[nrrm1127]

Hey everyone -

Small problem and would like to know if anyone has experience with this issue. I have a 2011 E90 328 with Dinan Stage 1 suspension. Couple of days ago I noticed slightly stiffer ride in the rear then yesterday's noticed the left rear corner feel completely stiff as if the shock wasn't doing its job. It got to the point where it started to sound like the shock was slamming against the shock mount. Car has since been dropped at a Dinan authorized Indy shop in NJ for repair. Has anyone has trouble with Koni Yellows seizing? This particular shock has only 8-10k miles on it so its fairly premature for it to go bad. Can't seem to find much info, but there appear to be VW forums discussing the same issue with seizing and/or sudden stiffening up of the shock. I keep it on the softer side because of rough NY roads (slow and steady for me as the roads do suck). Anyone have thoughts? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

- ross

[longliven54]

when my car had similar noise, it was the rear lower shock mount. the shock just keeps bouncing around.without being tied down. get underneath the car and try see if you can get the shock to move around. easy n cheap fix in my case

[longliven54]

when my car had similar noise, it was the rear lower shock mount. the shock just keeps bouncing around.without being tied down. get underneath the car and try see if you can get the shock to move around. easy n cheap fix in my case

[nrrm1127]

Originally Posted by longliven54

when my car had similar noise, it was the rear lower shock mount. the shock just keeps bouncing around.without being tied down. get underneath the car and try see if you can get the shock to move around. easy n cheap fix in my case

Hmm thanks, I'll look into it. Doesn't seem particularly loose in the mount though.

[nrrm1127]

Bump

[thegrinchboy]

Just had a Koni Yellow rear shock fail on my 335xi. Loss of pressure. It had about 3K miles on it. In the process of completing some warranty paperwork.

[nrrm1127]

What were the symptoms? Collapsed suspension or went completely solid?

Originally Posted by thegrinchboy

Just had a Koni Yellow rear shock fail on my 335xi. Loss of pressure. It had about 3K miles on it. In the process of completing some warranty paperwork.

[thegrinchboy]

Originally Posted by nrrm1127

What were the symptoms? Collapsed suspension or went completely solid?

Collapsed. Zero pressure/resistance. Unable to adjust, basically just keeps turning. Also, that I was readily able to compress the shock by hand.

[nrrm1127]

Yikes, that's a bit scary. Generally Koni makes a good product, but I guess every once in a while you get a bad apple.

Originally Posted by thegrinchboy

Collapsed. Zero pressure/resistance. Unable to adjust, basically just keeps turning. Also, that I was readily able to compress the shock by hand.

[thegrinchboy]

Originally Posted by nrrm1127

Yikes, that's a bit scary. Generally Koni makes a good product, but I guess every once in a while you get a bad apple.

That's what I thought as well. However I do know that another forum member had his brand new Koni Yellow strut explode immediately after driving off from the install...

For me, I was unaware of the defective shock, until I had my installer remove it to adjust the rebound. The car was handling a little strangely but not too badly. Unfortunately, since the shock had to be put back in, I dial down the stiffness on the rear to be full soft and the front to be 1/4 turn from full soft, to match as closely the blown shock, in all corners as possible The car definitely does not like that set up. Now there is noticeable a sudden (delayed) body rolling/shifting when changing lanes @ 80 mph. Not safe...

Waiting on Koni to process the paperwork for an advance replacement...

[nrrm1127]

Agreed, but they should generally stand by their product and take care of you. Strange that Konis do this from time to time. Doesn't make me concerned since they have a good reputation, but I wonder what the fail rate is on their shocks.

Originally Posted by thegrinchboy

That's what I thought as well. However I do know that another forum member had his brand new Koni Yellow strut explode immediately after driving off from the install...

For me, I was unaware of the defective shock, until I had my installer remove it to adjust the rebound. The car was handling a little strangely but not too badly. nfortunately, since the shock had to be put back in, I dial down the stiffness on the rear to be full soft and the front to be 1/4 turn from full soft, to match as closely the blown shock, in all corners as possible The car definitely does not like that set up. Now there is noticeable a sudden (delayed) body rolling/shifting when changing lanes @ 80 mph. Not safe...

Waiting on Koni to process the paperwork for an advance replacement...

[nrrm1127]

UPDATE: Car has been looked at by Motorworks West in Wyckoff, NJ and diagnosed with two chewed up rear shock mounts and a bad left rear shock. I've had issues before with the rear suspension. Has anyone else had problems going through shock mounts or related problems?

[ajsalida]

Originally Posted by thegrinchboy

That's what I thought as well. However I do know that another forum member had his brand new Koni Yellow strut explode immediately after driving off from the install...

For me, I was unaware of the defective shock, until I had my installer remove it to adjust the rebound. The car was handling a little strangely but not too badly. Unfortunately, since the shock had to be put back in, I dial down the stiffness on the rear to be full soft and the front to be 1/4 turn from full soft, to match as closely the blown shock, in all corners as possible The car definitely does not like that set up. Now there is noticeable a sudden (delayed) body rolling/shifting when changing lanes @ 80 mph. Not safe...

Waiting on Koni to process the paperwork for an advance replacement...

Man that sucks. Do you think the shock was blown for a while or did it happen all of a sudden in an obvious way?

[thegrinchboy]

Originally Posted by ajsalida

Man that sucks. Do you think the shock was blown for a while or did it happen all of a sudden in an obvious way?

