NEW Öhlins coilovers

[splashalot]

Yeah I saw that cheers Steven, but from my understanding of it, to get the standard height you'd need to pre-load the spring quite a lot, which isn't good for ride quality....and the spring could potentially go coil bound sooner.   Therefore the best solution is to leave the threaded collars in their default position and go for longer springs.  230mm rear and 200mm front would do it     It adds about £250 to the bill though 

Cheers. 

Bugger - that's just getting too $$$$ for me.  Leaves me with the FSDs....or VWR dampers with new OE springs, if I'm feeling brave 

Kind of feeling like giving up on this as well.  Too many caveats and gotchas to deal with for a daily car.   Apparently these 'cheap' Ohlins (pronounced 'erlins' ??) are made in the far east.  I wonder if that's why they need rebuilding every 30K? 

Not a fan of Koni.  Appalling reliability/quality.  The reputation they had in the 90s for quality is long gone.  They went all cheap on manufacture like everyone else, but still charged the same prices.  Lifetime warranty is handy though, and you will need it!

Feeling the same way, Kev.  That mk7 GTI is looking tastier by the day!

[Shoduchi]

Yeah I saw that cheers Steven, but from my understanding of it, to get the standard height you'd need to pre-load the spring quite a lot, which isn't good for ride quality....and the spring could potentially go coil bound sooner.   Therefore the best solution is to leave the threaded collars in their default position and go for longer springs.  230mm rear and 200mm front would do it     It adds about £250 to the bill though 

Cheers. 

Bugger - that's just getting too $$$$ for me.  Leaves me with the FSDs....or VWR dampers with new OE springs, if I'm feeling brave 

Kind of feeling like giving up on this as well.  Too many caveats and gotchas to deal with for a daily car.   Apparently these 'cheap' Ohlins (pronounced 'erlins' ??) are made in the far east.  I wonder if that's why they need rebuilding every 30K? 

Not a fan of Koni.  Appalling reliability/quality.  The reputation they had in the 90s for quality is long gone.  They went all cheap on manufacture like everyone else, but still charged the same prices.  Lifetime warranty is handy though, and you will need it!

Not heard any problems from Koni dampers yet. My mechanic has fitted lots of them with just good feedback from its customers. That's why he recommended me to buy the Koni FSD for my family Golf and the Koni Sport for my daily Ed. 30. They weren't that expensive either. FSD cost me 539 € (£481 at current exchange rate) and the Sport cost me 464 € (£415 at current exchange rate).

I've fitted the Koni FSD in Dec/2013 and the car has done 80.000 km/49.700 miles so far and without any issue.
The Koni Sport were fitted in Sep/2015 and the car has done 16.000 km/10.000 miles (4 track days) and the suspension is still fresh (as I expected it to be).

[Shoduchi]

I was told that I can also get the Koni dampers repaired in their factory in my country for a cheap price too, which helped making the decision over the Bilstein B8.

[paul n]

Yeah I saw that cheers Steven, but from my understanding of it, to get the standard height you'd need to pre-load the spring quite a lot, which isn't good for ride quality....and the spring could potentially go coil bound sooner.   Therefore the best solution is to leave the threaded collars in their default position and go for longer springs.  230mm rear and 200mm front would do it     It adds about £250 to the bill though 

Surely just a 20mm drop wont' have any issues with rubbing with standard wheels and tyres? loads of people run lower than that? bernard30 are you running your Ohlins at 20mm drop? are you running them with standard top caps? I am seriously considering a set of these! A hell of a lot of cash but in my mind if they are that good and last well probably money better spent than money on average dampers and then other bits to try to make it handle better like uprated anti rolls bars etc. Even thinking that subtle suspension will help with traction if it is not skipping/ hopping over bumps so might negate the need for a locking diff somewhat (I am probably on the verge of needing one with 300 ish bhp) 

For me it would be a set of these and then standard everything else and use the damping adjustments front to rear to help tweek the handling. Bernard30 how have they stood up to the salt/ winter? do you use the car all year around? did you get all the suspension bushes refreshed when you got the fitted or is it all original ?

where is the best place to buy these from? .........and where can I get a discount !;)

[pudding]

Yeah I saw that cheers Steven, but from my understanding of it, to get the standard height you'd need to pre-load the spring quite a lot, which isn't good for ride quality....and the spring could potentially go coil bound sooner.   Therefore the best solution is to leave the threaded collars in their default position and go for longer springs.  230mm rear and 200mm front would do it     It adds about £250 to the bill though 

Cheers. 

