koni vs. mazdaspeed struts
 

anyone have experience with both. opinions please.

Koni's are brand new for our 2nd gens, and since they are just as expensive as Mazdaspeed, I doubt that some one here has them on. Maybe one person (Patrick Santiago), but thats about it.

mazdaspeeds are decent struts. 4-way adjustable all the way around. i have those.
konis take some time to make them work. these are only inserts for stock/non-aftermarket struts. slits must be cut and then entire internals of the strut must be replaced by the koni inserts.
they are adjustable too. don't know how they are, but i suppose they are of high quality too.

if memory serves me , I think I remeber reading that you have to pull the strut out the car, then compress it and then you can adjust the strut ....
don't know where I read that ... but I remeber reading something like that ...
Mazdaspeeds are nice to me ... best shocks out for the Protege I can find.. easily adjustable.. and when on 1 are super comfy...
Bruce

For racing, Konis are better because they can be rebuilt, and revalved. Tokicos, on the other hand, can only be thrown away when they wear out.
On Konis, usually the adjustment is at the top of the strut.
Sounds like you might need some work to install though. My brother installed "inserts" on his MR2 and it wasn't that difficult (no special tools were needed).

The Koni's for the 1st-gen are the "red" inserts, which have to be taken out to adjust. For the 2nd-gen, they are the Koni "yellow" sport struts, with a single adjustment (rebound-only) on the top.

The main problem with the Mazdaspeeds is that they adjust compression and rebound at the same time. For performance driving, they are fine, but if you are into racing, or want to run stiff springs (same thing, eh?), then the Konis are better.

For the 1st and 2nd-gen, the Mazdaspeeds are made by KYB. For the 3rd-gen, KYB made the fronts and Tokico only made the rears.

so the kyb's that mazdaspeed uses are comparable to the agx's available for other cars? If you that makes sense

Yes and no. The valving is determined by Mazdaspeed, rather than KYB, but they are functionally the same as the AGXs. The rear adjusment knob's on the bottoms and the fronts are at the top of the struts.

Considering the prices of the AGX ,, they are not a bad set of struts.
shame they don't make any for the Protege.
B

yeah it is a shame, since the gr-2 are just about oem replacements, the agx would be a competitive price with the mazdaspeeds.

Thanks for all the info Dave.

I paid close to 700 for my MS shocks..
the AGX would not go anywhere near that price..


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Basically what the front ones look like

http://www.protegeclub.com/forum/att...=&postid=36189