Springs and shocks or coilovers -

[j0hn]

I want to drop my car a touch, mainly to improve the handling but also to reduce the 4x4 gap between the wheel and arch and improve the looks a little.

My budget is as little as possible, but in reality I know I will have to spend at least £500 to get something half decent.

My first choice, and in budget due to contacts, is a Bilstein B12 kit which I expect to drop the car in the region of 20mm (vRS). I've looked at all manner of sites, including DPM's, Awesome's and Europerformance at the myriad of options available and left wondering, particularly as I would like a more dramatic looking drop than 20mm, whether I should go for a different set of springs and shocks (eg a 50mm H&R Cup kit which in reality will give me more like 35mm) or if I should go for a set of coilovers. The latter will most likely be on the budget side and I guess I would be looking at AP, Weitec Hicon GT (what's the difference between GT and TX?), KW V1 (ditto between Basic and Inox?) or something else - Eibach Coilovers maybe?

I have lowered a couple of cars - years ago a Pug 309 on a Bilstein Sportline kit - it was terrible, rock hard but went round corners flat and, more recently a Focus on a set of Eibachs and Bilstein B4s, which was very, very good.

About a dozen times a year I load the car up with about 100kgs of musical equipment - the Focus was much more composed wiith this load after I fitted the uprated suspension. I have neither driven or been a passenger in a car fitted with coilovers. If I decided to go down the coilover route, I have no intention of dropping the car as far as it would go, max would be 30-40mm.

Things I've read on the interweb.

Coilovers will break my spine and shake my teeth out of my head

FSDs are actually not really that good, especially if you plan on pairing these with shorter than -20mm springs, and there are better shocks (eg the B8s in the B12 kit) for the money.

Discuss. I welcome your input and opinions.

[KR MAN]

I'm running Eibach coilovers on my Fabia VRS with a 45mm drop. The ride is no harder than standard, and certainly isn't a back breaker.

Having said that; it doesn't ride race car flat through the corners either.

I was in a similar situation to you and did a lot of research before I bought these (my first coilovers) and I'd recommend them to anyone looking for a decent drop but not wanting to ruin their ride quality.

[Guest]

FSDs are very good paired with Eibach Pro springs but might not give you the drop you require. I didn't want anything too hard as it's a family car but the ride is so much better than standard with far less roll in bends and corners.

[Leee]

I always say that if you don't intend on using your car track then there's no point In buying coilovers imo.

But then again you may have to consider it to get the required drop that you want

[B.DIFFERENT]

I'm running AP's and the ride is spot on. I was running on the lowest setting which was abit bouncey so raised it up by 5 turns. Rides better then OEM but with more control. I've got 3 kids and a organ grinder who love the ride now.

[rob_e]

I want to drop my car a touch, mainly to improve the handling but also to reduce the 4x4 gap between the wheel and arch and improve the looks a little.

My budget is as little as possible, but in reality I know I will have to spend at least £500 to get something half decent.

My first choice, and in budget due to contacts, is a Bilstein B12 kit which I expect to drop the car in the region of 20mm (vRS). I've looked at all manner of sites, including DPM's, Awesome's and Europerformance at the myriad of options available and left wondering, particularly as I would like a more dramatic looking drop than 20mm, whether I should go for a different set of springs and shocks (eg a 50mm H&R Cup kit which in reality will give me more like 35mm) or if I should go for a set of coilovers. The latter will most likely be on the budget side and I guess I would be looking at AP, Weitec Hicon GT (what's the difference between GT and TX?), KW V1 (ditto between Basic and Inox?) or something else - Eibach Coilovers maybe?

I have lowered a couple of cars - years ago a Pug 309 on a Bilstein Sportline kit - it was terrible, rock hard but went round corners flat and, more recently a Focus on a set of Eibachs and Bilstein B4s, which was very, very good.

About a dozen times a year I load the car up with about 100kgs of musical equipment - the Focus was much more composed wiith this load after I fitted the uprated suspension. I have neither driven or been a passenger in a car fitted with coilovers. If I decided to go down the coilover route, I have no intention of dropping the car as far as it would go, max would be 30-40mm.

Things I've read on the interweb.

Coilovers will break my spine and shake my teeth out of my head

FSDs are actually not really that good, especially if you plan on pairing these with shorter than -20mm springs, and there are better shocks (eg the B8s in the B12 kit) for the money.

Discuss. I welcome your input and opinions.

There's a lot of *******s written on the internet unfortunately.

I've done 65k miles in the last two years, 50k of that was on coilovers. Yes, they're firmly damped but they are not hard, harsh, crashy or bumpy or bouncy and my spine is still intact. The car regularly carries the family, including on foreign holidays and also regularly is filled up to the roof with crap going to the tip - it copes admirably with all of these tasks. To put it in context, my car rides better than SWMBO's mini cooper. Significantly better in fact. Not all coilovers are equal however and i'm sure there are some out there that are not as good as the weitecs I have.

So, the options: b12's get a bunch of good feedback on the golf forums but I've not heard of anyone running these on an octavia, and yes the will only drop the car 20mm or so which is not much at all. H&Rs - very interested in this myself as an option for the next car - their "comfort" kit appears to offer ride as good as if not better than stock, with a 35mm drop which would be perfect. I'd love someone else to try these and and let us know how they are.

Coilovers; AP get good reviews and are great vfm. I went one step up from these with the weitecs - essentially a very similar kit but galvanised for better corrosion protection. With the KW V1 you get one more rung up with the innox which IIRC is a stainless finish. In terms of ride on these three kits i'd expect to be virtually identical as they are all made by the same parent company.

