Do one side at a time.


Step 1 - Take the screwdriver and remove the plastic cover from the rear shock tower. Exposed will be 2 nuts.


Step 2 - Take the 14mm wrench and 14mm socket wrench and while holding the bottom nut with the open ended wrench, loosen and remove the top nut with the socket wrench. Now if you have a deep 14mm socket, you can use it to remove the last nut.


Step 3 - Remove the washer and rubber bushing and this should be what you have left.


Step 4 - Go underneath the car. No need to jack the car up unless you are really big and cannot fit underneath. Find your shock, it should look like this.


Step 5 - Grab your 17mm socket wrench and remove the washer and the bolt.


Step 6 - Extract the shock by pulling the bottom of the shock off of the bolt that you just removed the nut from. Then drop the shock and remove it.


Step 7 - Remove the plastic cover off of the top of the shock by pulling it off. It should come off really easy and you might want to clean it up.


Step 8 - At this point, make sure your shock is adjusted. Pull the shock piston all the way out and take the plastic washer that came with the shocks and slip it onto the piston.


Step 9 - Put the plastic cover onto the Koni shock (sorry, no picture). Then stick the shock back into place. Installation is reverse of removal. IMPORTANT: When mounting the shock to the shock axle, the eye on the shock has a large side and a small side. You can feel which side is larger if you stick your finger in it. The large side of the eye slips over the shock axle first. If you have the eye reversed, just spin the shock around and it should slide right back in. When it is reversed, it's difficult to slip the shock onto the shock axle and push it in. When it's on correctly, it's slips on with no resistance. Take the original rubber bushing and stick it back into place as shown below. You will center the shock via the bushing.


Step 10 - Take the washer and the new Koni 17mm nut and tighten the nut until the piston begins to spin. Start the nut off with 17mm socket. Then you'll bring it all the way down with the 17mm openmouth wrench.


Step 11 - Take the other nut and tighten it. Use the openmouth wrench and socket combo, tighten the bolts up.


Step 12 - Go back under the car and tighten the 17mm nut.


Repeat the 12 step program for the other side.

 

Nice write up.

And I agree, the directions are pure symbolic Euro-trash. There should be better directions on how much to tighten the upper bolts and the shock adjustment is pretty vague.

Sweet ride though......

 

Thanks jomo for your previous thread. Without it, I wouldn't have fixed this problem on the first try. I took 2 friends out to dinner tonight and they noticed the difference immediately. It was a smooth ride all the way.

Regarding the chock axle and shock eye, I tried on one axle to mount it backwards and I just could not do it. The eye was too small on one side for that to happen.

Thanks again!

 

Very nice. thanks for the write up. I will have to look at purchasing those!

 

Funny, I installed mine backwards the first time. I corrected it when I adjusted the shock. Well, good to see it the ride's better. The thing I like is that I didn't have to pay for the whole set!

 

Nice write up. Thanks.

I'm very interested in this upgrade. Does anyone have personal experience with this on an xA? I assume that improvements should be similar since xA and xB are so similar. I'm running Hotchkis springs and want to dampen the ride a little without losing the handling gains from the new springs.

 

Should work fine. With the stiffer springs, you should adjust the shock stiffer. I would suggest about 1/2 full stiff. There is an autocrosser on on this forum running full Koni's with an XA. He uses nearly full stiff. Depends what floats your boat.

 

Malibu, I checked this morning and the shock can be installed backwards.

 

Great write up!

I'm still debating on where I want my suspension to go.

I was looking at the Koni Yellows, which are what I had on my
Porsche, but I'm liking the idea of Coil Overs, or even going
as nutty as air suspension....

Bah! Too many choices! LOL

 

FYI, we have the Koni's for the xB in stock and they are priced as follows:

Koni Sport Front fitment @ $166.00 *
Koni Sport Rear @ $100.00 *

* = Plus shipping.

Feel free to call me if you would like to place an order, or if ordering online at: http://www.tirerack.com/a.jsp?a=DJ1&...sion/index.jsp feel free to enter my name at the end of the order in the "Previous Contacts" area and I will be glad to keep an eye on your order as it processes!

 

Nice write-up! I recently replaced all four corners as well. I suggest you use a jack, though. Safety first!

 

IMHO it is safer without a jack. Nothing to fall off the jack. A jack can give you more room to work, but I don't think it is safer.

The reason you only do one shock at a time is so that the shock on the side that is not being worked on will dampen the rear. If you take both off at the same time (which you can), you will have no dampening and the rear will be able to bounce freely during the install.

By the way, how does the "all Koni" setup ride?

Good prices can be found at LTB motorsports.

 

So you adjusted the shocks before installing them?

 

Yes, the shocks for the rear you cannot adjust after you have them mounted. The shocks are so easy to put on and take off that it's not really a PITA.

Jomo, I guess I must have the eye mounted backwards. I tried putting it in the other way and it got stuck, then I almost couldn't get the darn shock back out. I had to get a hammer to tap it back out. I'll see again if I can do it but based on memory, it just doesn't seem to want to mount that way.

The more I drive with these shocks the more I like them. I can't say enough about how much they fix up the ride quality.

 

Malibu,

Maybe it doesn't matter. My shocks were tight the first time, but it now the eye slides freely (paint wore off). I don't know why Koni made it like that as the stock shock can go either way.

 

I checked out the stock shock and the eye tapers to the center from both sides. This means the shock rides on only a little area and will allow the shock to angulate a bit. This means I may be totally wrong (opposite). If so, that means that the shock orientation should be noted. I'm going to check with Koni on Monday and see if I can get an answer.

 

Jomo, thanks for following up with that. I did look at the stock shock and the eye mounting is the same as how I have them mounted now. Good thing I took a picture of that shock before I put it in otherwise I'd be confused. There is a little green marking on the shock that clued me into which shock I took out and what position the eye was in. The smaller eye was near the nut end of the shock axle. I'll be interested to see if Koni has another opinion on it.

 

Malibu,

I talked to Koni, and as I suspected, I was incorrect on the rear shock install. The shock should be installed with the large diameter portion of the eye torward the wheel. The eye design essentially rides on a ridge like the stock shock. However, unlike the stock shock, the Koni must be installed one way. The way you installed it. If the eye of the shock is super easy to place over the axle, then you should have it correct. If you have to line up the eye perfectly with the axle to slide on the shock, then it is installed incorrectly. My shocks slid on either way (didn't bind badly like your experience). Anyhow, sorry for the misinformation, but you might want to add this information to the install writeup as there is a wrong way to install the shock.

I think I will delete the portions of my posts in regard to this so there is no confusion.

 

Good write up, thanks. Now I have to go home and see if I installed mine the right way...I did it so the Koni decal could be seen from the back. Can someone who knows they have theirs on the right way check their decal placement?

***Update: Decal facing aft = correct install***

 

nice write up this is in the near futire for me..tks....