It probably happened within the past couple of weeks, as I did noticed that the rear dampening was harsher than usual, as if I was back on RFT in the rear. Just didn't do anything about it as I was planning to dial them back anyways. It was definitely noticeable for me as I was still dialed up towards firm prior to the shock blowing up.

[nrrm1127]

I guess you got lucky, for whatever reason the bad shock chewed through my Dinan shock mounts again.

[ajsalida]

Originally Posted by nrrm1127

I guess you got lucky, for whatever reason the bad shock chewed through my Dinan shock mounts again.

Do you have any pics? Is it possible someone installed the mounts improperly? It is not very hard to install them wrong.

[nrrm1127]

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, I'll ask the shop to see if they can snap a few photos of the damaged parts.

Originally Posted by ajsalida

Do you have any pics? Is it possible someone installed the mounts improperly? It is not very hard to install them wrong.

[ajsalida]

Originally Posted by nrrm1127

Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, I'll ask the shop to see if they can snap a few photos of the damaged parts.

The reason I am asking is I have done it myself on another BMW with similar rear shock mounts. There are several washers, a sleeve, 2-piece rubber, etc. Wrong order/orientation the top of the shock can get punched up through the shock mount bracket, or pulled out the bottom. Right order I do not think that is even possible, even for a frozen shock. The thick washers on either side of the rubber would have to be crushed and jammed or pulled through a smaller metal hole in the mount bracket.

Not saying that is what happened in your case but twice is a bit odd. Not familiar with the Dinan mounts either.

Lot of shocks failing recently in areas I monitor, not just konis. Couple of guys with BMW GS motorcycles just had their rear Wilbers fail massively. These are over $1k shocks (each). One the bottom rod where it attaches to the swing arm broke off. The other topped out after the floating piston inside (these are monotube shocks) lost pressure and then the regular piston snapped off the end of the rod after it went to full extension with zero damping. (needless to say on a motorcycle this type of failure could kill you in a hurry, both happened at low speed and riders noticed it immediately no crashing or injuries.)

Very unusual to have a Koni fail early BTW.

[nrrm1127]

Yes this whole thing doesn't seem to make sense to me either. Here's an image of the Dinan 12mm RSM:

Originally Posted by ajsalida

The reason I am asking is I have done it myself on another BMW with similar rear shock mounts. There are several washers, a sleeve, 2-piece rubber, etc. Wrong order/orientation the top of the shock can get punched up through the shock mount bracket, or pulled out the bottom. Right order I do not think that is even possible, even for a frozen shock. The thick washers on either side of the rubber would have to be crushed and jammed or pulled through a smaller metal hole in the mount bracket.

Not saying that is what happened in your case but twice is a bit odd. Not familiar with the Dinan mounts either.

Lot of shocks failing recently in areas I monitor, not just konis. Couple of guys with BMW GS motorcycles just had their rear Wilbers fail massively. These are over $1k shocks (each). One the bottom rod where it attaches to the swing arm broke off. The other topped out after the floating piston inside (these are monotube shocks) lost pressure and then the regular piston snapped off the end of the rod after it went to full extension with zero damping. (needless to say on a motorcycle this type of failure could kill you in a hurry, both happened at low speed and riders noticed it immediately no crashing or injuries.)

Very unusual to have a Koni fail early BTW.

[nrrm1127]

Glad to hear no riders were harmed. I've been trying to do some digging, but it appears from the occasional gripe about customer service, I can't find any issues relating to the scenario I've got here.

Originally Posted by ajsalida

The reason I am asking is I have done it myself on another BMW with similar rear shock mounts. There are several washers, a sleeve, 2-piece rubber, etc. Wrong order/orientation the top of the shock can get punched up through the shock mount bracket, or pulled out the bottom. Right order I do not think that is even possible, even for a frozen shock. The thick washers on either side of the rubber would have to be crushed and jammed or pulled through a smaller metal hole in the mount bracket.

Not saying that is what happened in your case but twice is a bit odd. Not familiar with the Dinan mounts either.

Lot of shocks failing recently in areas I monitor, not just konis. Couple of guys with BMW GS motorcycles just had their rear Wilbers fail massively. These are over $1k shocks (each). One the bottom rod where it attaches to the swing arm broke off. The other topped out after the floating piston inside (these are monotube shocks) lost pressure and then the regular piston snapped off the end of the rod after it went to full extension with zero damping. (needless to say on a motorcycle this type of failure could kill you in a hurry, both happened at low speed and riders noticed it immediately no crashing or injuries.)

Very unusual to have a Koni fail early BTW.

[ajsalida]

Originally Posted by nrrm1127

Yes this whole thing doesn't seem to make sense to me either. Here's an image of the Dinan 12mm RSM:
no/Capture.JPG[/IMG]

Funny I was just looking at that on their website. Yeah so you can see how someone not familiar with OEM or Dinan could either forget or put something in in the wrong order. Those metal cup like things need to be there in the right place on both sides or the only thing preventing the shock from popping up thru the body is rubber. It makes sense once you look at it carefully with the car suspension in front of you all disassembled (and past bonehead experience telling you to pay attention).

[cvc 22349a]

Originally Posted by nrrm1127

I guess you got lucky, for whatever reason the bad shock chewed through my Dinan shock mounts again.

Improper install. The Dinan rsm's are much more robust than oem