BTW the weitex TX kit has some rebound adjustability i think, where my GT kit is fixed rate damping.

In terms of ride height, on a FL vRS for proper day to day use 35mm is just about as low as you want to go. I had mine at -45 for a short period and it was a pain - it would catch on speed humps and wasn't practical IMO. At the current height its fine.

Oh, and your findings on the FSD match with my own opinions.

Hope that helps?

This is mine at -35mm:

[Phil H]

I'm looking for a similar thing (30mm drop, but without the ride getting silly) and find myself looking at the Bilstein B14 coilovers. I get the feeling that Bilstein are considered in general terms to sell quality products, but I can't find anyone sharing any experiences of them being fitted to the octavia. Are people dismissing them for some reason that I haven't spotted? They seem to be about the same as other middle of the road (£) fixed damping coilovers.

[rob_e]

Yep, I'm confident bilstein b14 (or eibach coilovers mentioned above) would be quality items, but as you said; no one seems to have first hand experience of these kits on an octavia.

I chose the weitec kit over one of the above purely on the price, ie £300 cheaper at the time.

[Phil H]

http://www.n2o-tuning.com/47-127708/a-201359/

£666 for the Bilstein B14 looks pretty good to me! I think I'm gonna take a chance at that price.

[j0hn]

Thanks guys for the input and to Rob for the in-depth comments.

I have a feeling the B14 kit may be a step up in quality when compared with some of the other basic/entry-level kits, but I have nothing to back up this claim and am prepared to be proved wrong! But yeah, following this info, I think I will plump for a set of coilovers in the next couple of weeks as and when funds allow.

[rob_e]

At 600 quid thats' great value for money. That kit was 800 when i was looking - and its stainless so yes it is a better quality kit than say, AP coilovers or Weitec GT.

Looking forward to some feedback when you get it on the car

[Damian@DPM]

http://www.n2o-tunin...27708/a-201359/

£666 for the Bilstein B14 looks pretty good to me! I think I'm gonna take a chance at that price.

Great choice for the money and one of the best hcoilovers available in my opinion. If you want a little more comfort the B12 kit is also a good option and also one of the best springs and shocks kits available.

Damian @ DPM Performance

Edited 3 April, 2012 by Damian@DPM

[j0hn]

You have incoming PM

[rich453]

I'm looking at fitting B14's in the next month or so. Coupled with the poly bushes (already fitted) it will make a good car even better!!

[Phil H]

Just ordered Bilstein B12 for my new motor (which is apparently being built next week) :clap: I bottled out of buying the B14's due to fears of the ride just being a bit firmer than i want. I know the B12 won't give me the drop that I would have liked but not to worry. £462 is a bargain by my reckoning! http://shop.lightning-tuning.de/ i'll report back at the end of may when i've collected the car and fitted the B12's.

[j0hn]

And show us a picture too Phil.

£412 is pretty good, nearly £200 off UK RRP

[marcevo1]

Just ordered Bilstein B12 for my new motor (which is apparently being built next week) :clap: I bottled out of buying the B14's due to fears of the ride just being a bit firmer than i want. I know the B12 won't give me the drop that I would have liked but not to worry. £462 is a bargain by my reckoning! http://shop.lightning-tuning.de/ i'll report back at the end of may when i've collected the car and fitted the B12's.

Is that price including springs? If so bargain

[rob_e]

Looking forward to writeup and pics.

[Phil H]

Yes that includes springs and shocks. If somethings made in Germany it's probably cheapest there. I'm currently living in germany so postage is free for me, but it is only about 15 euros to all other european countries. In some cases we are being charged too much in the UK, but we all have the same chance to do the research.

Their website has a translate option, and having spoken to the bloke on the phone I can vouch for his English being (typical for a German) excellent.

I will of course do the photo/review thing when I get the car and fit the B12 kit.

I spoke to a couple of folk who are involved in proper (road and race) chassis engineering and it would seem that the whole dragging your exhaust along the ground thing is the laughing stock of folk who actually understand chassis engineering.

[Spongefactory]

Tempted by the B12s myself for that price.

What's the score with insurance? If I replaced a spring / damper as it was worn out (they are a wear and tear item) I wouldn't dream of notifying insurance, but these aren't OEM units. Discuss.

Also, ballpark for getting these swapped out from an independent? I assume 4 wheel alignment necessary afterwards?

Paul

[Phil H]

I spoke to my insurers the other day and all they were interested was that the new suspension was TUV approved and that it was fitted professionally...so for me that means fit it myself and then get a garage to confirm that I've done a good job. No premium increase.

[j0hn]

Was going to pull the trigger on a Bilstein B14 kit, but having a wobble now mainly over price. I know you get what you pay for, etc but even the best price I got (which was pretty good I have to say) is still £200 north of a B12 kit. I do want mine to drop a little lower than the 20mm the B12 kit will give. Any specific recommendations on a set of coilovers would be a well received. I've heard good and bad about KW V1s, but have not yet ruled them out.

[rob_e]

nothing much to add that i didn't already say in my post above and the weitecs I have are pretty good for the money, but i often wonder how the more expensive kits would have performed, so for me, i'd say spend the money and go bilstein.

having said that maybe if i'd spent the cash on a top dollar kit i'd be sitting here wondering if the cheaper kit would have performed the same and saved me some cash..

:p

[Mafuta]

I've got Bilstein B8 dampers with 35mm H&R Sport springs. Excellent ride and handling and 5mm lower than the Eibach springs that are normally part of the B12 kit.

[rob_e]

pics?