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      05-01-2019, 09:14 AM   #1
Works
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Word of warning for folks considering ST/KW products

Quick heads up: I'm having major support issues with KW on my hobby/toy BMW 135i. The ST XTA coilovers that I have, which are manufactured by KW, did come with a manufacturing defect that I for the longest time thought to be installation issue as I did that with a friend of mine and we are no professional mechanics in any standard.

Basically the upper spring perches are loose and make an awful racket when the car is driven. Just google "ST coilover clunk" and you'll get plenty of results. I wish that I had done this before sinking money into the ST coilovers and just bit the bullet and had gone with Öhlins Road'n'Track instead. Oh well, hopefully someone reading this can make better judgement calls on this than I did.

I tried to work this out with KW online support and after giving me a major runaround with their warranty card, which required me to take my car apart to get all of the product codes and measurements for me they just blankly stated that I need to deal with the vendor directly and went dark.

Here is a short demonstration of my kit's defect:


Here is another BMW owner with E46 who has the exact same issue:


So, if and when you are dealing with KW products, get them from a local reputable vendor as KW the manufacturer does not care for one bit if you have issues with their products, even if it would be a well known manufacturing error on their part as I've found out.

I have to conclude that after the fiasco with their support I will be voting with my wallet and will not get any KW products, ever, if I can at all avoid it. If any of you however do, please know that if you have any issues with their products, you will need to deal all warranty claims with the re-seller. Luckily I bought mine off from Amazon, so they might have enough weight to pummel KW into submission and get me replacement front shocks as the E46 owner in the above video was not even able to get a response out of KW support. I luckily had dealt with their financial department before and could ask them to forward my support claim onwards as I didn't have any luck on reaching support through the email addresses that KW has posted on their site.

I did send a notification of their support failure to KW's COO, let's see if they have any vested interest do improve their customer facing support.
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E82 N54 hobby project - FlexFuel by Motiv/MHD - Stage1 turbos + FBO - ST XTA w/ AD08R
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      05-20-2019, 10:20 PM   #2
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We have seen many leaking KW struts and shocks but this is a first.
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      05-24-2019, 03:36 AM   #3
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That is disappointing to hear, both about the service and product. I was leaning towards KW since they have a strong rep in the other German car community, but I’m going to weigh my options again.
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