Rear Dampener, Weight Savings?

[AA95101]

Has anyone noticed this yet within the service guide?

I wonder how much this weighs and what effect it will have on the suspension.

Anyone remove this?

 

[RedCal]

Can't tell from the pic but if it's small-ish it is prolly just a vibration damper, won't save weight, and NVH will go up if you remove it...

 

[Ohiocruiser]

I removed that piece. About 5lbs. Didn't notice any difference in noise

 

[StingertimeNC]

where is that located?

 

[Ohiocruiser]

where is that located?

Rear subframe

 

[nhcowboy28]

Part out

 

[StingertimeNC]

Rear subframe

can you get too it without jacking up the car? or taking anything else off?

 

[Ohiocruiser]

can you get too it without jacking up the car? or taking anything else off?

I doubt, you can get to it without jacking the rear up. No need to remove anything to get to it. It is boltedvto subframe with 2 bolts

 

[RogueIV]

If you think 5lbs is really going to make a difference, you picked the wrong car, lol.

 

[StingertimeNC]

Ha, I know right. But it’s an easy 5 lbs or so. I think I’ve shaved close to 200 lbs out of the car at this point. That make a big difference.

 

[NS_Stinger]

If you really want to use weight savings to your advantage go buy the lightest weight wheels and tires you can afford. That will give you real results.

 

[StingertimeNC]

yep. shaved off 8 lbs per rear wheel and 7 lbs per front wheel already. I could do better but I wanted to add some width and stay 19".

 

[Ohiocruiser]

If you think 5lbs is really going to make a difference, you picked the wrong car, lol.

My car is about 250 lbs lighter than stock. And that 5lbs is part of it. So, it does make a difference!

 

[nhcowboy28]

My car is about 250 lbs lighter than stock. And that 5lbs is part of it. So, it does make a difference!

Make sure you enema out before you go tracking… another 5lbs there.

 

[Ohiocruiser]

Make sure you enema out before you go tracking… another 5lbs there.

I'll just drive naked

 

[StingertimeNC]

Make sure you enema out before you go tracking… another 5lbs there.

Can’t believe I didn’t think of that before, LOL!

 

[RM7]

Dampers like this are often there for reasons like tuning out frame vibrations and metal fatigue. An extreme example is airplane flight control flutter (videos available on youtube). This is also what is most likely happening with the brake rotors that people keep warping, but not enough people have made kia buy back the vehicle to force a change post-design and testing in that area. So in short, removing this is probably a bad idea, it's there for a reason. They wouldn't arbitrarily put weight somewhere just for funsies. Some people may confuse "damper" with specific applications, like sound deadening, bump absorption, but usually weights like these are used to change the frequency of the part, so that it no longer responds in a resonant way, at the same frequency as inputs that would cause those inputs to then amplify and ultimately lead to possible failure or structural compromise. In this sense, it's still a "damper", just not doing exactly what a shock absorber does.

 

[Ohiocruiser]

Dampers like this are often there for reasons like tuning out frame vibrations and metal fatigue. An extreme example is airplane flight control flutter (videos available on youtube). This is also what is most likely happening with the brake rotors that people keep warping, but not enough people have made kia buy back the vehicle to force a change post-design and testing in that area. So in short, removing this is probably a bad idea, it's there for a reason. They wouldn't arbitrarily put weight somewhere just for funsies. Some people may confuse "damper" with specific applications, like sound deadening, bump absorption, but usually weights like these are used to change the frequency of the part, so that it no longer responds in a resonant way, at the same frequency as inputs that would cause those inputs to then amplify and ultimately lead to possible failure or structural compromise. In this sense, it's still a "damper", just not doing exactly what a shock absorber does.

I agree with you. It is there for a reason. And before removing it, i knew, i might have to put it back. But i didn't notice ANY difference, so never bothered with that. It still sits on the shelf in the garage.

 

[RogueIV]

My point is it's a sporty GT luxury sedan not a race car. 5lbs by itself isn't going to be noticeable on the track or daily driving.

Now if you wanted to go on full racecar gut the entire thing, remove all the sound deadening and creature comforts extraneous wiring and electronics and cut out any extra bracketry that's no longer in use, then go ahead remove the subframe weights, otherwise I'd just leave it alone and enjoy the car.

I also want to state that if this thing was there to reduce fatigue you aren't going to notice it for a while, till something fatigues. Good example of this is an old diesel truck I used to own. I forgotten to reinstall a couple brackets/isolators that held the passenger side fuel hardlines in place. Truck ran fine for a 6 months till it sheared 2 of the lines right off of the injectors stranding me on the highway with my car trailer. the metal had fatigued from the extra vibrations. Note that these aren't typical fuel lines you see in gas engines either, they were THICCCCC. Bottom line is the parts looked useless but I learned the hard way they were there for a very good reason.

 

[StingertimeNC]

Interesting. I may put mine back on. At least the weight is down low on the car.