Bugger - that's just getting too $$$$ for me.  Leaves me with the FSDs....or VWR dampers with new OE springs, if I'm feeling brave 

Kind of feeling like giving up on this as well.  Too many caveats and gotchas to deal with for a daily car.   Apparently these 'cheap' Ohlins (pronounced 'erlins' ??) are made in the far east.  I wonder if that's why they need rebuilding every 30K? 

Not a fan of Koni.  Appalling reliability/quality.  The reputation they had in the 90s for quality is long gone.  They went all cheap on manufacture like everyone else, but still charged the same prices.  Lifetime warranty is handy though, and you will need it!

Not heard any problems from Koni dampers yet. My mechanic has fitted lots of them with just good feedback from its customers. That's why he recommended me to buy the Koni FSD for my family Golf and the Koni Sport for my daily Ed. 30. They weren't that expensive either. FSD cost me 539 € (£481 at current exchange rate) and the Sport cost me 464 € (£415 at current exchange rate).

I've fitted the Koni FSD in Dec/2013 and the car has done 80.000 km/49.700 miles so far and without any issue.
The Koni Sport were fitted in Sep/2017 and the car has done 16.000 km/10.000 miles (4 track days) and the suspension is still fresh (as I expected it to be).

Maybe they got their act together then because ~2000 I had Koni Sports TAs fail on me 3 times on a MK2.  ~2003, same again on a Corrado VR6.  ~2007 FSDs on a MK4 GTI, rusted out and then blew seals.   I'm glad they are working for currently, but I won't be using them again 

[Shoduchi]

Oops! The Koni Sport were fitted in Sep/2015, not in the future: Sep/2017!

[pudding]

Yeah I saw that cheers Steven, but from my understanding of it, to get the standard height you'd need to pre-load the spring quite a lot, which isn't good for ride quality....and the spring could potentially go coil bound sooner.   Therefore the best solution is to leave the threaded collars in their default position and go for longer springs.  230mm rear and 200mm front would do it     It adds about £250 to the bill though 

Surely just a 20mm drop wont' have any issues with rubbing with standard wheels and tyres? loads of people run lower than that? bernard30 are you running your Ohlins at 20mm drop? are you running them with standard top caps? I am seriously considering a set of these! A hell of a lot of cash but in my mind if they are that good and last well probably money better spent than money on average dampers and then other bits to try to make it handle better like uprated anti rolls bars etc. Even thinking that subtle suspension will help with traction if it is not skipping/ hopping over bumps so might negate the need for a locking diff somewhat (I am probably on the verge of needing one with 300 ish bhp) 

For me it would be a set of these and then standard everything else and use the damping adjustments front to rear to help tweek the handling. Bernard30 how have they stood up to the salt/ winter? do you use the car all year around? did you get all the suspension bushes refreshed when you got the fitted or is it all original ?

where is the best place to buy these from? .........and where can I get a discount !;)

Mine has rubbed a few times at -20mm, or what ever the actual drop is on the GTI with Racingline springs.  Because they (and like everyone else) use 1 spring/damper for an entire model range, it's hard to know for sure.

Agree with everything else you've said.  I don't want bigger ARBs either as they unsettle the car on mid corner bumps.  I guess these are still an option, potentially, but wanting standard ride height (which isn't exactly lofty as standard) puts me at a handicap it seems.  Odd it should be that way because every suspension maker knows, or should know, that going too low messes with the Roll center and can actually make the car slower and bump steer more.

