# Word of warning for folks considering ST/KW products



## works (Aug 12, 2018)

I did post this as a reply to the lowering thread, but I do think that this can warrant it's own thread to raise awareness regarding KW's products as they seem to be the first that are going to come on-line with Model 3 coilovers in EU. US customers will have more specialized selection to choose from with Mountainpass (manufactured by KW!!) and UP (Öhlins internals).



works said:


> I did reach out to KW regarding the release schedule for P3D and got a reply back that they will start selling them in three months.


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. 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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## MMMGP (Dec 20, 2018)

The MPP (KW) kit requires the use of the factory upper spring hats so this will be a non-issue with the TM3.

I had an E36 M3 sedan with a Ground Control coilover kit and it would clunk too.


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## works (Aug 12, 2018)

MMMGP said:


> The MPP (KW) kit requires the use of the factory upper spring hats so this will be a non-issue with the TM3.


Yes, of course. Point that I was trying to make is that dealing with KW's support is a nightmare if you have any issues with them straight out of the box or later. And that ST/KW products, as I've now found later on, tend to have these quality problems in them. I wasn't trying to indicate that this specific mechanical issue that I am having with quite a few others would be the same on MMP products, but they might be on KW's own set if they come with the upper spring perches from factory.

What I tried to convay with my thread for users is information on if they can go into a KW ownership, they can do it with open eyes knowing that if they ever have issues with build quality on their purchased KW products, they will be in for a bit of a fight if they don't have access to a good vendor where they've bought the products from.


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