Shocks, springs, coilovers ? ? ? $ $ $

[seangti]

I've ended up going with bilsteins as the price I got them for is only marginally more than the Koni's. If the price was $300 different as I got quoted from GSA (which is still a fair price from the calls I've made), I would have stuck with the koni's. As I don't intend on adding sway bars, I thought the sacrifice of a marginally firmer ride versus the additional $500odd for sways was reasonable. Now just fingers crossed I've made the right choice.

[FL00DY]

I have a n00b question. Rebound and damping, are they the same thing?

[VWindahouse]

Nice work Sean, I'm sure you'll love em!

[seangti]

I have a n00b question. Rebound and damping, are they the same thing?

not to my understanding, but someone please correct me or elaborate.

rebound is the pressure/force required to push the wheel back to surface once it's taken a hit. say a speed bump.
Damping is the opposite, being the ability and speed at which it absorbs a hit and then controls it back to normal ride/operation.

As for what makes a nice ride or best suits a performance strut, no idea.

[Stuwey]

I know i've said it before, but if you want to learn about suspension and what you want/need, read up.

Autocross to Win (DGs Autocross Secrets) - ATW Home Page

The "shock dyno plots" page should shed some light on your question.

I learnt ALOT from this website about shocks which helped me lean toward my Bilsteins.

[barra240t]

Hi all,

I have been keen on changing my suspension/shocks only because the visual height of the polo GTI from stock is pretty high. So I don't want to go to any track days or race around the streets, I drive around town, sometimes up the highway and thats about it. What would be my best option to go for if all I am interested in is changing the ride height to make my car more visually pleasing? I have the standard 16" wheels at the moment and I don't think I will change either. Any comments would be great.

[seangti]

Hi all,

I have been keen on changing my suspension/shocks only because the visual height of the polo GTI from stock is pretty high. So I don't want to go to any track days or race around the streets, I drive around town, sometimes up the highway and thats about it. What would be my best option to go for if all I am interested in is changing the ride height to make my car more visually pleasing? I have the standard 16" wheels at the moment and I don't think I will change either. Any comments would be great.

probably just changing to H&R springs will do the trick for you. At city speeds they are fine, as is for belting up and down the sunny coast highway. have a search through the many posts of people passing comments on the H&R's.

[break]

probably just changing to H&R springs will do the trick for you. At city speeds they are fine, as is for belting up and down the sunny coast highway. have a search through the many posts of people passing comments on the H&R's.

That said, you really should be changing your shocks anytime you mess with the springs. Stock shocks with H&R's are likely to negatively impact handling, even if they do give you the ride height you're after. Matching a set of shocks to a set of springs is critical to handling.

[insanekiwi]

Matching shocks / springs is the best way, but if you are after better ride height, and reasonable drive, go with H&R springs. I have them on mine since about 20 months ago on standard shocks. Yes, it could be better, but it's not horrible. You should also do drop links together, or Whiteline front sway bars, as otherwise they could make a knocking noise from the front.

And if you decide to keep the car for long, you can always do shocks later. H&R springs on track proved to be better than stock springs, but then the road quality is good, so shocks get less work out than road with lots of pot holes / uneven cambers etc.

[barra240t]

Thanks kiwi bro, I might go down that road, which I did in my last car and never had issues on factory shocks. Did you do the mondeo drop link or the sway bar? Sorry I'm not that mechanically minded, why does changing the springs created a knocking noise?