Robispec KW V3 oil leak
 

Hey guys, as the title states I have an oil leak from my front drivers side coilover. I noticed the leak when I jacked the back of my car up last weekend and within about 30 minutes all the oil leaked out of the top of the reservoir. I just had the coilovers rebuilt by Robispec last winter and only put ~1500 miles on them since. I haven't hit any big bumps or anything and I don't drive the car in the winter so corrosion isn't much of a factor for me. I'm kind of scratching my head as to why it may have happened, so if anyone had any ideas as to why it may have happened please let me know! If it's something I did I'd like to know so I can avoid making the same mistake in the future.. thanks!

Yeah, not right for sure. Sounds like a seal leaked & maybe wasnt loaded right during the rework (certainly shouldnt have failed already)

Be interested if you send this to another re-builder & they can diagnose it after the tear down.

Keep us posted please

Hey thanks for the quick response Minus! I guess the silver lining is that it happened during the cold months LOL Last time I sent them to Robi he took 6 or 7 months to get them back to me, any idea where else I could get them rebuilt quicker? I read that GTWorx will do it, but I didn't see anything too promising on their site. I've been toying with the idea of selling these as-is and getting a set of Ohlins, but if I can get them rebuilt reliably I'd prefer to save that money for something else..

Sometimes if the shock tube is scratched from dirt for example that could cause a leak regardless of the new seals. This has happened to my motorcycle shock tubes.

Yeah I thought the same so I inspected the coilover to see if dirt was the issue, but it leaked from the reservoir to the side of the coilover so it didn't look like dirt would have been able to cause it in that way. I had dirt ruin the seals on my dirt bike forks plenty of times too, such a pain...

Surprised Robi did the rebuild, but taking 7 months is not right. Ran w/him a Fontana some years ago & see him frequently on FB

I checked Performance Shock but does not look like they rebuild KW's

Im on FA's & dont think they rebuild others, but not 100% sure

Yeah he said he isn't as active rebuilding because he spends time at track days or something to that effect, but he did it for a fair price. I just don't want to wait another 7 months this time around. I'll keep checking around, maybe I can find someone.

I'm in the same boat as you. I have V3's and 2 are now blown (passenger side front & drivers side rear) and I tried every recommendation to find a place to rebuild & revalve them but all I could come up with was KW would rebuild them to standard specs and would not revalve for higher spring rates.

I ended up going to PSI and speaking with the guys there directly about what my best options are and ended up buying a set of Ohlins. To me it's just not worth having the KW's rebuilt since there is a lack of good aftermarket or vendor support for them.

That seems to be a fairly common sentiment regarding the KW's, and after speaking with a local suspension tuning company I believe I'll be going after the Ohlins as well. I've never read anything bad about them and I've ridden dirt bikes with Ohlins suspension and it was fantastic. I looked into the BC ER Series but there isn't a whole lot out there about them, and knowing the Ohlins have the corrosion resistant coating along with their reputation for quality and performance I don't see a reason to get anything else for the type of driving I do.

Ohlins is the standard for pretty much any coilover under, say, $5k or so. You can go with other brands that are also good, just not as "all-around" as the Ohlins, particularly when it comes to manners on the street.
KW V3s were a really good option back when people worked on them, but have become obsolete due to lack of support as you guys mentioned. I had a set for about 6mos and sold them for that reason.
Lots of vendors take care of Ohlins products ,so you can't go wrong there.
As for a KW rebuild, a guy I know at KW confirmed they do rebuilds or if their Sanger, CA location, if you decide to go that route.

Personally I'd recommend Ohlins.

Yeah, personally, I think I'm just gonna go with Ohlins for the amount of support there is, and the quality for the price. Everything seems to point to Ohlins. Not the worst thing in the world to have the V3's for backup I suppose but I'm definitely gonna try to sell them like you did.

I'm on V3s with 1000# springs, driven to events 6 years now and my coilovers seem doing ok aside from the tarnished look from brake dust :( I should probably get a new setup but I might just end up with another set of V3s :) The local guys are all in their 2nd or third rebuilds now

If it were easier to get them serviced I would consider it, but two rebuilds in one year is a bit annoying. It gives me an excuse to try the Ohlins though so it's not the end of the world. Just expensive lol

I got a low speed clunk (like the one in the long thread with the power steering line) and both local shops are claiming it's my V3s that need a rebuild.

Ehhh, what springs do I need for the Ohlins? I had 8 front 9 rear on the V3s, seemed fine. Is Muellerized still a thing?

I believe Muellerized is still around, but you can always go through GTWorx or CBRD as well. All of them will set up the Ohlins properly for your driving style, per their recommendations, from what I understand.