Help determining if my Koni Insert is blown????

I started the job of replacing my springs today with the drivers side assembly. I currently have Koni all around (front inserts) with Epic springs and am swapping the Epics for stock springs.

 

When I removed the Epic spring from the front strut assembly, the piston of the insert is rather easy to push entirely down, a little harder to pull back up and begins to drop on it's when pulled back to full extension. This is making it very difficult to put the stock spring and top hat on.

 

Which brings up two questions:

 

1. Is the strut insert blown?

 

2. Will stock springs even fit with the Koni inserts and rear struts.

 

And actually a third:

 

3. Does the top hat and spring seat assembly remain the same?

 

Thanks everyone-

 

Robmat

Ok, searched and confirmed spring and top hat q's.

1. this is normal for konis to an extent since they are low pressure gas, or hydraulic only (i forget which). Only higher pressure gas shocks extend on their own. if you adjust to soft, it should make it easier to pull up. Unless there is fluid leaking, the only way to see if they are blow is by driving and bouncing the car.

 

2. yes they will fit fine. they are meat to work with the stock springs.

 

3. yes

just confirmed it. Koni yellows are hydraulic only. they will not extend themselves.

just confirmed it. Koni yellows are hydraulic only. they will not extend themselves.

 

I was worried when I first got mine that they were defective due to not self-extending. All other replacement shocks I've ever dealt with on other vehicles were high pressure gas so I thought this was how ALL shocks were. A little more research and I found out about the different damper types.

Thanks everyone!

Grab the shock, and QUICKLY try to extend or compress them by pulling/pushing fast and hard. If there is no resistance (i.e. DAMPENing effect), they are definitely blown.