Mix & match springs

[brad]

For those of you wondering about fitting different springs to their Octavia....

I have a 118tsi M6 sedan. I fitted a set of Eibach springs designed for a Vrs Diesel wagon. Generally, the Eibachs on a Vrs will give an additional 25mm drop on the Vrs which is already 25mm lower than the shopping trolley sedan that I drive.

As expected, the lighter weight of the 1.8tsi engine over the 2L diesel resulted in a drop in the front of 30mm intead of 50mm. (700mm down to 670mm)

The lighter weight of the sedan in the rear resulted in a drop of 10mm. (700mm down to 690mm). Both of these figures suit me fine.

The extra spring rate over stock has taken a lot of the slop out of the way the car moves on the road without making the ride harsh.

The wagon spring rate in the rear has eliminated the tendency to understeer & if you drive like a ***** & with excessive aggression, you'll get oversteer from the rear. Again, this suits me fine but it's very likely I'll remove the springs before passing the vehicle on to my daughter in 2 years time.

[wai]

You need to be very careful when playing around with springs; in particular spring rates.

It is very easy to end up with a setup that can see you end up in a dangerous situation.

The key thing is setting spring rates is where the pivot point for oscillations is. It is very easy to have this pivot point move from out in front of the car, to within its wheelbase, through to past the back of the car.

Be careful when trying to transfer settings for a race track to normal roadgoing use. Race tracks are much smoother and more predictable than everyday roads. It gets dangerous when you hit some bumps or other irregularities and you end up out of control.

Ride height and spring rates should be looked at carefully.

[brad]

Indeed.

There was a certain level of thought put into my decision to buy these springs. The stance & spring rate turned out pretty much how I expected. If it hadn't I would have gone back to stock straight away.

Further refinement will come will come with a wheel alignment once the springs have settled (I expect another 5-10mm of sag). At the moment the front will be toeing-in a bit more & the rear will be running a bit more -ve camber.

Not sure why you have introduced race track as these Eibach springs are fast-road spec & nothing to do with running on a race track. For track use, the spring rates would be at least double what these are.