KYB shock absorbers.

[Human Joist 10]

What do we think of these. Are they any good. They advertise as OE equipment. Just wanted to know if anyone has used them before and what their thoughts were as to quality.

[tbvr6 0]

Don't know about these for VWs, but I bought some for my daughters Corsa and they were really good. Totally transformed the ride, although hers were pretty shot! They appeared well made, came with all possible required parts and install instructions. Slotted straight in without any hassle. They seem, to have a reasonable reputation.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

I think KYB are a hydraulics specialist and defo an OE supplier to VAG. I got a new VR6 PAS pump from the dealer some years ago, which was made by KYB, instead of ZF. If good enough for VW, then defo good enough for the aftermarket.

[Human Joist 10]

Sounds good. Cheers. Can get a set of four for £100 on eBay from genuine supplier. Was just surprised by the price that's all.

[davidwort 0]

KYB are pretty cheap and possibly nasty from what I've seen, I have a pair on the back of my golf :lol: , nothing like the OEM dampers (which were still good at 125K), they are a slightly different design too, which just looks less well engineered, my problem turned out to be knocking rear beam bushes which is why I fitted some new dampers as play wasn't evident in the bushes and the dampers were getting on.

They were cheap though, about 20 quid each trade and I can get them swapped easily if they show any signs of faults through the trade so for a car that is basically used for shopping runs it's fine for me, rear mk4 dampers are also a ten minute job to swap as the spring is separate.

I also fitted the early style top front suspension mounts from KYB, I've had two sets and the bearings in them are rubbish, loads of play and they chatter like hell, I'm swapping for a third and last time if I can get a set that's bearings feel any better out of the box.

If you look on carparts4less (basically euro car parts online) you'll see the KYB parts tend to come up as one of the cheap alternatives, fingers crossed that my dampers last but I won't bank on it.

I'll contradict myself though by saying the garage I get my parts through use loads of KYB bits (Euro C P being one of their main parts factors) on a range of manufacturers cars and they don't seem to have any problem with them, but then they are generally repairing dull run-around cars and I doubt the customers would notice if they were a little noisy or lost performance quicker than OEM bits to be fair, MOT pass is all that matters :)

[tbvr6 0]

I think "cheap and nasty" might be a little extreme. This is a mass producer of shock absorbers, so you probably cannot compare with specialist sports suspension manufacturers. If you check their website, you will see they are the worlds largest manufacturer of shock absorbers and they also have the largest shock absorber factory in the world, located in Japan. Their products are used by many car manufacturers as their standard equipment. The company has been around for nearly 100 years, and I am not sure they would be in their current good financial state if they produced absolute rubbish.

 

As I say, I am not saying that specific individual products they produce will be as good as the most expensive alternatives, but they should be a reasonable standard replacement part.

 

Judging by the main suspension thread, different people have very different opinions on the same products.

 

Tony

[davidwort 0]

same goes for FEBI Bilstein though, some of the stuff branded FEBI is abolute cr@p, I've had a new header tank that was unusable the moulding was so bad and top mounts that fell apart, tie rods that rusted after weeks on the car... but then some bits that have served well.

as for KYB, the top mounts are definately poor, the dampers I have from them just don't look nearly as good as the VW ones or even the pattern FEBI-Bilstein ones I had for a while (they had a fault too) so I'm going by the price and the look of the construction of the ones I actually have in comparison to other VW and pattern parts I've used, I doubt i'll keep the car long enough to see if they do 125K like the original ones, don't think they will though.

[tbvr6 0]

Fair point, you can get good and bad from any manufacturer. Take late Corrado heater controls as an example!

[Human Joist 10]

Don't mention the heater controls sorting those so I can blow air towards my face is still a job to do. Arghhh

 

Cheers for the advice on the shocks though guys. Will stick a few photos of the project on today.

[Human Joist 10]

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