Lowering springs on factory shocks - a bad idea?

randomshenans said:
Still going to kill you tbh.
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With the stock shocks it feels like I'm going to die when I take a corner anyway. :p

The stock wheels on the 1.2 9N are incredibly narrow as well - (visibly narrower than on all the other 9N's) and they are currently wearing a missmatched set of cheap tyres of the sort which would make some of the members posting in this thread cry for hours. :rolleyes:

It is more likely that I'll end up killing myself with the current config, than it is that some JOM's will kill me paired with some much wider wheels with better tyres.
 
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Don't bother. Unless you can afford to get a matched shock and spring kit that is designed for the car by people who know what they are doing, it's a pointless venture.
I had my old 306 lowered by 50mm with shorter shocks and even then I kept encountering problems until I replaced a whole load of other components to match the low ride height.
Save your money and put it towards a holiday of a better car.
 
So to summarise the thread...

Cheap 50MM springs are an absolute no and I have scrapped that idea.

JOM coilovers will be fine for my use-case, but I shouldn't expect too much from them and I might have to buy a titanium spine - some people however seem to think they will kill me. I presume because they have better cars with better shocks and are up on their high horses laughing.

More expensive coilovers will be better (duhh) and some people seem to think that I should fork out £500 - £1000 for the shocks and then not have them as low as I want them "because its insane".

So my options then... Buy JOM shocks and lower them 50MM, making a few people in this thread laugh even more and start purchasing condolence cards for my folks, or don't buy any shocks at all. :p
 
Matt82 said:
and as for coilovers, as far as i can tell you have to spend almost a grand to get something good
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Depends on car make.

DC stuff on E46 M3's are OK, but ONLY OK and cost about 1k and expect them to go up soon as they are selling them cheap to try and win customers.

But a good set of coilovers for E46 M3 are KW Clubsport, AST, Moton, Intrax all of which will cost 2-3k. Then if you go for something like Nitron or Ohlins your looking at 5-8k

With suspension the more you pay, the better it is. Anything under 1k is 90% of the time crap, poor quality or fails fairly soon.

Like Housey says on a 911, a set of ohlins are 6-12k depending on spec/usage.

No such thing as good cheap suspension especially if you want something that's very good on both road and track.
 
Gibbo said:
No such thing as good cheap suspension especially if you want something that's very good on both road and track.
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But if for example, the OP wants shocks that will remove the massive gap between the tyres and arches and expects nothing from them other than a stiffer and more level ride at sensible speeds, preferably with a lack of death, compared with spongey, high, 12 year old stock shocks, and will never take the car to a track.....

.....? :p
 
Have a look at Bilstein B12 dampers and springs. I believe they use a shortened damper with matched springs (I had B8 dampers and Eibach springs on my 306) and that's the minimum I'd be looking at rather than wasting money on rubbish.
 
Aftermarket suspension with a lowered ride height of <50MM and non-standard alloys together will bump it up by £78, but I just got a reduction of £53 after changing my occupation.

If you knew how much I pay for insurance you'd know that isn't a big deal at all. :p

And as for whether or not I'm fitting them myself, I was going to get my Dads mate who is a mechanic to fit them, and I thought I'd have to pay to have everything aligned etc too?

Whether or not I decide to do it myself depends on how much of a job it would be, I haven't fiddled with suspension before.
 
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JOM are pretty good for the money really you can't complain.

FWIW I had grinder spec gmax springs on my silver colt, maybe 50mm drop on stock shocks. It was surprisingly good tbf and the shocks never blew.
 
OP...50MM is a fair way down, are you sure that's how low you want to be?

As for what to get, well that's a bit of a minefield. I did find a really good thread elsewhere a while back for Mk2 golfs and various different options of brands and prices which I was going to link so you could get a better understanding but I can't find it. :(

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=14131382 - This thread by Lopez could do with a read for you.

Loads of people are happy with cheap/eBay coilovers, hell, I bought my mk2 Golf with some unknown lowered kit on it (really need to inspect them and find out what it's running). I suspect the kit on my car is a cheap one, it rides really well though, it's harder than my E30 was but it's also much more comfortable, compliant and drives better than a standard one. The ride isn't crashy or anything either which is impressive given I'm on some big alloys and minimal rubber.

I suggest finding either a middle ground in terms of cheap and expensive lowering systems and going for an adjustable coilover system, from ebay/Venom/etc. if you look on VW/Polo forums you'll find loads of information about what others have fitted, how they find them etc. :)
 
I just wouldnt bother. Its a 12 year old car that has the performance of a horse and cart, dont add your car to the long list of chav mobiles. I see so many cars round my way which have been lowered way to far and look ****. If you had to do it buy the H&R springs, may not get you as low but are going to be better.

Assuming this is your first car, just leave it and mod a car that deserves it. Dont waist it on a 12 year old Polo.
 
matthab said:
I just wouldnt bother. Its a 12 year old car that has the performance of a horse and cart, dont add your car to the long list of chav mobiles. I see so many cars round my way which have been lowered way to far and look ****. If you had to do it buy the H&R springs, may not get you as low but are going to be better.

Assuming this is your first car, just leave it and mod a car that deserves it. Dont waist it on a 12 year old Polo.
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Why? He wants to modify his car to improve it for himself, whilst that may not be of your taste at least he is asking for some advice as to how to go about it rather than just having gone ahead and done it and said "luk @ mi cr iz wel sik innit" or something.

You have to learn and start somewhere, why not start on this Polo and build his experience with modding so he knows what to do/what not to do on another car later.

Whilst I don't think he should stick the cheap 50mm springs on his car without changing the dampers, I also don't think he should be flamed as much as he is. He obviously is interested in doing this but his budget is only so big so rather than flame him, give him advice within his budget. :)
 
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