Just bought a 2007 Panda 100HP. Seems like a great little car – amazing for the money. As expected, the suspension is horrible. It is very bouncy and I occasionally hear+feel knocks from the rear end.

I'm planning to take it for a major service very soon and ask them to check over the suspension just in case anything needs attention. I'm wondering if there is an easy fix where I can tell the garage "just fit these third-party dampers" or whatever. I don't have much spare cash right now so whilst I'm looking for an improvement, I'm not trying to make it perfect or get the best kit available. Don't want to change the ride height. And I'm not really mechanically-minded enough myself to start messing around under the car myself.

I've spent a good while reading the 100HP suspension threads on this forum and from what I gather I could just order a pair of Koni rear dampers and those would help somewhat, and would not change the ride height.

Looking on a site called dcperformance.co.uk I've found a couple of Koni rear dampers: red STR.T rear dampers (Part Number: 8050-1106) for £42 each and yellow Koni Sport rear dampers (Part Number: 8040-1347SPORT) for £90 each. Looks like the Sport ones are adjustable but the STR.T ones aren't. I tried to post a link to the pages but this forum won't seem to let me post URLs so I've attached images of the products here.

Would it be effective to just buy a couple of the £42 STR.T dampers? And would the garage need to adjust anything else or would it be a simple swap over? Some of the threads I've seen on here talk about having to cut bump stops and modify bits of the existing suspension to get new shocks on, and I wanted to avoid that kind of thing if possible as I feel a bit out of my depth! I guess if the Sport ones would be significantly better I could stretch to those –*would they be easy to adjust after being fitted?

Any advice gratefully received

The red Konis (STR. T) are supposed to help improve/fix the issue as the car is oversprung from factory.
I've got a set of yellows (Sport) to fit as I find the car floats at certain speeds.
To adjust the rebound of the yellows you need to remove the bottom bolt, and once they are fully compressed rotate them.

Thanks fpan, good to know that the red Konis will help. I will probably go for those.

Do you happen to know if the red ones will just swap in? Would the garage need to make other adjustments like re-doing the camber, etc? Would the ride height be identical?

Cheers

KYB shocks are original equipment and quite reasonable on the net.


Noises from the rear are most likely the bump stops. Replace with Abarth 500 ones and you will find the ride much better as the suspension travel is increased by a couple of inches.


Try removing the bump stops, if it quietens down there's your answer. I had mine replaced with original types and the noises returned in 10,000 miles so the Abarth stops were fitted and now its all quiet. My rear shocks were pretty shot at 45000 miles, the fronts need doing now at 79000. The top bushes also need to be done at the same time and as these are from Fiat they aint cheap....

Interesting. I see the KYB shocks are about £27 each. So these are the same as the ones on there from the factory, right?

Sounds like the Konis are going to give me a better ride quality, and are only £14 more so probably worth it. But again, I'm still unsure whether they're going to change the ride height or require further work to set up the car afterwards. I guess maybe I should contact Koni and see if they can help.

Thanks for the tip about Abarth 500 bump stops. I found some on eBay for £15, I wonder if those would be the right ones (see attachment).

I vote for the STR.T solution. That's just about the perfect set up (in my experience). My 100HP has not had bump stops for at least 4 years, and no ill effects.

Contacting Koni might prove to be difficult. They have a huge fire in the factory atm.
KYB has been called Keep Your Bilstein;s by some people I know. Wouldn't be my first choice.

gr J

Dan Friel said:

I vote for the STR.T solution. That's just about the perfect set up (in my experience). My 100HP has not had bump stops for at least 4 years, and no ill effects.

Click to expand...

Hey Dan –*did they change the ride height at all?

Do you mean you removed the bump stops completely after fitting the Konis?

Just contacted Koni and they were able to help. They confirmed that the dimensions and setup for the STR.T are identical to the original ones, so I can just swap them in.

He also said the ones for the Panda are about the most popular across their entire range, which he said was surprising. I told him it wouldn't surprise him if he drove a 100HP with the original shocks on it

So it looks like I'll buy a pair of the STR.T ones and ask my local garage to fit. Will let you know how it helps.

thesheep said:

Hey Dan –*did they change the ride height at all?

Do you mean you removed the bump stops completely after fitting the Konis?

Click to expand...

No change in ride height, the same springs were retained. The bumpstops had already fallen off, so were taken out of the springs at MOT time. No issues since then at all.

