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Looking to achieve more comfort

SuperDuper

Go Kart Newbie
Location
IL
What exactly do you mean with softer ride? Can you describe what you don't like?

- Are small imperfections in the road to harsh?
- Are positive impacts to firm?
- Is your GTI tugging on negative events (road cracks, step downs)



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It's mainly bumps in the road. It just seems to hit very hard, and its very loud in the cabin when it does hit. The rebound isn't too stiff.
 

ZERO815

Autocross Champion
Location
Köln Germany
Car(s)
2017 GTI SE DSG
It's mainly bumps in the road. It just seems to hit very hard, and its very loud in the cabin when it does hit. The rebound isn't too stiff.


Are these bumps rounded or sharp. How high are they?

Sharp edges like bridge joints that stick out up to 1/2“ upset both of our cars (Stock 14‘ Beetle R and 17‘ GTI on Bilstein B16) at the front axle with a pronounced loud „prong“. I guess the wheel isn’t pushed upwards but instead backwards first. If you move a little bit out of the mainstream line it works for me.

If the bumps are more rounded and min 1“ high I guess you are touching your bump stops pretty hard. I’m not a real fan of the way VW tunes shocks, basically no compression force but a lot of rebound damping. Get yourself some B6 instead.


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SuperDuper

Go Kart Newbie
Location
IL
Are these bumps rounded or sharp. How high are they?

Sharp edges like bridge joints that stick out up to 1/2“ upset both of our cars (Stock 14‘ Beetle R and 17‘ GTI on Bilstein B16) at the front axle with a pronounced loud „prong“. I guess the wheel isn’t pushed upwards but instead backwards first. If you move a little bit out of the mainstream line it works for me.

If the bumps are more rounded and min 1“ high I guess you are touching your bump stops pretty hard. I’m not a real fan of the way VW tunes shocks, basically no compression force but a lot of rebound damping. Get yourself some B6 instead.


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I think it could very well be the bump stops. I did not trim my OEM bump stops, as the manufacture suggested that it was not necessary for these springs. Do you think if I trimmed them a little bit that it would help?
 

ZERO815

Autocross Champion
Location
Köln Germany
Car(s)
2017 GTI SE DSG
I think it could very well be the bump stops. I did not trim my OEM bump stops, as the manufacture suggested that it was not necessary for these springs. Do you think if I trimmed them a little bit that it would help?



I don’t recommend doing that because you change the total travel of the car. I’m not to worried about the shock travel, just search for “oil pan cracked”. Low compression damping control in combination with shortened bump stops gets your oil pan closer to the ground.

I found this article of the german car magazine AutoBild Sportscars. They tested several coil overs for track time and daily driving. I used google to translate at least the conclusion of this article.

https://www2.bilstein.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/ABSC17_09-092-099-Service_Fahrwerke.pdf

Conclusion:
Stay away from low-cost coil overs like the TA-Technix! With badly fitting parts, this is a serious problem. It would not have been difficult to beat the completely undefined OE setting. The coil overs from Bilstein, H & R, KW and Vogtland make it worlds better. The Vogtland set up was particularly surprising. The customer receives high-quality for just under 600 euros.
Set for fast lap times, an impressive lowering and better comfort than with the OE set up. At the end, however, no one beats Bilstein; their set up is fast, error-free and comfortable on all test sections. A bit more dampening on worse roads would have done well for the set ups of H & R and KW. Fast lap times and extreme lowering are not all.


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ExcelerateRep1

Go Kart Champion
Location
Branford, CT
It's mainly bumps in the road. It just seems to hit very hard, and its very loud in the cabin when it does hit. The rebound isn't too stiff.

This sounds like an all to familiar case. But I don't want to make a recommendation to you that you won't be happy with. Changing the shocks isn't going to make a huge difference in this instance but if it were me, I would go Koni yellow.

The springs dictate a lot of this noise and physical experience you are referencing. We see this a lot with all factory suspension and a lot of aftermarket springs and /or shock combos

But the tire/wheel setup also play a large role in this. But, the noise is still there with the thicker tire and stepping down a size from what I have seen first hand just muffled a little bit. We run 17-19" wheels with the MSS kits and factory shocks and the ride is fantastic. No crashing, no harsh road transitions etc. Might be work considering making a swapping a set of H&Rs currently with an MSS track pack because of the same reasons you're experiencing.

Thanks,

Greg
 

ZERO815

Autocross Champion
Location
Köln Germany
Car(s)
2017 GTI SE DSG
This sounds like an all to familiar case. But I don't want to make a recommendation to you that you won't be happy with. Changing the shocks isn't going to make a huge difference in this instance but if it were me, I would go Koni yellow.

The springs dictate a lot of this noise and physical experience you are referencing. We see this a lot with all factory suspension and a lot of aftermarket springs and /or shock combos

But the tire/wheel setup also play a large role in this. But, the noise is still there with the thicker tire and stepping down a size from what I have seen first hand just muffled a little bit. We run 17-19" wheels with the MSS kits and factory shocks and the ride is fantastic. No crashing, no harsh road transitions etc. Might be work considering making a swapping a set of H&Rs currently with an MSS track pack because of the same reasons you're experiencing.

Thanks,

Greg



Greg you are absolutely right. The spring rate dictates. In the OE world the manufacturers define the spring rates first, than shocks get tuned.

In >11 years of shock tuning my experience is whenever you increase the spring rate you have to increase the damping forces as well to maintain a similar level of comfort. Tires soften little impacts only as you said.

I have no personal experience with the MSS kits but for me it looks like the progressive behavior might help. I personally prefer a proper coil over set with added damping forces. IMO VW went the wrong way with their damping. The first impression is the car is well connected but as soon as you are on a bumpy road it shows its second face and crashes into the bump stops.


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