The Suspension Discussion Thread

[jonrb 0]

The missus is away next week, so thought that would be a good time to sneak these onto the car - http://www.kw-suspension.co.uk/variant-3.htm

I'd really like to see how you get on with these Kev because I have (completely independently) been seriously considering junking my Gaz setup for these.

 

Depends on what resale value there is in the Gaz setup I have ATM

[dukest 0]

The missus is away next week, so thought that would be a good time to sneak these onto the car - http://www.kw-suspension.co.uk/variant-3.htm

I'd really like to see how you get on with these Kev because I have (completely independently) been seriously considering junking my Gaz setup for these.

 

Depends on what resale value there is in the Gaz setup I have ATM

I'm a firm believer in "you get what you pay for" and will always spend as much as i can afford on bits, but I dread to think what you both spent on your highly specialised Gaz setups only to go for, or consider going for, something else of comparable or even higher cost within a year?! :shock:

Jon, don't I recall you posting about your other half already questioning your sense of restraint when the car came back from Stealth after all that recent work?! :D

[jonrb 0]

I'm a firm believer in "you get what you pay for" and will always spend as much as i can afford on bits, but I dread to think what you both spent on your highly specialised Gaz setups only to go for, or consider going for, something else of comparable or even higher cost within a year?! :shock:

Jon, don't I recall you posting about your other half already questioning your sense of restraint when the car came back from Stealth after all that recent work?! :D

:rofl: Yes, a very good point well made. :D

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Actually the KW V3s come in at about the same price as the Gaz, mine were £1003 inc VAT and delivery. Last year when I looked at the V3s, they were £1200 ish. More retailers are selling them now, so prices are more competetive.

 

Yes it's a shame Dukest, that I've had to get rid of the Gaz, and I too firmly believe in you get what you pay for but I think Gaz need to realise that although Dave Lyons (their key technician) is ex-Leda, it is not a Leda product. They have some issues to address.

 

I would have kept the Gaz if it were not for the issues Jon and I have had with them, but otherwise the dampers are among the best i've tried.

 

I should be fitting them this weekend and I'll report back on them.

 

Jon, if you go for these, the spring rate choices are 400lb front, 285lb rear, or 340lb front and 228lb rear. Naturally I went for the latter option :lol:

[jonrb 0]

Jon, if you go for these, the spring rate choices are 400lb front, 285lb rear, or 340lb front and 228lb rear. Naturally I went for the latter option :lol:

Ah, well that's where we differ as I have found to my cost. ;)

 

If I were to buy then I'd go for the stiffer setup as I have different requirements and demands to you, not least the fact I track mine. :)

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Maybe if your preferences were made more clear to begin with? :lol:

 

Opened up the KW box lastnight and the packaging, instructions and strut build quality are all absolutely first rate.

 

Curiously, the height adjuster rings, helper/main spring partition disc, top plates etc are all made of a plastic composite. Quite an ingenius way to solve the thread siezing issue if you ask me! :lol:

 

The bump and rebound adustments are made at opposite ends of the strut, top for rebound and bottom for bump. Accessing the bump adjustment will be a lot more awkward than on the Gaz units.....but we'll see how it goes!

[jonrb 0]

Maybe if your preferences were made more clear to begin with? :lol:

Well, yes. But equally if I'd known what my preferences were to begin with then that might have helped too. ;)

 

The bump and rebound adjustments are made at opposite ends of the strut, top for rebound and bottom for bump. Accessing the bump adjustment will be a lot more awkward than on the Gaz units.....but we'll see how it goes!

I tend to lie on the floor on my back and reach up and adjust blind on the Gaz anyway, so maybe that procedure will be what you need for the KW. Top adjustment on the rear is always a pain due to clearance, or certainly was with my Koni TAs.

 

Let me know how you get on. :)

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Well the KW V3s are on and I'm very impressed 8)

 

It all went on easily and was very nice kit to work with. KW clearly put a lot of thought and detail into their products and it showed when fitting it. Like for instance, the elongated top hole in the front struts to allow easy camber adjustments and the single height adjust rings with locking grub screws, composite plastic top caps and rings etc, nice click stop B & R adjusters, plastic rings under the bump stops (stops capillary sucking of the damper oil!) etc etc.....all nifty stuff and looks and feels like it will last for decades. Build quality is easily on par with Bilstein's best.

 

The rear struts have quite short springs, arguably a tad too short in my application, but the upside is MASSIVELY reduced droop, which is a good thing.

