CharlieC

People talk about coil-overs for the TT, as opposed to just improved springs or dampers, I've done so myself. But now I have a question as to what we all mean by the term.

I've always taken "coil-over" to mean a high-end suspension member where the the spring and the damper are coaxial and the spring perches are adjustable. They may also have adjustable damping (rebound alone or rebound and bump).

Looking at my pictures of the rear suspension of the TTQ, however, the springs and dampers are not coaxial. So what are people referring to when they talk about putting coil-overs into the TT as opposed to springs and dampers?

Thanks!

jgriff

What we are talking about is ride hieght adjustable springs. THe fronts are true coil over, while the rear are separate, but adjustable. Personally I went with Sport springs from H&R an Bilstien dampers. It has made a huge difference but is not an adjustable setup.

hschneTT

I know this is a controversial topic. I put springs only on my GTI in a single-rate 300/200 #/in configuration and initially did not replace the OEM dampers. After about a year or so I upgraded to Bilsteins.

What I'm wondering is, for the HR or other progressive rate springs, is the missmatch of spring rate to damper as noticeable right away. or can you live with just swapping springs?

jgriff

the performance of the stock dampers. They are just not strong enough to handle the higher rate spring. Frankly I think you are money ahead to do the dampers when you do the springs. you only pay for teh install one time. THe rears are of course easier as it is not a strut, but on the fronts you will have to remove the spring/damper twice, and presumably align twice.

The cost of the HR and Bilstiens with install and alignment was right about $1,000. $220 for springs, $650 for dampers and $250 for install and alignment. Round m\numbers, I would have to dig out my reciepts for actuals.

hschneTT

do the progressive springs effectively provide, and is that enough to overwhelm the stock dampers?
Apparantly even with the progressives it is. Thanks for the info on that.

On my GTI the spring rate was increased to about twice the stock rate. Does anyone know an effective rate increase for the available TT aftermarket springs?

evan

have commented that even with 5K miles on the shocks, they could be compressed easily by hand once removed from the car, while others said theirs were even leaking at that point (read:they suck.) For what its worth.

hoTTub

I would say that the stock shocks are a little overwhelmed by the stiffer springs.

Are they unsafe? No but I will be upgrading the suspension soon.....

TTschwing

The problem is the stock shocks inability to handle the increased rate of the new spring. Damping needs to be tighter to deal with the increased energy. I have done this twice.

First experience on a 1995 993 Porsche. 28K miles on the original dampers. Put Eibachs on and never felt the car worked well after that. It was obvious that more damping was needed and a shock upgrade called for.

Next was on a 1999 Miata. 500 miles, did the Eibach thing again and this worked pretty well but only because the stock shocks were fresh. At
7K miles it was starting feel like the shocks were not keeping up with the springs. Instead of new Koni's. traded for the 225TTQC!

It is my feeling that the TT is far from overdamped. Stiff springs without a shock change does not seem like a good idea with this car.

Good luck!

hschneTT

I had similar experience on my VW. Did springs at 20k, shocks were OK. At ~32k added Bilsteins as the OEM were beyond terrible. Am at 45k now and still feels very firm. Actually, in summer with low profile tires on, I think its too firm.

I would like to avoid making that mistake (going too firm) with the TT.

D in Van BC

too hard and then lots of compression because the shocks were too soft. The advantage of 'coilovers' is that the damper and the spring is tuned to work togther and you have the option to adjust ride height albeit lower than stock. Being unhappy with the A4 setup, I got a 'tuned' spring and damper package for the TT. It has a 50% stiffer spring rate but it works well together. Although the coilovers have an ongoing problem with the rear spring setup, I heard the cure will be arriving mid Feb. HR has awesome customer relations.