Peoples "actual" experiences of AST suspension

[mbarnes]

Still searching for some coilovers for the 197.

I have been looking at the KW v3 kit, but fancied something more track, less road.

Spoke to AST about their kit, which sounds very good, and features an actual rear coilover unit, rather than a seperate damper and spring.

Only issue is i have heard quite a few quality issues with AST.

anyone had any recent experience of them?

I have someone to fit them, so not bothered about powerstation etc. Just the actual units. Do they come with a warranty? anything to watch out for?

 

[ForceIndia]

I'll be completely honest, I wouldn't go there again. The 172 was badly set up. Understeer everywhere. When I took them off found the rear height adjuster collars were both snapped all the way through. Not sure how bad the accident would of been had it failed, but it wouldn't be pretty. My experience of powerstation initially seemed quite good. But they couldn't get the car driving straight. After several goes and a fair amount of cash, I was told by them 100% the rear axle was bent. I've since had the car aligned by 3 'normal' garages. No bent rear axle, car now drives straight as.
You will get fanboys that will try and shout down anyone with a negative opinion of them. I've spent a lot of cash on ast, then sold them for a cheaper, better option (kw's).

 

[drhowser]

for more track orientated stuff have a look at the kw competition stuff, it is built to your own specification from the axle weights of your car.

it is absolutely awesome kit!

 

[Jay Payne]

Im happy with mine, but out of the box with the supplied springs they are not 100% but alot depends on riving style and how you like a car to handle. after some dsscusions i now have them setup quite well (changed the rear springs)

Ive had broken helper springs and collors too, never had a problem getting replacements under warranty. I will stick with ast coz i only live 2 miles from them and geting them refurb'd etc is easy.

Wont use powerstation for a set up again tho

Powerstation and ast are totaly separete businesses now

 

[ForceIndia]

Is Curtis still involved with ast?

 

[sideways danny]

helper springs are shite, and the rear damping and springs are both too soft on the normal setup. Generally they're very good though. For the road they're the biggest improvement straight out the box that i've seen on a clio. Only reason i can see the spring seats breaking is over tightening of the pinch bolt. with a bit of care they're fantastic. Sounds like Warren had some bad luck and some bad aftercare.

KW are also very good, just a shame they are separates on the rear

 

[mbarnes]

yeah, not heard good things about powerstation, hence why i would go elsewhere to have them fitted.

I looked at KW competition stuff, but sadly they only do it for the cup race cars for some reason, and they cannot advise if they would fit a normal 197 (dont know whether hub carrier parts are the same on the race car and road car) otherwise i would have gone for them.

 

[ForceIndia]

Only Curtis/powerstation set mine up. And I'm not the only one to have the same issue, pepsi did as well iirc. Wish I'd done my research tbh, plenty of impreza's owners I read of weren't happy with the quality.

 

[drhowser]

ah, shame!

another option could be the pss10's that yozza is selling?

 

[mbarnes]

cheers danny. yeah, after speaking to KW they put me off a bit, they still havent got back to me regarding spring rates on the v3 (not major but still) and yeah, to fork out that much and still have the rear as a seperate damper and spring when the AST setup doesnt do that isnt ideal.

That said, i dont want something that needs fixing every few months. If i could get a setup that was probably 70 / 30 for track / road, with full inverted rear coilover units i would do it.

every option seems to have some compromise.

 

[mbarnes]

this is for the 197. if Bilstein did a setup i would have bought it by now. that pss10 spec stuff seems amazing!

 

[drhowser]

this is for the 197. if Bilstein did a setup i would have bought it by now. that pss10 spec stuff seems amazing!

ah, sorry. i missed that..

i'm sure if you keep on at kw they would build a kit, they must have the parts there already.

 

[mbarnes]

lol, you'd think.

never realised it was this hard to spend money. probably just being fussy, but so what lol.

buying my wheels was easy

"hi demon tweeks, how much?, ah thanks"
"hi performancealloys, can you beat this price? oh marvelous, heres my card details"

4 days later, wheels turn up.

coilovers, still not sorted lol

 

[drhowser]

mine took a while to be built, they didn't do the kit before i ordered it.

how much are you looking to spend, are penske or ohlins going to be too much?

 

[ForceIndia]

Might be worth trying to contact Icarus or yozza.

 

[mbarnes]

spoke to icarus.

ohlins only do the R3 spec dampers, which at £3k a corner are too much, especially when you then need new hub carriers blah blah blah.

not looked at Penske, loads up google....

 

[drhowser]

12k?

i think you should do it

 

[Jay Payne]

Is Curtis still involved with ast?

Curtis IS ast uk now.
Doesnt work for powerstation but still on their site

 

[mbarnes]

lol, £12k plus addtional parts

 

[drhowser]

http://www.uwire.com/Article.aspx?id=4246042

15k for a kidney?

 

[ForceIndia]

Curtis IS ast uk now.
Doesnt work for powerstation but still on their site

Well, it was Curtis that had several sessions with my car and decided the rear axle was bent. Same axle that's on now.

 

[mbarnes]

You aren't the only person who has told me powerstation said their rear beam was bent. Frankly I don't want to go anywhere near a company that can't set a car up :s

 

[ForceIndia]

You aren't the only person who has told me powerstation said their rear beam was bent. Frankly I don't want to go anywhere near a company that can't set a car up :s

What worries is me is that although they seem to have on paper changed the set-up (ie powerstation and ast seperate) it's still the same guy it's always been in charge of the AST side.

 

[mbarnes]

Yeah although to be fair the shocks are built elsewhere in the world etc so would only have to deal with uk if something went wrong

 

[Kam.]

What worries is me is that although they seem to have on paper changed the set-up (ie powerstation and ast seperate) it's still the same guy it's always been in charge of the AST side.

Curtis is AST UK which is just an offshoot of Powerstation. He is not actually AST just a distributer. The split is just on paper as mentioned as its still run exactly the same as before (we still sometimes call powerstation when Curtis makes himself unavailable for contact through other means)

The suspension is very good from my experience. It would be nice to deal direct with AST though

 

[mbarnes]

Cheers. I noticed you listed ast gear on your website too. If I bought through you guys and still had issues would you deal with ast Europe or with uk?