 

First impressions on the road are excellent. I knew the independantly adjustable low speed bump would be a good move and being twin tubes aswell, the ride over bumps and holes etc is very smooth and jiggle free. The same bumps used to cause the Gaz, H&Rs and Koni/H&R combos to jarr quite harshly into the cabin. From what I can remember of the standard suspension's ride comfort, I'd say the V3s are easily it's equal and that's high praise indeed considering I'm running 17s with 205/40s.

 

General road holding and handling are all superb too, easily a match to any of the other kits I've used, although curiously, the steering feels a lot lighter now that the Gaz has come off.

 

The only thing i need to sort is the ride height as it's far too low at the moment. I can just about get a finger between the arch and tyre all round and that causes bottoming out as you can imagine, but the KW's bumpstops are regular foam, so it hits them with some degree of comfort! Only trouble is, the afore mentioned short springs at the rear prevents much raising, they're already almost at the top of the strut, so i need to chat to the importer about getting some longer springs, but otherwise 10 out of 10 for me 8)

 

With the V3s, it seems you can have your cake and you can eat it too :lol:

[jonrb 0]

Get thee behind me Evil Kev, and stop tempting me. :)

 

So what have you done with the Gaz setup? Literally junked it? Got a P/X somehow? Managed to sell it?

[W3RKD 0]

Well the KW V3s are on and I'm very impressed 8)

 

It all went on easily and was very nice kit to work with. KW clearly put a lot of thought and detail into their products and it showed when fitting it. Like for instance, the elongated top hole in the front struts to allow easy camber adjustments and the single height adjust rings with locking grub screws, composite plastic top caps and rings etc, nice click stop B & R adjusters, plastic rings under the bump stops (stops capillary sucking of the damper oil!) etc etc.....all nifty stuff and looks and feels like it will last for decades. Build quality is easily on par with Bilstein's best.

 

The rear struts have quite short springs, arguably a tad too short in my application, but the upside is MASSIVELY reduced droop, which is a good thing.

 

First impressions on the road are excellent. I knew the independantly adjustable low speed bump would be a good move and being twin tubes aswell, the ride over bumps and holes etc is very smooth and jiggle free. The same bumps used to cause the Gaz, H&Rs and Koni/H&R combos to jarr quite harshly into the cabin. From what I can remember of the standard suspension's ride comfort, I'd say the V3s are easily it's equal and that's high praise indeed considering I'm running 17s with 205/40s.

 

General road holding and handling are all superb too, easily a match to any of the other kits I've used, although curiously, the steering feels a lot lighter now that the Gaz has come off.

 

The only thing i need to sort is the ride height as it's far too low at the moment. I can just about get a finger between the arch and tyre all round and that causes bottoming out as you can imagine, but the KW's bumpstops are regular foam, so it hits them with some degree of comfort! Only trouble is, the afore mentioned short springs at the rear prevents much raising, they're already almost at the top of the strut, so i need to chat to the importer about getting some longer springs, but otherwise 10 out of 10 for me 8)

 

With the V3s, it seems you can have your cake and you can eat it too :lol:

 

Im sure i remember you saying once that germans cant build suspension for english roads. Im glad you got them on at last!

[jonrb 0]

Im sure i remember you saying once that germans cant build suspension for english roads. Im glad you got them on at last!

You know Kev - he changes his ideas (and his suspension) more often than his underpants.

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Im sure i remember you saying once that germans cant build suspension for english roads. Im glad you got them on at last!

 

With the amount of posts I've made and the amount of different parts I've used, it's almost certain I will have said things that contradict myself over the years :D

 

The key to the Variant 3's riding so well is the independant [of rebound] adjustable bump. Without that, I'm pretty sure the low speed ride would be as choppy as any other uprated kit with pretty stiff spring rates.

 

The Germans do seem to make the piston rods at the back a little short though. You can only just get the top nut flush with the top of the piston threads, whereas normally you'd have 10-20mm exposed thread past the nut, which makes getting the things assembled in the car a bit easier as there's more thread to get hold of.

 

The front legs are perfect, so I don't know why they do that on the rear. H&R and Bilstein are the same.

 

Need to start playing with the settings now but already the cornering speeds are just plain daft :lol:

 

 

Get thee behind me Evil Kev, and stop tempting me. :)

 

LOL, maybe you should try mine before buying this time ;-)

 

I would say that you'd probably prefer the 400lb / 285lb option though 8)

 

So what have you done with the Gaz setup? Literally junked it? Got a P/X somehow? Managed to sell it?

 

Sat in the KW box in the shed at the moment. I did provisionally sell them to a member on here but having checked the rear struts, I can't move any of the adjuster rings at all, so the kit might well be bin worthy :? Actually, what was the warranty on the Gaz units again? They can damn well have the rears back and unseize them if they're still covered?

