Discounted KW V1 or Feal Coilovers?

I have an opportunity to buy BNIB KW V1 coilovers for just under $2k. Timings not great and I planned to purchase everything for my refresh first before purchase coilovers, but I�m wondering if I should jump on this. My original plan was to go with the Feal 441+ coilovers, which can be had for around the same price or even less (I�m still confused with some of the add-ons with the Feals). KW list price is like $2800 from what I see online, so I�m wondering�do I jump on this deal with the KWs? Or stick to my plan and go with the Feals when the time comes?

Given that the Feals are yet another Borr Chuan generic coilover with different anodizing, you should probably just buy the KWs now.

Quotes source post: 19361818

is this true? Feal is just a different color BC coilover? From my research I was under a much different impression

FWIW, ECS is running a Spring sale. They seem to have adopted the FCP lifetime warranty. Bilstein PSS10 coilvers on sale for an incredible price.

Quotes source post: 19362055

I have had nothing but positive experiences with Bilstein in the past. Tempting�.

I put mine on the car back in late 2006. It's now 2024 and they do not leak, squeek, squeel, wiggle or click, and haven't lost a beat on track or street. In the middle of a Chicago to Phila round trip and I continue to marvel at how my suspension handles on the highways and local roads. Maybe I just got a good set back in the day made on the right day by a highly motivated technician. Or maybe they are just well made. Are they better than Ohlins? Don't know. Never had Ohlins. But for the money on sale. It's tempting for me as well to get another set at that price.

Quotes source post: 19361876

Sorry, I was wrong. Feal uses DGR. So just another flavor of trash

At roughly the same price point, I'd do the KW's. I'm currently getting a set of Feal's installed on mine because I was curious if paying 1/2 the price of a set of Ohlins would get me at least 70/80% of the perceived performance increase and overall enjoyment over my leaking original bits. Nothing was close enough in price to the Feal's (H&R RSS, Bilstein, KW, ...) to tempt me with a middle step, and there are too many positive reviews on this forum for me to not want to try them out. That being said, I'm also prepared to upgrade at some point in the next few years if I'm not happy. "Flavor of trash" or not, not everyone wants to (or can) immediately drop $3k on coilovers in the larger picture of suspension refresh costs.

Quotes source post: 19368038

my thoughts exactly. are you doing a full refresh inclusive of control arms, tie rods, end links, etc? This can approach $5-6k easily if you include coilovers, which is quite a chunk of money, so the Feals are attractive. best of luck with the Feals. Which did you choose, 441, 441+, etc etc? And which options did you go with?

My order: 441PO-01+ Feal 441 996 Porsche 2WD, Swift Springs - 7k/13k Radial bearing upgrade Extended Damping Adjuster (B) I did all suspension arms, from Meyle. Elephant racing supplied GT3 style front and rear sway bars. Hardrace Taiwanese rear Toe arms camber arms, and front steering components. I think I had a good outcome not from throwing cash, but using an independant who knows a lot about setting a car up. Apart from runnng in my LN3.8 bottom end, making me feel like my car had become the "shop car run around" for more than a month. I "feel" who sets the suspension means as much as big name brand parts. I don't fear Ferraris...

Quotes source post: 19368089

Coilover specs: I honestly stuck with the base 441, but with the radial bearing upgrade. Came out to $1620 with free shipping. The more options I added, the closer it got to KW/H&R prices, and like I was alluding to before I felt like I wanted to either be curious & "frugal" or just go straight to the Ohlins R&T. As for everything else: struts and end links were shot the first time I drove the car 2 years ago and are all that have shown up on my service recommendations since, but I'm not sure how closely anyone's inspected the rest of the joints and bushings. My mechanic's either going to call me today/tomorrow saying everything is good enough for now, or that they're ordering more bits for me. I'm happy to replace things that need replacing, but I've tried to be diligent about keeping repair/restorative costs in check; these are 25 y/o cars that can easily absorb $10-15k worth of parts and labor if you want to fix every little imperfection you see. That FCP refresh kit that's popped up in other threads was definitely tempting though. Need to do rotors/pads, engine mounts, a parking brake, and a CV joint boot this year as well. Hence, starting with the base 441's

Quotes source post: 19367893

pretty inflammatory statement .Any facts to back it up ?Or is this just an anti Taiwan opinion ?

