K-Sport Design Failure & Extreme Carnage

[Ajlal24]

So before hitting the 20K mile mark on my coils, they decide to blow up. Driver-side Front Coil Snapped in Half and left the wheel supporting that corner of the car. This is how it came off of the car. Nothing bent as far as the tie rod, control arm or axle goes.





All the fluid leaked all over the wheel and wheel well area. Anybody have any better Carnage?

[vento86]

Holy schit.. Did you call them?


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[Dmoneythegreat]

Damn, they only have a 1 year warranty too. I would call anyway.

[Ajlal24]

Its been over a year, and I emailed them a while back about it and I guess I just got a big dunce that kept saying you can buy replacements online and we cant do anything about it.

[vento86]

K sport

Time for some H&Rs

[Ajlal24]

K sport

Time for some H&Rs

These literally rode just as good as the H&Rs a friend had. I independently adjusted the ride height from the spring pre-load and it was awesome. They never bounced unless the road did, and that was only when you hit the really horrible roads here in CA. And we have some ****ty roads.

[vento86]

The roads in Vegas are ok. Back home in Chicago was terrible. Gotta kinda learn to drive. Hence the street sharks crew in my sig. Low cars swerving blah blah.. I haven't ridden on anything but vmaxx rokkor/Raceland. But I'm pretty sure it rides like a dream. Good luck fighting with them to et it fixed

[Ajlal24]

Ohh man, Ive been low for years. Driving fast and low, takes much skill to survive.

[JASENR]

B&G dawg.

[I haz cheezeburgerz]

holy crap
I have K-Sports

['dubber]

Wow! I don't know much about k sports other than they are budget dampers and usually you get what you pay for, but I'm curious to know where are they made, and are they TUV approved?

[I haz cheezeburgerz]

budget? that they're not. far from it.

this is the first major failure I've heard of with these - they seem to be very well made and the ride is outstanding

but now I'm a little nervous about mine.

['dubber]

I'm worried for you then! And for me! I'm not saying that I have anything better, trust me. In the grand scheme of things, that looks like a budget coil-over to me, especially since it's sitting there broken due to material fatigue. You're paying around a grand for non-adjustable damping with a tube made of questionable steel. That damper tube would not do that unless the material was not up to par, or the owner is not telling us everything if he did something to weaken it somehow. I did some searching and they claim tuv approval but not actually tested, which sounds odd but I want to look into that practice some more, maybe that's a normal and acceptable practice, but it does smack of trimming R&D expenses in perhaps the wrong areas.

"But Konis and Bilstiens cheapest coilovers are about a grand and aren't adjustable, or not very adjustable, and they are highly regarded as great quality"

Well the difference is that the Konis and Bilsteins invest the money in better materials and continuing to produce and improve a solid design, while the other company spent it figuring out how you can go lower.

[BHCfarkas]

Pretty sure everyone can relax as this is probably a once in a blue moon type of incident.

['dubber]

So I did more digging to get the facts and here is what I see. The shock is more adjustable that I thought but that is not important. The body is not steel of any kind like I thought, but in fact aluminium which likes to shear rather than bend. They are using the design of lowering via threading the damper body into the mounting tube. THink about that for a minute and it would seem that where the end of the mounting tube is and the locking ring is would be an area that would see the most force if the entire assembly was flexed laterally in any direction, kind of like a point of leverage. So with aluminum rather than steel, if there's some bad aluminum, it's going to shear off there instead of bending.

But yeah probably not a common thing, but it would make me think twice about going with that design with aluminum vs. steel or even better, stainless steel.

[Ajlal24]

As far as calling them budget coilovers, i dont think you could be more off. $1000 on coils isn't very cheap there are coils out there for a 1/3 that price and those we can safely call cheap.

Everything on this coil seemed to be perfect, I still have the rears in my car and the front right coil is in too and they drive perfect. This one just took a hell of a destruction path and there was no foretelling it. When it decided to go I was driving 80mph up the Highway and as soon as it went, my fender dented, my sideskirt flew off and the car immediately went sideways. Luckily neither I or my passengers were hurt. I had to limp the car right off of an exit and park in the nearest lot.

[BHCfarkas]

I have a feeling the OP didn't have the lock collar tightened properly on the hub bracket, which caused enough movement to shear the threaded body in half. OR, the body was raised so far in the bracket, there simply wasn't enough threaded portion to support the weight of the car during impacts. I can't imagine any other ways something like this would happen, short of an odd manufacturing defect.

['dubber]

I could be more off because as I said, in the grand scheme of things, meaning out of all of the coilovers out there in the world for our cars and beyond, a stack or two does not leave this company much to work with apparently, or you wouldn't have a broken damper body with no evident cause of failure besides material fatigue after a few thousand miles.

[I haz cheezeburgerz]

Pretty sure everyone can relax as this is probably a once in a blue moon type of incident.

this is what I'm hoping/thinking. a lot of people run these. if it was a big problem, we'd know about it by now.

and 'dubber is really talking out his hind-end in this thread, isn't he.

