I'm going to be buying some Coilovers for the new pile pretty soon. I had a question for you guys, I see there are two distinct types of coils for seemingly all of the VW chassis', I see the ones, much like stock, that use a separate damper and spring for the rear, and then ones that combine both onto one assembly.
Normally, this wouldn't bother me, but you see, there are like a gazillion types of coil overs out there for this thing, and I simply can't decide which ones to go for. I've been looking pretty intently at the setups that allow you to move the entire damping assembly down, as apposed to just moving the spring perch, which allows you to go low, without killing your effective damping area. And the other thinking I had, was that the ones that separate the spring and damper, well, they don't seem like they would go as low, or be as easy to adjust, but I could be totally wrong.
So, anyone have any thoughts? They need to go really low, and to save my spine, I'm thinking one that allows me to move the body itself, but what about the separate spring/damper get up? Do I go with that, or the unit that puts them both together....?
Ok seeing how i own a MKIII let me try to help you out, but this is gonna be in stupid terms.
TO GO LOW If you wanna go low and keep a super nice ride and not blow the strut. Then you are gonna want one that is three way adj. For example the B&G coil over set up. U can adj. the spring perch and then lower the whole strut with lower braket that mounts to the hub and adj. the dampening of the sturt up to. But for 1300 bucks you get alot and they are sooo worth it. Also the H&R ultra ultra lows are like that.
Performance You would want like a coil like mine now. The bilstien PSS or PSS9. they are not ment to go low and will last forever. Mine probably have 30K on them and were on a car in NYC and let me tell you i cant complain at all about the ride it is a nice ride and handles great.
I am not sure if that sums it up for you. But really you need to decide what you wanna do. Remember you have a 2.0 and that is really one of only VW's that you can slam and get away with it. But i warn you, you will rub fram.....I did in the old jetta when i lowered that. But if i were you I would go with like the FK Highsport or the H&R ultra low not the ultra ultra low. Try to stay away from paitec cause well they blow easy. But to tell you the truth I am very happy with the bilstien coils..........
OOO and I almost forgot to tell you also when you do get the suspension get the VR6 or the HD strut bushings and new strut bearings and the poly bushings for the rear.
Yeah I suppose I left that out. Get ready for it, I'm really not concenrned with the handling on this thing. There I said it, kill me now. And I can vouch for the awesomeness of Bilsteins, it actually has dampers from them on there now, and I wondered when I bought it why it rode so good. But I told myself that this car will be for driving around, not for hauling ass around, I'll have a bike for that soon enough. But yeah Lou I was looking at the B&G ones, some good stuff, there are some other companies out there now making some knock-off coils(think Megan Racing), that are probably not nearly as good as far as damping characteristics, but would probably do the job for what I want them to do. I dunno, I'm still debating if I want to try and take a coil out of the springs that are in there, see where that gets me. And while trying to save for a new bike, 1300 Coilovers don't really fit into the equation, I'm trying to keep this whole build up relatively on the cheap side. But I know you get what you pay for, I'll be the first to advocate that.
But Lou, since you do have a MK3, what are your experiences with the different setups like I mentioned in the first post? I'm starting to think that the combination setups have more adjustment(what I want/need), and that the ones with the seperate coils/dampers are geared towards more handling. But I dunno, that's why I'm here. I suppose I just need to take a look at both setups on an MK3, see which one tickles my fancy.
if you really don't care how it handles why not get some nice shocks and start cutting stock springs? or get one of those cheap coil over sleeves with decent shocks?
I guess I phrased that wrong, not that I want it to be ghetto. But if I were to be faced with a 600 dollar coilover setup VS. a 1000+ setup that I know handles better, I would opt for the cheaper set. That's what I meant.
Think I'd be safe taking a coil out of my current springs? I want to try that before I drop a bunch of money on suspension that maybe I don't 'really' need....
Ok well if cost is an issue, I got my coils for 100 bucks.....actually a roof rack. But yeah you can find a good deal cause trust me on that one. You really have to search the forums left and right.
LOUMO wrote: Ok well if cost is an issue, I got my coils for 100 bucks.....actually a roof rack. But yeah you can find a good deal cause trust me on that one. You really have to search the forums left and right.
Well if I could find a deal like that, then I would definately jump on it. But most of the setups I see, even on the used market, most Bilstein setups are around the 700-800 range, or at least from what I've seen.
Hey how do you guys feel about wheel spacers? I'm thinking I might just roll on these stock wheels for a while, at least until I get the initial bike purchase out of the way. But i want to bring them out a little, I was just wondering what you guys thought of spacers in general...
Yeah it seems like a pretty good option, and I mean, I can stuff RT-615's on the stock wheels for what I'd pay for just for wheels if I were to buy some.
Lou, what wheels/tires do you have on your Jetta? I'm trying to figure out how much room I have to work with...
Yeah I think that's a little too expensive for me. Good lookin out though. Oh and I really dont' care for how everyone one and their mother has them on MK2/3's. Where's the fun in that?
Hey sort of an urgent question, can I use coilovers from a VR6 on my 2.0 chassis? I would assume, save for the weight difference, the setup is the same. Thoughts?
Hey sort of an urgent question, can I use coilovers from a VR6 on my 2.0 chassis? I would assume, save for the weight difference, the setup is the same. Thoughts?
Yeah you just have to get the VR6 strut bushings all four corners and the front VR6 strut bearings and also the VR6 strut hats...................all those things are like 100 bucks and the bushings and bearings you wanna buy brand new and the strut hats you have to get off a car that has been parted out.
OOO AND THIS ONE IS FOR DARREN, YOU ARE NOT LOW AT ALL..........NOT UNLESS YOU ARE LIKE THIS SILVER JETTA TDI DRAGGIN SUB FRAME........ and the tdi has a bigger oil pan than the 2.0 and the VR6
OOO AND THIS ONE IS FOR DARREN, YOU ARE NOT LOW AT ALL..........NOT UNLESS YOU ARE LIKE THIS SILVER JETTA TDI DRAGGIN SUB FRAME........ and the tdi has a bigger oil pan than the 2.0 and the VR6
And I think, if I read the Vortex post right, he's not even on Coilovers...but yeah, that's pretty much asking for your subframe to get bent. Which is a wee bit worse than an oil pan....but you gotta admit, it looks pretty bad ass.
EMO4life
