Shocks and springs

[AaronLister]

So I’ve got a vrs, mapped to 180bhp with supporting mods for more than that but I’m happy with that for now. 

I have 312mm brakes on the car, but standard suspension. To be honest it handles like a boat! I’m looking to stiffen the car up a bit, I don’t go mad when driving or go on track so I don’t need to pile thousands into making it handle amazing. Just looking for something a bit better than standard. 

I also don’t want it really low. I’m wanting a drop of around 25/30mm at most. 

I was going to get eibach 25mm lowering springs, will standard shocks be okay with these? The front shocks are brand new I should add. 

What else can I get to stiffen it up, RARB, strut braces, polybush mounts? 

I will be fitting Octavia spiders on in the new year too, any tyre recommendations? Not a millionaire either so I can’t afford to pay a massive amount for tyres haha!

 

Thanks

Edited 16 December, 2017 by AaronLister

[JWvrs25]

IMO spending money on decent tyres is one of the best ways of making it handle well. No good putting on uprated suspension and RARB if its going to slide everywhere in the wet. FWD and remapped turbo diesel = wheelspin

Get the front wishbone rear bushes changed for poly ones. PSB do cheap ones and seem to work well.

Replace the rear shocks if you are touching the springs as they look past their best the bump stops are perished looking at your picture.

[sepulchrave]

Eibachs work fine with standard shocks but I would definitely replace the rears since you've done the fronts already.

 

A RARB is nice but solid console bushes are by far the most important mod for turning in and holding a line.

[VWD]

5 hours ago, clarendon462 said:

IMO spending money on decent tyres is one of the best ways of making it handle well. No good putting on uprated suspension and RARB if its going to slide everywhere in the wet. FWD and remapped turbo diesel = wheelspin

Get the front wishbone rear bushes changed for poly ones. PSB do cheap ones and seem to work well.

Replace the rear shocks if you are touching the springs as they look past their best the bump stops are perished looking at your picture.

Be aware that Powerflex sell uprated bushes for better handling.

[bspman]

16 hours ago, clarendon462 said:

IMO spending money on decent tyres is one of the best ways of making it handle well.

 

My experience with my octy:

 

1. Went from Bridgestone Turanza T001s to Goodyear Vector 4 seasons - Road noise pretty much gone.. but steering became annoyingly vague in the summer (colder weather handling more favourable).

2. Fitted a whiteline adjustable RARB and set it to medium - Handling sorted, but REALLY wouldn't want to set anything past medium. Soft is probably more appropriate and bear in mind if you drive your lightweight fabia like a nutter with the RARB on - you might just flip it!

 

I bought my tyres due to where I'd be working, But you can probably fit some other ones to help with your handling.

[duck]

I am on standard suspension and the Whiteline RARB made a big improvement to the handling and I would say is the No1 thing to do, uprated console bushes were 2nd best thing (this assumes your std console bush are currently ok)

 

I have run the Whiteline RARB on soft/medium/hard setting and did not notice much difference, its been on the hardest setting for years now and not flipped on its roof yet...far from it!

[Clarke2744]

 

Have a read through this for all you need to know about poly bushes.   

Regarding the rest of the handling, mine is fitted with white line RARB, on hard setting (not much difference from the medium setting I had it on when I fitted it).  The RARB made a huge difference to handling, pretty much eliminates understeer snd you can drive the car on its throttle through corners which you couldn’t as stock.

I second what’s been said about tyres, I bought the car with ditch finders fitted... quickly fitted some Goodyear Eagle F1 Asy2 on the front axle which vastly improved things.   Have recently renewed the rear set for the same, so Goodyear’s all round.  The car feels really balanced with them all round!  They’re about £84 each inc fitting from black circles online.

Very nice car, looks really clean!!

[Feraz]

My Fabia on Eibach 25mm lowering springs with standard shocks, Massive improvement over standard springs and the best modification i've done so far.. doesn't handle like a boat anymore.

[duck]

24 minutes ago, Feraz said:

My Fabia on Eibach 25mm lowering springs with standard shocks, Massive improvement over standard springs and the best modification i've done so far.. doesn't handle like a boat anymore.

 

 

How do you rate the ride quality/comfort of the Eibach's compared to the standard springs?

[Feraz]

1 hour ago, duck said:

 

How do you rate the ride quality/comfort of the Eibach's compared to the standard springs?

I do a lot of motorway and city driving with 4 up in the car and it's honestly not that bad. The only benefit from standard springs was that you could just bomb through speed bumps without slowing down. With these springs its the best of both worlds, the car looks lower without affecting the comfort by to much.. just avoid pot holes.. they hurt  

 

I would never go back to standard springs now they make the car look like a tractor and when I used to brake the car would barely stop. I don't know how but these springs improved the braking as the car is now much easier to stop.

 

Edited 21 December, 2017 by Feraz
Typo

[sepulchrave]

1 hour ago, duck said:

 

How do you rate the ride quality/comfort of the Eibach's compared to the standard springs?

 

All upsides and no downsides, standard setup was like having pogo sticks on each corner.