I've wanted to lower my MK2 Fabia vRS for a while but never wanted to because of the costs, but at the moment I can get H&R lowering springs for £106 which is a great price!

Anyway, my car is 4 years old now and has done 53000+ miles, so I was wondering if lowering springs would shorten the life of the standard dampners/shock absorbers. I don't know how long they last as standard? Ideally I'd love the Bilstein B12 kit but that's a bit expensive!

Your dampers will be nearly shot anyway, with lowering springs your dampers work much harder and if you have not matched dampers your car can end like tigger bouncing down the road I had those springs with Koni FSD dampers, after I just replaced the springs and it did my  head in after 2 months. You have to factor in fitting and four wheel alignment and your bushes will be shot too. After though handling and ride sublime 

So it's best to go the whole hog and replace the springs, dampners and bushes and then get the 4 wheel alignment done?

That could well cost a bit more! How long do the standard ones last roughly?

My car had only done 32k when I swapped mine, but was amazed what a  difference it made , standard ones  are not up to dampening shorter springs, a mate did not head my advise and then eventually conceded, the standard dampers quickly get shot with shorter springs to the point where rear passengers feel sick over undulating roads 

On a MK2 Fabia vRS the OEM standard springs (front) are prone to break before the standard dampers give up.

Some at around 40,000 miles.

I have broken front springs on the drivers side twice on Twinchargers.

When fitting new OEM front springs i fitted Nearly  New Dampers that had been take offs after others had been Upgrading.

 

If changing the springs you would be as well to get new dampers at that time.

When fitting lowering springs you really would need to be getting the alignment checked and possible front adjustment done.

 

There will be members in the Mk2 section that might have noticed Seasonal Bargains.

(Maybe worth looking at Coil Overs.)

I'm likely going to go down the coilover route (mk2 Fabia Vrs as well Millsy) for precisely the reason George hints at, the standard dampers can't cope for long with the lowering springs. Initially I had looked at getting Eibach lowering kit from Skoda but it was springs only, so wasn't addressing concerns I had with dampers.

 

In moving to coilovers I'm also toying with the idea of 8-12mm spaces being fitted to improve the aesthetics as I'm thinking when lowered onto standard rims that the wheels could almost appear to have disappeared into the car. Will weigh it up a bit more before committing.

I think I've got my eyes/heart set on the B12 kit, over coilovers as I've heard nothing but good things about it. Would set me back £550-600 just for the kit itself without fitting but should last the life of the car and some. Just not sure if I want to spend that kind of money. See if I can get some overtime in at work so it's not quite so painful lol.

Would the RARB have to be removed to fit something like that?

I went and had the B12 kit fitted by the way, if anyone is wondering whether to get it, it's worth spending the extra cash! Great piece of kit.

I went and had the B12 kit fitted by the way, if anyone is wondering whether to get it, it's worth spending the extra cash! Great piece of kit.

Have you got a linky link? Not forgetting the picky pic

Have you got a linky link? Not forgetting the picky pic

Here is where I got them from: http://www.amdtuning.com/skoda/fabia/5j-1-4-tsi-177bhp-2010/bilstein-suspension-upgrades-896/bilstein-suspension-0

They weren't much more than other places and they fitted them for free too, so seemed like a fair deal. As for pics, I'll try and remember to upload them later this evening. Doesn't look massively low, just how it should have been out the factory and of course handles much better too.

stock dampers and bad roads = max 20k km

high performance driving and bad roads = max 10k

 

hard "tuning" springs and stock dampers = deadly...dampers must match spring characteristics

 

comfy, sport feel - stock springs + Koni FSD

sporty feeling - Weitec Ultra GT

if you' re fan of road grinding with front axle carrier - anything else. It is especially bad on Fabia because it is already so low on stock springs.

if you love performance driving...custom stuff