[Neil L. 0]

H&R/KONI TA's look-climatronic wiring-Golf from May 01.pdfPIC1.jpg[/attachment:2jwkjva3]

Better view -climatronic wiring-Golf from May 01.pdfPIC1.jpg[/attachment:2jwkjva3]

And-PIC3.jpg[/attachment:2jwkjva3]

7000miles down the line and still not happy with ride height(said tobe 30mm).Ride is fine so is the handling but still needs to go down another 10-15mm.

Can anyone suggest a different (lower) spring to go on the Konis - or am i better off buying a coilover kit but nothing too expensive!

The standard spring cups (VAG) are used currently - i've heard special lowering cups could help my current setup?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

The H&Rs take about 2 years to settle fully and then they'll be about 10mm lower.

 

Yes you can change the front spring caps for lowering ones. Venom do them I think and they're -10mm IIRC.

 

If the rear Konis are top adjusts, don't forget you can lower the spring base down on those too. With those dropped down a notch and the spring caps, it'll look about right.

[Neil L. 0]

What do i look for to determine if these are the Konis that you can alter the height (of base plate) on - these have got screws at the top to alter the hardness of the shock.

Are the rear only adjustable (base plate) if the similar TA's are fitted to the front? Im not really familiar with the range of Konis (and differing types!) as these were on the car when i purchased it - i added the H&R springs soon after buying it!

Would buying these lowering spring cups for the front - and dropping rears - affect the ride quality by much?

How much are the lowering cups?

[Kevin Bacon 5]

The rear Konis have a circlip under the spring base plate, which you can move to 3 or 4 different positions IIRC.

 

The top caps are about £20 I think and they don't affect the ride quality if you use MK4 front bump stops.

[Jim Bowen 1]

this is -40mm on weitec springs, just been changed to Pi springs and it pretty much the same height

[Neil L. 0]

That looks alot lower than mine tbh - are they 15' or 16' rims - im running 17' x 8'

I could in effect purchase Pi springs and match them with the Koni's - Yeh?

Otherwise i can buy the lowering cups and reset the rears a notch lower - can i see this circlip on the shock if i remover the rear wheel just to check i've got the right Koni's?

[zak 0]

if you have adjustable platforms its quite clear to see. As well as the cirlip and the platform you should see grooves cut in to the strut for the different height levels.

 

if you need any clarification just put up a picture of your setup and im sure someone will be able to confirm.

[Jim Bowen 1]

That looks alot lower than mine tbh - are they 15' or 16' rims - im running 17' x 8'

I could in effect purchase Pi springs and match them with the Koni's - Yeh?

Otherwise i can buy the lowering cups and reset the rears a notch lower - can i see this circlip on the shock if i remover the rear wheel just to check i've got the right Koni's?

 

they are the standard 15" rims, it has gone down quite a lot, i did measure before and after and it was 38mm lower straight off the axle stands, then sunk abit more after driving a little way

[ReekieVR 0]

toonvw - who do you use in the N.E. to do your suspension work ?

I am having trouble getting it done by someone i trust up here.

[T1berious 0]

Hi,

 

I've just been looking at this thread after getting linked to it and I was hoping one of the suspension Guru's here might point me in the right direction regarding sorting out my suspension :D

 

I'm running a VR6 and have been for 11 years but the time has come for me to sort the shocks out as the crashing about is beyond funny now. :shock:

 

What would you recommend in the way of suspension kits? I'm running the statndard 15" wheels but hope to be changing these to 17" in the near future.

 

I'm keen to keep a good balance between ride height and comfort (roads around here are bump riddled and I do a fair amount of motorway miles).

 

Thanks in advance for any help

 

T1b

[Kevin Bacon 5]

Anything from Weitec or KW gets a goodly amount of thumbs pointing up on here mate....

[Kevin Bacon 5]

That looks alot lower than mine tbh - are they 15' or 16' rims - im running 17' x 8'

 

That's because 40 profile 17" tyres visually increase the arch-to-tyre gap, which creates a less than desirable 'jacked up' look on 17s. Mine looked exactly the same as that with 8x17 RH rims and the same HR/Koni combo, and also not aided by the wheels poking out past the arches slightly, which brings the wheels to the main focus of your attention.

 

You need to drop a car with 17s a lot more than you do with 15s to get the same visual effect as 3corsameal's. Been there, got the oily T shirt.....

[Jim Bowen 1]

yeah i don't really want bigger rims as i like the comfy rides and bouncy tyres too much :lol:

 

and the speedlines look good on corrados 8)