jomo,

Excellent posts. You've made it a little easier to understand dampening rate and spring rate. For me to be clear, is dampening rate and spring rate essentially the opposite of each other?

Hope to hear much more from you.

Much appreciation.

 

Nope.....now how to describe this........Dampening rate is a measure of resistance to velocity. The faster the shock moves, the more the shock resists the movement. A spring by itself has virtually zero dampening. This is why you can tell a car with a truely blown shock never stops bouncing (no resistance to velocity/movement).

A shock has no spring rate and has dampening. I guess you can sort of say this is the opposite......

 

Understood. Thanks again!

 

I was the one that tested the fitment on my xB, and I had one of my members do it for the tC as well.

The Koni shocks should be out by now for the Scion tC.

 

since we're on the topic of springs, what do you think about the TRD springs and shocks?

 

Jomo, you are pretty good at explaining things.
I was going to pop into this thread and talk about how cool
Koni are and why, but you nailed most everything already.

 

Echo 00 - 05
8710-1403 Sport ext. $166 (front - McPherson Strut Complete Housing - externally adjustable - rebuildable)
80-2827 Sport std. $100 (rear - std. adjustable - rebuildable)

http://www.livermoreperformance.com/koni_2.html

 

remember that these cars have short wheelbases. this can make for a "bouncy" ride. Interesting to here a Koni sjock n the back "fixes" the bounciness. Or you can all go out and buy Cadillac Fleetwoods. THat would fix you bouncy cars, right?

 

I'm not sure "bouncy" is the right description. More like "punishing". The stock shock certainly dampens. What I have felt with the Koni is that the compressiion dampening is a lot less than the stock shock which allows the suspension to compress. I know this because I rub slightly on the rear fender lip on bumps with the Koni's (20mm rear offset). I only rubbed on bumps with people in the rear with the stock shocks. This suspension movement reduces the pounding on the occupants (especially the rear). Now if the shock was also "soft" in rebound, it really would ride like a Fleetwood. But the rebound dampening is stiffer than the compression dampening (and adjustable). This makes a controlled ride. I would not expect miracles from the rear suspension as the design is low budget, but for those looking less harshness, this is the best thing I have found.

 

Glad I found this thread... I'll be acting on what I'm learning here.


historical perspective: When some of the earliest shoch absorbers came out (around 1910, one class of them operated on the equal- friction principle.

The other class was more sophisticated: the friction was applied only on the -rebound-

that is, no damping on the upbound, but only on the rebound


The reasoning was true then and today: It is the rebound that tosses the vehicle and punishes the riders.

Making stiff spring rates helps a car corner flatter. Shocks/dampers don't affect cornering hardly at all. That's the springs' duty.

The rebound bosses, the rebound is what tosses!

kudos to them here who knew this and said so already.

 

do you guys who are experiencing this back seat punishment go offroading in your xBs or something? I dont understand how the ride could be that harsh on a stock suspension set up. I cant really talk much since I dont own one yet, but are you all being a little sarcastic when you describe the ride to the rear passengers? I just dont see how the ride could be that bad unless you are rolling on 18s with some really low-pro tires on there and you have lowering springs.

 

No we are not exaggerating. I put my grandma back there and she lost 3 teeth.

Seriously though, when you go over speedbumps, the xB doesn't absorb it at all. It kinda hops. Or if you are on a sectional pavement freeway, you feel all cracks and the car does it's hoppity hop act. My NSX with it's stiff sport suspension rides nicer. I honestly could not stand it. It was almost embarassing and I felt bad for my passengers. My car was just two weeks old and completely stock when I decided to order the Konis as my very first mod. Some people can live with it but I could not.

The stock KYBs are so stiff I'm going to send a couple of them to Kansai airport to see if they want to use it to hold up the buildings. I'd turn one of them into a pogo stick but I'm afraid it'd bounce too high.

 

Responding to the bold: The stock xB in my opinion handles speed bumps -exceptionally well-. I compare the bumps at a certain bank's ATM drive-up... they TOSS bam WHam the old Chrysler LHS. The xb in contrast walks over them at any speed. No WhUmp.

Since I put on the F1's (much lower profile 15" on steelies) my car BAMS on speed bumps. Ray's car is still stock.... It reminds me how sweet the stock ride is... for such a small, light car that handles quite decent from the showroom floor.

my opinions... and A/B comparisons here are possible any time...

reid

 

the ride will definitely get worse as your tires go lower in profile. that is why i am sticking to 16"-ers with 45-50 series tires.

 

I have Hotchkis Springs. Do you think it's good if I only get Konis for the rear?

 

Great post. A softer ride would be real nice.

 

Thanks for the great information!!! I'm definately going to look at Koni's for my next upgrade but I have to call you on one thing. How can you say that no jack is required if you already have the Tein S-techs installed? I can just get my arm under my car. There's no way I could switch out shocks without a jack or a pit.

 

Well, I did it without a jack. I do have 215/45/17's which are a little bigger than stock. I also have 20mm spacers in the rear. Both of these help a bit. Actually, this is how Koni says to install them. You pretty much install the shocks "blind", so you don't need much room. You can jack the car up an inch or so if you want or need more room. This is all you will likely need if you are really low.

 

hey jomo,

are these the same shocks that you got?

 

Please tell me these prices are for a pair. If so, I have no excuse and will order tonight.