Hi guys, so i recently bought a Skoda Superb estate 4x4 (170 model). Needless to say i love the car, very impressed by it so far, however I am finding ground clearance to be an issue. I was considering the following:

 

Option 1: Lift kit installation: I have found the following lift kit and was considering installing it. My question here is, does anyone have any experience with this, or advice regarding this? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Complete-Lift-Kit-30mm-for-Skoda-OCTAVIA-SUPERB-YETI-/113302340369

 

Option 2: install larger wheels or tyres:The car is currently fitted with 17 in rims, tyres are 225/45. could i increase the tyre size to 225/55 on the 17 inch wheels with-out any major issues?

 

Please note: i found the previous thread posted a while ago that had tables detailed the ride hight of the superb, I have measured and it appears to be sitting within 2mm of the expected height, so I don't believe there is any issue with the suspension. The issue I am experiencing with ground clearance is more to do with the long wheel base.

 

Thank you for the help, this forum has been an amazing source of information so far!

Going from 225/45 to 225/55 will only add about 10 mm and it'll throw your speedometer and odometer out. 30 mm is an awful lot to lift the car by and I'd be concerned about geometry and tyre wear afterwards unless you can find someone who knows what they're doing to check the alignment afterwards. The highest stock ride height option is 20 mm above the standard setup, and is what I'd suggest looking for if you desperately want to lift it. Are you regularly driving on roads so bad that the car grounds out a lot or is just occasionally that you find it scraping a bit? If the latter, I'd suggest just slowing down a little on those bits. If you're bottoming out after bumps, it could also be that the dampers are done for and can't control the body movement properly any more, though if you're near the correct ride height they should be ok.

 

I put this together a while ago on the rear suspension which should offer some insight into the options for the rear at least (I haven't had time yet to do the same exercise for the front): 

If you can figure out which chassis your car is supposed to have, it gives you a starting point for modifying.

Thanks for the fast reply. just had a read through your thread and it was very informative!

 

I may be asking a very silly question here, but with larger wheels on the car, im assuming the speedometer would assume that I am travelling faster than I actually am? 

 

10mm may be enough in combination with slowing down a little, but as it stand my car is scraping both my driveway and the entrance to my work carpark, im having to try drive across the dips / bumps at an angle and was looking for a relatively cheap / easy fix, as I am otherwise very happy with the car. 

 

Having measured the ride height, my numbers closely correspond with the basic chassis numbers, so I am assuming that's it. 

 

The lift spacers are also available in 10mm on eBay, but strangely not 20mm, so maybe a combination of 10mm spacers and 225/50 tyres may be a safer option to achieve approximately 15mm of lift? 

 

I have a good garage that would be able to install the lift spacers, I just didn't know if there was any specific reason not to, however I will also be buying new tyres for the car soon so through it may be a good opportunity to gain a little height?

If you're lifting it, do it properly with the correct height springs and dampers as the manufacturer does. Those spacers don't look like they have anything to hold the spring in place laterally, plus they'll stretch the damper out which at best reduces the amount of downward travel available (so you'll get nasty topping out quite regularly on bigger bumps), and at worst would overstress the damper due to being more likely to top out in normal driving. A good garage is likely to tell you where to go if you rock up with those spacers.

 

Don't assume you know the car's correct ride height until you've dug up the PR code for the front damping: it'll be on the build label stuck inside the spare wheel well (and there's usually a copy inside the cover of the service book too). It'll be one of the ones listed in the geometry table I posted.

 

With larger tyres, you'll be travelling faster than the speedometer indicates: the speedometer will under-read. 10 mm should be still inside the speedometer's programmed offset, but in the worst case you could be travelling over the speed limit without realising it. You can mess around with figures on https://www.willtheyfit.com/ to see what different sizes would be like. It's up to you to decide what you can live with in terms of speedometer/odometer error after that.

 

If you find it's just the back that's sagging when you're loaded up a bit, you can look at fitting assister springs. They're discussed here:

 

8 hours ago, chimaera said:

If you're lifting it, do it properly with the correct height springs and dampers as the manufacturer does. Those spacers don't look like they have anything to hold the spring in place laterally, plus they'll stretch the damper out which at best reduces the amount of downward travel available (so you'll get nasty topping out quite regularly on bigger bumps), and at worst would overstress the damper due to being more likely to top out in normal driving. A good garage is likely to tell you where to go if you rock up with those spacers.

 

Don't assume you know the car's correct ride height until you've dug up the PR code for the front damping: it'll be on the build label stuck inside the spare wheel well (and there's usually a copy inside the cover of the service book too). It'll be one of the ones listed in the geometry table I posted.

 

With larger tyres, you'll be travelling faster than the speedometer indicates: the speedometer will under-read. 10 mm should be still inside the speedometer's programmed offset, but in the worst case you could be travelling over the speed limit without realising it. You can mess around with figures on https://www.willtheyfit.com/ to see what different sizes would be like. It's up to you to decide what you can live with in terms of speedometer/odometer error after that.

 

If you find it's just the back that's sagging when you're loaded up a bit, you can look at fitting assister springs. They're discussed here:

 

Once again, thanks for the help. 

 

The assister springs seem to be a very novel idea, I will have a look into getting some of these for the rear I think. 

 

I have run the numbers, and with 225/50 tyres I would be less than 5% out, which I can certainly live with, so I think a slight increase in tyres will be in order for a marginal gain. 

 

I will look into the label as you said and find my chassis number, then remeasure to ensure the number are correct. 

I fitted 225/50 tyres to my Superb, the speedo wasn't out, it simply made it more accurate, at least according to the GPS.

 

I didn't do it for the ride height, I did it because the roads I drive on were deteriorating badly and rural so pot holes were only noticeable after it was too late.

 

The increased side wall helped a lot.

 

 

 

 

 

1 minute ago, silver1011 said:

I fitted 225/50 tyres to my Superb, the speedo wasn't out, it simply made it more accurate, at least according to the GPS.

 

 

 

The speedo reads so high that You can go up wheel sizes also and it still doesn't make it read low.

Yep, so instead of being out, it's now spot on 👍

Thanks, this is very good to know. 

 

Out of curiosity, did you notice much difference with the increase in tyre size? any smoother ride or better handling of the rough roads?

1 hour ago, silver1011 said:

Yep, so instead of being out, it's now spot on 👍

But the odometer is wrong instead.

 No it isn't.

1 hour ago, ld8822 said:

Thanks, this is very good to know. 

 

Out of curiosity, did you notice much difference with the increase in tyre size? any smoother ride or better handling of the rough roads?

 

Yes, much comfier, less suspension intrusion and quieter too, but the noise improvement might have been down to the tyre type rather than size (I changed size at the same time as fitting winter tyres).

 

When it came to buying some more summer tyres I also upgraded to the larger profile, I wouldn't go back to the smaller tyres.

 

They aren't an approved size for the Superb (although they are on the Audi A4), so you might want to let your insurance company know if you do decide to change.

Hi.

If you do have any issues with insurance for any change you're thinking of making then please feel free to drop me a line.

Regards,

Dan.

The other way to look at it - is to get a quote for upgrading your suspension to the "Scout" specification or Rough Road specification.  That spec also raises your suspension by 10mm all around.  There will be a part number for this for your Superbe.  Ask at a good local VW specialist how much they would charge to change the suspension.  It should be pretty well plug and play.