Ever so slight thread hijack here.
Does one need both the shock absorbers and dampers to solve the bounciness issue, or are just the shocks enough? Also does anyone have any idea what I should be aiming to pay to get this done by a garage - I'm not really into servicing/altering my car myself - and any recommendations for a good garage in Kent/East Sussex?

Leeski said:

Ever so slight thread hijack here.
Does one need both the shock absorbers and dampers to solve the bounciness issue, or are just the shocks enough? Also does anyone have any idea what I should be aiming to pay to get this done by a garage - I'm not really into servicing/altering my car myself - and any recommendations for a good garage in Kent/East Sussex?

Click to expand...

Shock absorbers and dampers are the same thing, they just have two different names.

The rear shocks look very easy to change; it's literally two bolts on each side. The front ones are more effort, as the springs needs taking off the old shocks and putting onto the new ones.

If it was my time/money, I'd do the rears myself and pay a trusted local garage to do the front.

Matt100HP said:

If it was my time/money, I'd do the rears myself and pay a trusted local garage to do the front.

Click to expand...

This, exactly..

If you opt for Konis, check the diameter of the top bush bore. If it's 12mm, you may need to get some metal tube 12mm od by 10mm id by 32mm long, two off as the top bolt might be a weedy 10mm size. You can check the dia of the bolt with the wheel off by unscrewing it about 6 turns. The top bolt probably has a 15mm spanner size.

Matt100HP said:

Shock absorbers and dampers are the same thing, they just have two different names.

The rear shocks look very easy to change; it's literally two bolts on each side. The front ones are more effort, as the springs needs taking off the old shocks and putting onto the new ones.

If it was my time/money, I'd do the rears myself and pay a trusted local garage to do the front.

Click to expand...

Ok, must be me being silly!

I've heard there can be problems with the front drop links with the Koni STR.T shocks fitted - is this true? If so how can it be solved?

Leeski said:

Ok, must be me being silly!

I've heard there can be problems with the front drop links with the Koni STR.T shocks fitted - is this true? If so how can it be solved?

Click to expand...

Basically you can't use the newer opposing drop links on Koni's as they foul the shock tube when you turn the steering so you either have to pay the frankly rip-off price for the earlier version where both joints face the same way or use adjustable ones which is what I did.

Gavv8 said:

Basically you can't use the newer opposing drop links on Koni's as they foul the shock tube when you turn the steering so you either have to pay the frankly rip-off price for the earlier version where both joints face the same way or use adjustable ones which is what I did.

Click to expand...

I see. How much are we talking for the originals, and how much for the adjustable ones?

Leeski said:

I see. How much are we talking for the originals, and how much for the adjustable ones?

Click to expand...

Originals are almost £60 for two delivered from Shop4parts who are the only supplier who has them as far as I know, Adustable are about £50 but you can then just put new universal joint ends on when they wear out, I got mine from Veedubmachine in Cornwall but they don't seem to do them anymore.. these are the ones I've fitted http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ProSport-Adjustable-Droplinks-Suspension-Links-Kit-Fit-Most-Modified-Cars-/231142762007 .
The HP is quite hard on its suspension components so it's worth keeping on top of worn out parts if you want that brilliant handling to stay sharp.

Gavv8 said:

Originals are almost £60 for two delivered from Shop4parts who are the only supplier who has them as far as I know, Adustable are about £50 but you can then just put new universal joint ends on when they wear out, I got mine from Veedubmachine in Cornwall but they don't seem to do them anymore.. these are the ones I've fitted http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ProSport-...inks-Kit-Fit-Most-Modified-Cars-/231142762007

Click to expand...

Thanks a lot - that's really useful to know!

OK I'm rescuing this thread from the hijackers

I had the rear Koni STR.T dampers put on by local garage today. They showed me the old dampers afterwards, which were shot. The bush at the top had completely come away from the top, so the things were just flopping around.

Needless to say the difference now is pretty remarkable and I'm very happy with the result The whole car feels tighter and more stable, and the steering feel is a lot better.

Of course I have no way to know how much the Konis change things over original (but undamaged) dampers, because the existing dampers were clearly knackered. So I don't think my experience is going to be that helpful for people wondering about upgrading to the STR.Ts. But it probably does show that it's worth checking the suspension if your 100HP ride is horrible.