metroplex

I felt the IAS shocks in my Vic had a faster rebound and softer compression, which allows the wheels to follow the road on bumpy surfaces, but also allowed for stable ride quality for better handling.

When I ran the HD Bilsteins on the Vic, they felt extremely overdamped yielding an uncomfortable ride on bumpy roads and the wheels seemed to not follow the road especially going over speed bumps.

07 GT/CS

I have the KYB Monomax's on my Expedition and they have been excellent. The stock shocks would bounce like a roller coaster but the KYB's took all that away.

Patstang

Me too. I also need a CAI/ SCT X3 soon. Looks like he's going to get more business.

sam strano

I've driven on the following:

Stock, Tokico HP's, D-Specs, Bilstein, FRPP, and Koni (just on the S197). I have Koni's on my own cars, and we changed the Shelby GT I autocross over first from FRPP's it came with to D-specs (needing adjustment and Koni's weren't out) then to Koni Sports. So I have a lot of detailed information when it comes to actual back to back comparisons, and because I'm an autocrosser, but also drive my cars on the street I'm picky about dampers and really examine how they work. I've even dyno tested some back to back to see what was what.

The FRPP dampers don't hold a candle to the Koni's, and in every way but longevity the D-specs are also better than the FRPP's. In fact the frist thing I changed on the Shelby were those shocks because they rode way harder than then should have, and stiffer doesn't necessarily equal control. And in fact here's a quote from a customer, posted today on another site about his Shelby GT:

"I just had the Koni's (brought from Sam because he contributes good info) installed on my Shelby GT. The FRPP dampers were way too stiff both on the street and on the local road course. The Koni's are perfect on the street; the car no longer bounces around in the rear. A track test will have to wait a bit.

Can't compare to the Tokico's, but I've read several times they can wander away from where you set them and frankly that was the deciding factor; Sam's comparison simply sealed the deal on the Koni's. Also, I've had adjustable Koni's on two other cars in the past and never had a complaint."

In fact there is a whole thread I started many months ago comparing the two (because they are the best two overall for performance) on that same site.

When faced with a choice of Tokico or Koni (or frankly almost anything else), I'm always going Koni first. The other posts along with mine illustrate the some of the reasons why.

And yes, Steeda and Tokico are pretty hooked up together and the Pro-Actions are built by Tokico. It's never a performance thing with Tokico... my issue is longevity and if you break one the circus-animal hoop jumping both the customer and the supplier need to do to even try and get a warranty done. These are not issue with with Koni.

metroplex

Do the Koni's have protective boots for the piston rods and come with polyurethane bushings?

The FRPPs sound overdamped which tricks most users into thinking they have a "sporty ride."

sam strano

The rears use new boots, the fronts reuse the OEM Ford boot/bumpstop....

Bushings are high durometer rubber, not urethane... of course only applicable in the rear since the strut uses no bushings.

RonG

I'm one of the guys Chris is fighting for to get replacements. Both of my front struts are clunking from inside the strut.

I (as well as others) am getting frustrated with Hitachi/Tokico. I've called them myself and get the same run around as Chris explained.

Chris has been very helpful through this process. However, if I have to purchase new 2 new struts in hope of getting a credit later, I will probably dump all 4 D-SPECs and go with something else like the Konis.

It's amazing to me that a manufacturer is willing to loose so much business by not supporting their customers and distributors when a small percentage of problems do show up.

LEO_06GT

Just wanted to update this thread.....It's been over two months now and I still have the messed up Tokico's sitting in my garage. Appearantly Chris Rose over at Tillman Speed has been getting the run around from Tokico. I can't believe it's taken this long to try and get them replaced. This is the worst customer service I've ever seen. It's a good thing I was able to reinstall my stock shock's and struts or I'd still be driving on busted Tokico's.

metroplex

An inside source reveals that Tokico aftermarket and Tokico OEM have different service procedures. Might I recommend having Tillman contact Tokico OEM/HQ to see if they can light a fire under someone's butt to get things going? Poor product quality is one thing, poor customer service is a different animal and will drive away profits and business. It's not something Tokico should desire especially in the near future.

07 GT/CS

Out of curiosity, how are they clunking? The reason I ask is that I ordered a set of Steeda Ultralites and the Steeda ProAction struts. My understanding is that Tokico makes the ProAction struts for Steeda. Not long after I installed my springs and struts, I got into my car and fired it up. I was just about to put it into gear when I heard a loud clunk from the front end. It sounded like the driver side front strut. Now, I never had a lot of this with the stock struts and mounts, but I did have it occasionally. I attributed it to the cheap upper strut mount and so when I got my springs, I also bought the Steeda HD strut mount. Now, I have this clunk that comes once in a while that is similar to the infamous strut mount popping but actually even louder than before. When I installed the Steeda HD mounts, I used the rubber piece off of the Ford mount as prescribed by Steeda in the installation. I also used the lower spring rubber wrap piece as well.

Is it possible it is actually the strut that is clunking? Is is possible that the ProAction struts, which are supposedly made by Tokico, are experiencing the same problems as the D-Specs? Or, is it still the upper strut mount? It is infrequent, but when it happens, you definitely hear it.

uofh2005

I ordered the same items a couple weeks ago and pretty sure I was told the shocks/struts were made in-house. Could be wrong but I swear thats what I was told. Curious about your "clunking" though since I'm about to install all of that myself and went with Steeda's b/c of the Tokico issues.

07 GT/CS

I am pretty sure it was Chris at Tillman that told me that Tokico makes them for Steeda but I am not sure. Perhaps Steeda Gus can pipe in on this one.

LEO_06GT

Quick update: So after all the drama looks like it's not my Tokico's at all. Reason being I'm getting the same noise with my stock shocks and struts. I believe it's a combination of my left spring which is squeaking for some reason and the fact that I had my BMR relocation brackets welded in. Any Ideas as to why a spring would start squeaking? With that said the Tokico's aren't going back on because I don't feel like doing another strut/shock swap. So with that said if anyone wants a set for $450 shipped let me know. They were only on my car for about 6-8k miles.

scramblr

LOL, all this drama, all this trashing on a company and it wasn't even their part. Makes us wonder why the have the policies they do.

sam strano

It's great to hear this wasn't a case of a bad damper... but it doesn't change the fact there are a lot of real problems with actually breakage (failed seals, adjusters, etc). While it would have been nice to know the complaint for this one man was a squeaking noise, and it's too bad that maybe Tokico got piled on about a problem that wasn't really a problem that's their fault it's up to the vendor to figure that out IMHO. Tokico is such a problem child that I (and apparently others) just don't like to sell them. Doesn't mean every set is junk, and frankly if a customer called me with a squeaking noise, I'd have been very blunt in telling him I don't believe that is a shock issue. What's more is if the noise started in conjunction with another change, it makes it more obvious the noise is from the change....

Topless Stang

does Tokico still have these warranty replacement issues?

Flagstang

Agleon

I've been trying to obtain a replacement set of bushings for my rear d-spec shock, still hasn't happened.