[splashalot]

Yeah I saw that cheers Steven, but from my understanding of it, to get the standard height you'd need to pre-load the spring quite a lot, which isn't good for ride quality....and the spring could potentially go coil bound sooner.   Therefore the best solution is to leave the threaded collars in their default position and go for longer springs.  230mm rear and 200mm front would do it     It adds about £250 to the bill though 

If this BRZ R&T coilover kit is the same design as the GTI one, it appears ride height is independent of spring pre-load.  See 1:30 in the following video (skip the first minute and a bit, which is marketing guff).  So if I understand correctly, ride would be consistent across the full range of ride height for that specific kit.

 

See images of the GTI kit here (can't seem to post an image here, sorry), but it looks to me like the spring seats front and rear (and therefore ride height?) are adjustable without affecting spring length:  https://www.ohlins.eu/en/products/automotive/vws-mi10--36/

[pudding]

Cheers Steven 

Well, after all my procrastinating, pondering, waffling, to'ing and fro'ing in my mind of cost vs function blah blah.....I've just ordered the Ohlins 

The VWR kit is just too soft for me.  Amazing kit for the money and really does solve the standard setup's choppiness over small bumps, but when you press on past 7/10ths, it loses talent too quickly for my tastes.  95% of people will love the VWR setup, but boo for me, I'm in that hard to please 5%.

Full wordy review to come 

[pudding]

Yeah I saw that cheers Steven, but from my understanding of it, to get the standard height you'd need to pre-load the spring quite a lot, which isn't good for ride quality....and the spring could potentially go coil bound sooner.   Therefore the best solution is to leave the threaded collars in their default position and go for longer springs.  230mm rear and 200mm front would do it     It adds about £250 to the bill though 

If this BRZ R&T coilover kit is the same design as the GTI one, it appears ride height is independent of spring pre-load.  See 1:30 in the following video (skip the first minute and a bit, which is marketing guff).  So if I understand correctly, ride would be consistent across the full range of ride height for that specific kit.

 

See images of the GTI kit here (can't seem to post an image here, sorry), but it looks to me like the spring seats front and rear (and therefore ride height?) are adjustable without affecting spring length:  https://www.ohlins.eu/en/products/automotive/vws-mi10--36/

Just to confirm, the GTI struts are not the 'length adjustable' type.   

See page 6 in the owners manual - https://www.ohlins.eu/download/db/Ohlins_DTC_oehlins-road-track-owners-manual--00000142.pdf

The wording "If your shock absorber is of the length adjustable type, spring load and ride height can be changed individually".  Since the manual is generic for the entire R&T range, the operative word there is, "If" 

So longer springs it is if you want factory or taller ride height, but I'll try them as supplied first and see what the ride height looks like.

Something to note with some length adjustable struts - the space needed for the variable length sacrifices the damper travel and oil/gas volume.  The GTI's damper travel is not that long as standard.  It's a lot less than a base model Golf for example.  I guess Ohlins felt a full sweep damper was more appropriate for this application.

Length adjustable struts -



Fixed struts -

[splashalot]

Thanks for that info, Kev.  What a bummer. 

[colesey]

@Pudding - would you be able to post the weights of both the Ohlins and VWR units? It would be interesting to see what impact there is on unsprung weight. Thx!

[pudding]

@Pudding - would you be able to post the weights of both the Ohlins and VWR units? It would be interesting to see what impact there is on unsprung weight. Thx!

Sure thing mate, I had exactly that in mind already 

Coilovers are a lot lighter anyway being considerably smaller than normal struts and springs, but if it's the ultimate in low weight you want, you need FRP (Fibre Reinforced Plastic) springs 

[colesey]

FRP springs? Hmm interesting! The only car I can think of which uses them is the Megane Trophy. That also uses Ohlins and shares quite a bit in common with the Mk5 wrt fwd / weight yadda yadda. It even looks like someone else has been thinking the same judging by the question on the link below

http://www.invetr.com/chassis/megane-rs-275-trophy-r-allevard-composite-springs

Some more bumpf in here

https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-germancars/audi-to-use-grp-springs/30276

[pudding]

Apparently one of the Audi A6 TDI cars uses them as well.  As well as being lighter, they are a lot quieter as well.  Less road noise transmitted into the cabin, which is always welcome!