Fwiw, Here is another perspective. You don't have to do everything all at once. Replace/refresh parts that you "need" to do for engine durability or chassis safety. But there are plenty of things that are "like" to do that can be delayed because they are not necessary immediately. Take your time were applicable and spread costs out over time in sspecific annual or half year projects grouping parts and procedures in the most cost effective labor groupings to put them on the car. Most importantly, when replacing parts, go with the highest quality you can find for the best price. That may mean waiting for sales or jumping on sales when they are too good to pass up and stock piling the parts on your shelf until you are ready to put them on the car. Porsche ownership is a marathon not a sprint race.

Quotes source post: 19361818

That's not entirely true, Feal (at least for custom valve jobs) builds the shim stack in-house. But they're worse than BC anyways. OP, for non-competition cars KWs are really hard to beat.

Quotes source post: 19372368

Why are Feals worse than BC?

Three questions for the collective. 1. What makes a coilover system good? 2. What makes it bad? 3. What makes one better than the other? Strength, durability, adjustability, weight, price, customer service, design, components, rebuild ease, reconfiguration options, number of race teams using it, number of street cars using it, advertising program? Whats the criteria?

Quotes source post: 19372427

I found it impossible to get a setting on the 441's that works on multiple surfaces and road undulations. BC once set, work alright for me in a wider range of circumstances. I've lived all over Northern and Southern California as well as Boston and Baltimore, and the BC's never needed more than 2-4 clicks of the **** to balance ride quality and pogoing. Two sets of Feals wouldn't play nice on different roads just within LA alone, what soaked up bumps on Valley Blvd would pogo violently on Santa Anita Ave and vice versa. @GC996 - adjustment range and forgivingness for a road car system; forgivingness, ease of rebuild and absolute speed for a race system. Durability and low seal drag is a given for any system. Who uses it and who likes it is of no consequence unless you need clout.

I would bet that if 100 people would respond to the questions, we would get 100 different answers because everybody's experience level, usage cases, preferences, tires, tire sizes, tire pressures, and butt sensitivity may be slightly different. With all that being said, you can never go wrong with the highest quality coilovers that have been proven on the street and track over many, many decades. Yeah, and it sure helps when you can get them on sale. But for sure, there are plenty of up and comers available for a cheaper price as well. The established proven names like Bilstein, KW, Ohlins, Moton, JRZ were up and comers once. Some of these up and comers may even be divisions of the long established names. Alot of decisions from alot of available choices.

Quotes source posts: 19369197, 19374217

GC, yes I planned on incrementally gathering the parts for a full suspension refresh, but this deal on the KWs seemed like a good one. I haven�t pulled the trigger on them yet (they might even be sold by now) because that *slight* lingering shimmy I had around 70mph is now a more significant vibration at any speed over 50mph and now it�s consistent. This happened literally overnight and I don�t remember hitting any pothole. I did have a nice highway run into triple digits though. I need to pull all the wheels and have the checked for any bends, and if straight, get them rebalanced. If that�s not it I assume it�s got to be control arm? Which is going to be full kits from FCP front and rear and any funds for coilovers will have to wait.

Quotes source post: 19377500

Good luck with sorting out the suspension parts and enhancements. Alot of guys are not crazy about taping down the balancing weights on their wheels, but I do it. Every so often you can lose one of the weights going thru a touch less car wash and it screws with the balance creating vibration.

Quotes source post: 19377575

I worked with my local tire shop to find stickier weights as I was losing them just driving around on ceramic coated wheels. But yeah on race wheels, tape tape tape. Suspension bushing fail tends to be a vibration that goes away at certain speeds, if it gets worse over 50 it's probably wheels and tires. One of my cars is extremely sensitive to tire balance and roundness to the point of being annoying, rebalancing it fixes the issue for a few months and then *something* happens and the car starts shuddering again over 70.