Ohlins Coilovers Anyone got them ???

[GS WAX]

No problem mate, any info on these babies is welcome. I plan on pairing them with Vorshlag camberplates and I'm also trying to find out if Ohlins can provide them with stiffer springs (revalved of-course). If not, maybe revalving from new at the quoted price and purchasing stiffer springs from Swift for example !

Before I ordered I also enquired about other spring rates ( as I thought the supplied ones sounded a bit stiff), Ohlins centre told me I could have them, but to try the supplied ones first, and if I felt they were too stiff then they would change them over.
 I purchased from BG Motorsport, based at Silverstone circuit, might be worth contacting them, as they can build from scratch ohlins dampers (forget what its called, something like kit system or something or other), Ben is a good guy, very familiar with club racing vw's and appear's willing to pass on a lot of info.
 

[Bernhard30]

Just to reiterate comments made by GS Wax..
AKS fitted mine to my ED30 in August 2013..and in my opinion..
these are the best mod ever to the Mk5/6 platform.

I too had reservations about hefty spring rates before fitment..but the wide range of adjustment on the dampers give a proper range of firmness to comfort.
On these dampers each click is noticeable so you can certainly feel 2 or 3 clicks and there are from memory 30 settings(??).
I will be amazed if you'd ever need stiffer springs for these..unless you are perhaps racing the car??

Yes the price is somewhat steep/some say frightening.!!
But in my view they are well worth it.
The very clever DFV is what works so well and is what probably costs the money.

Remember that Ohlins operate in a different world to other suspension companies..as in they offer very very high end products and do not do products for every car out there..

Knowing what I know now would never have bothered swapping to Bilstein/Eibach stuff..as all that gear is way too stiff for road use imo.

If funds permit..and obviously that's a big 'if' Ohlins are the way forward in terms of suspension.

Mick Gardner Racing..at Barnsley are the North of England Ohlins centre (just have a chat to Russ there) and are also super helpful if tech questions are needed..as well as the previously mentioned company at Silverstone.

[fuscobal]

Thanks Bernhard. They seem reasonably priced as compared to other clubsports out there. I'm now on Bilstein B16/PSS10 which are a little bit soft for track use but VERY harsh on the street (out of at least 10 PSS10s with the same part number seen on other cars (GTIs, Cupra, S3...) mine are by far the harshest even on softest setting). The settings are also not very well noticeable (as you say they are on the Ohlins). I have the PSS10 for the last 6 years or so and I was very happy with the reliability and performance but I'd want more now !

Got a response from Swift (world renowned spring manufacturers)

My questions :


1) As this will be mainly a track car, I would like stiffer springs but without the hassle of revalving. From your experience, how much stiffer can I go without ruining the coilover's balance ?


2) If I understand correctly from your website, the equivalents of Ohlins's springs included in the kit would be > 7" (code > Z65-178-070) on front and 8" (code > Z65-203-060) on rear. I was thinking maybe I can go 1 or max 2 steps up to Z65-178-080 or Z65-178-090 on front and Z65-203-070 or Z65-203-080 on rear but don't know if the damper can control properly these stiffer springs without loosing some of the adjustability steps. What's your opinion on this ?

Their response was :

"General rule of thumb that a lot of coilover manufacturers say is 2kg up and down. Most users we work with go as far as 4kg up and down without feeling extremely oversprung.

  And in your case going 2kg up in rate will not be an issue at all. The Ohlin shocks tend to have a fairly big range in damping adjustment. The part numbers you found are correct for what you are looking for. For a track setup however especially on a GTI most people like the way the car feels with a slightly stiffer rear spring rate over the front. So I would suggest maybe a

f-8kg/R-9kg
f-9kg/R-10kg

Of course these are just suggestions, based off of what we see a lot of people running for their track setup."
 

[GS WAX]

Had a free day, done a bit of looking at ohlins kits from other cars, I would presume they would supply with stiffer springs,being as they are available, for instance some Nissan kits are supplied with 100n/m springs and beemer kits 120 springs and so forth,  they range  from 50 up to 120  in various lengths and importantly they are all 65mm ID springs same as the golf kit.
 Camber plates also avail for some cars, even shows those in my owners manual.

[fuscobal]

There's another matter > The springs that come with the kit for our cars are 7"(178mm) on front and 8"(203mm) on rear which means the stiffer ones should be the same or slightly smaller length (being stiffer they will compress less so the car will sit a bit higher at the same spring length)

From their product range, stiffer springs but with the same length can be found on the following cars :

Rear 8" (203mm) & 60N/mm

Subaru Impreza STI, Porsche GT3. Nissan GT-R > 90N/mm (has it on the front but similar length to our rear)
Subaru Impreza STI, Subaru Legacy, Porsche 911, EVO X > 70N/mm
Porsche 911 > 120N/mm (too much for our damper I guess)
Porsche GT3 > 140N/mm (too much for our damper I guess)
Nissan 350Z, EVO VII - X, Lexus IS, Honda S2000 > 100N/mm (too much for our damper I guess)
EVO VII - IX, Mazda RX8, Honda S2000, Honda Type-R > 80N/mm
Mazda RX7 > 110N/mm

Front 7" (180mm) & 70N/mm

Mazda RX7 > 110N/mm (too much for our damper I guess)

It seems I have 2 close options for the rear at 70 & 80N/mm but no option for the front as the 7" spring can only be found on Mk5 GTI and Mazda RX7 but too stiff !