I'm sure every coilover type out there has had some sort of big failure at one point or another, even the big boys. Why do you think they warranty their s**t? Not because they're 100% confident the s**t will never break, that's for sure.

['dubber]

I'm not really talking out of my ass here, you're just missing my point, which is that these shocks, if using cheaper materials, will fail *more often* than ones that are using stronger or more consistent materials. If you look at the products, they had to cut corners somewhere to sell these competitively. If it was not user error that caused this failure, I would think long and hard about trusting the other one on that car because it seems logical that the stock could be the same. I would also do some heavy searching if I knew about his failed unit and was considering buying them.

Also, if I was already running them, I would check them now, and probably replace them after five years or so. Aluminum is a funny beast and cannot be trusted to always be reliable in long-term high-stress applications even when the best stock is used in the most ideal way, it will often fail unexpectedly in a way that is full and catastrophic after a while.

If I were the OP I would be raising some more hell with the manufacturer or wherever you bought them from, they need to do something for you if you installed everything properly and didn't cause that to happen.

[27psigti]

I had them on my my Mk2 for 2 yrs then swapped them on to my mk3. Still just fine have at least 50k on them.

[GarfieldKoe]

I guess I just got a big dunce that kept saying you can buy replacements online and we cant do anything about it.
[img]http://www.**********/d.jpg[/img]

[Ajlal24]

Your picture doesnt work Garfield. And I like pictures, especially GIFs.

All I can assure is that these shocks were installed correctly from the get go. They were disassembled from the mounts and all collars and perches came off, were cleaned and anti-seize was put on. Then the shocks were reassembled, and installed back in the car. I rechecked em after about 250-300miles(a tank of gas) and then they rode perfect for the next few months. Then one committed suicide.

Im going to need to make some time to call Ksport tomorrow and see what they can do, and if I get routed to the same jackass, then I'm gonna have some issues. I work at an aftermarket automotive par manufacturer and we gladly ship out a replacement if our product ever fails a customer. We even ship it out on our own dime. Thats the customer support I've given and when you have another company call you a liar its really a nice slap of reality.

[epic d]

B&G dawg.

x2, and this settles it.

I'd call them and tell them you're going to report them if they're not willing to do anything. Technically the product is only warrantied for 1 yr, but inn-order for them to sell them they must be tuv or dot compliant or whatever.. can't sell products to consumers that could have potential fatalities and ****. /rant

[Ajlal24]

I'd call them and tell them you're going to report them if they're not willing to do anything. Technically the product is only warrantied for 1 yr, but inn-order for them to sell them they must be tuv or dot compliant or whatever.. can't sell products to consumers that could have potential fatalities and ****. /rant

Who would I report them to?

[Pineapplegti !]

I have said it before and I will say it again. H&R ultra ultra lows are the best coilovers for our cars. I personally think b&g sources part from the same bin as ksport. If you rode in a h&r car that road the same as your ksports he probably had the normal height coils that were spun too low. I have owned just about every type of coil out there including ksports.

[vento86]

Rokkors ride the best... Don't listen to this guy^^^


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[vento86]

Rokkors ride the best... Don't listen to this guy^^^


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[Dmoneythegreat]

If I had to do it again, I'd get H&R UUL. Simply for the fact that Ksports are a PITA to adjust for an amateur like myself.

[Louie Bricants]

I've seen this happen to a B&G. They are the same junk design. H&R Coils are the best coil for these cars.

[volvoc30]

louie bricants knows stuff listen to this cat

[SethM_6]

well id say stop lowering your dailies, but you have obviously made that choice. but from the pics, thats bull****, that shouldnt happen. was there any signs of damage prior to this?

[epic d]

Traditional coilovers have nothing to do with this thread... H&R and Kw are amazing but they dont thread into the shock bodies or bare and resemblence to how/why the ksports broke. I think that you get what you pay for with coilovers..

[vento86]

I'm gonna say over tightening the bottom coil lock sleeve that caused these to break like that.

Cx racing coils have the same design.. Looks like I'm goin with h&r ultra ultra ultra ultra ultra ultra ultra ultra lows


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[Pineapplegti !]

I've seen this happen to a B&G. They are the same junk design. H&R Coils are the best coil for these cars.

Exactly

louie bricants knows stuff listen to this cat

swingin

well id say stop lowering your dailies, but you have obviously made that choice. but from the pics, thats bull****, that shouldnt happen. was there any signs of damage prior to this?

noob

Traditional coilovers have nothing to do with this thread... H&R and Kw are amazing but they dont thread into the shock bodies or bare and resemblence to how/why the ksports broke. I think that you get what you pay for with coilovers..

did you get banned?

I'm gonna say over tightening the bottom coil lock sleeve that caused these to break like that.

Cx racing coils have the same design.. Looks like I'm goin with h&r ultra ultra ultra ultra ultra ultra ultra ultra lows


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Get back to work parts changer.