My friends in Texas would highly disagree with that statement.

 

They haven't driven around LA then! I spent five years in Texas having driven through all of Ausitn, Houston, Dallas, I35 from San Antonio to Dallas, I10 all the way across the state. Trust me on this, the roads in Texas are better than LA.

 

because LA is all of california. yep, no problem with that logic there. flawless.

 

Considering one of them grew up here, I think so. But anyways.

 

I disagree. Who at KW did you talk to?

They can and do rebuilds and revalving at the Fresno facility.

 

Hi Billj747,

I've read several of your post regarding suspension and have found them invaulable

If you have any advice on KW suspension I'd be very grateful to hear it

 

Hi

Thank you. What advice are you seeking?

 

[QUOTE=Billj747,Feb 11 2011, 10:08 AM] I disagree.

 

For future reference (for all readers) regardless of the company (suspension, brakes, tires, exhaust, etc...) it's always a good idea to get the name of who you're talking to.

To answer your questions - suspensions are wear items like most everything else. Over time ALL suspension will wear out seals and other components. Poorly designed suspension with bigger tolerances, poor materials, etc... will wear out more than higher quality, better engineered suspension.

Also driving on broken up roads like in most major cities in the USA will wear out suspension quicker than a billiard-table smooth roads. That's just a fact of life.

It's almost impossible to guess when a suspension will go out. Heck, i've had Koni yellow inserts in my BMW for a few years and they are completely shot. The fact that I had these with lowering springs (reducing my suspension travel in compression) resulted in bottoming out the shock which greatly reduced the life of the shock. Time to upgrade to KWs!

My NSX on the otherhand, even in crappy LA roads, is holding up very well as is many others that have had V3s on their BMWs, S2000s, MR2s, EVOs, etc... for far longer than I have.

While I hate blanket statements, it wouldn't hurt refreshing your suspension every 2-3 years, but if you want tip-top performance out of your suspension all the time in competition, you should get the Clubsports with custom spring rates, and revalve them every year or two. In reality, most people will never rebuild their shocks unless they die which will probably be 5 years+.

 

??? I said LA specifically, not California. Having driven up PCH to the Bay Area, around the Bay Area/Sonoma/Napa, and up and down I5 a few times, all of those roads are better on average than LA. The only roads I've been on that have been worse on average in the US have been around Detroit. Well, Philly and Jersey have a lot crap roads too but I haven't spent much time in those places.

Voodoo brought up Texas as a whole, and I've pretty much driven thru Texas as a whole having lived there five years while in college. So all the way from Brownsville at the bottom tip on up to Oklahoma, and I10 the entire length of the state. And much time spent in Dallas, Houston and Austin with some time in San Antonio.

Regardless, road condition will determine the longivety of the suspension. Billy is right regarding rebuilds. For those guys seriously into track days or club level racing, a rebuild every year or two. For those of us that are predominately street drivers, probably never.