Bags Vs coilovers

[nomunic]

Hey everybody,

Haven’t been able to do much with my car recently, life is getting busy!

I have Bilstein b14 coilovers (about 6k miles) and am interested in bags. Any opinions?

Also, if anyone is looking to trade with cash on my end I’m game

P.s. I daily my car and drive long distances randomly each month

 

[JerseyDrew77]

If you track your car or have any future plans to track it, then keep the coilovers.

 

[swcrow]

roping in @El_bigote_AJ as he and I have both been running bags for awhile now and it's a rabbit hole, so decide carefully between the red and the blue pill lol

I just came off bags and back into coils (fortune auto with swift springs) as my wife wasn't a fan of the lack of dampening.

AJ can provide more in-depth answers as he's literally the bagged wizard behind the curtain.

Short answer...if you're looking for low rider status, bags are the only way to go. I've taken my GTI on bags for dozens of long distance trips with zero issues, buuuuuuuut you'll need to bring an emergency kit with you everywhere as a "just in case", because the one thing with an air ride kit you'll find....if it can go wrong....it will.

For me, the comfort was found exponentially better on the right set of coilovers.

 

[Maiden69]

As above, decide what you want to do with the car... you can have a decent bag system for track, RideTech does that for muscle cars and trucks. But I don't think anyone has actually engineered one for that to date. I think @El_bigote_AJ new set up is the closest thing to a decent bag system that could double for track so far.

From my experience, most bag systems are done with one thing in mind, go as low as you can. If you plan to track your car, it would be much easier to do it with coilovers instead. But keep in mind, you will get what you pay for when it comes to coilovers. Go cheap, and your ride will not be as comfortable as you may like.

 

[nomunic]

If you track your car or have any future plans to track it, then keep the coilovers.

roping in @El_bigote_AJ as he and I have both been running bags for awhile now and it's a rabbit hole, so decide carefully between the red and the blue pill lol

I just came off bags and back into coils (fortune auto with swift springs) as my wife wasn't a fan of the lack of dampening.

AJ can provide more in-depth answers as he's literally the bagged wizard behind the curtain.

Short answer...if you're looking for low rider status, bags are the only way to go. I've taken my GTI on bags for dozens of long distance trips with zero issues, buuuuuuuut you'll need to bring an emergency kit with you everywhere as a "just in case", because the one thing with an air ride kit you'll find....if it can go wrong....it will.

For me, the comfort was found exponentially better on the right set of coilovers.

As above, decide what you want to do with the car... you can have a decent bag system for track, RideTech does that for muscle cars and trucks. But I don't think anyone has actually engineered one for that to date. I think @El_bigote_AJ new set up is the closest thing to a decent bag system that could double for track so far.

From my experience, most bag systems are done with one thing in mind, go as low as you can. If you plan to track your car, it would be much easier to do it with coilovers instead. But keep in mind, you will get what you pay for when it comes to coilovers. Go cheap, and your ride will not be as comfortable as you may like.

Thanks everyone, if there are risks while driving long distances, I don’t see it being worth the switch over. I like the b14s just wish I purchased something with a bit more low beforehand

 

[EpicTech]

I been debating on upgrading to air ride myself. I think ultimately I will change my BC Coilover setup to KW V3's. I like my car reliably functional, and pulling over to correct air ride pronlems just does not sound like fun.

 

[swcrow]

Thanks everyone, if there are risks while driving long distances, I don’t see it being worth the switch over. I like the b14s just wish I purchased something with a bit more low beforehand

I been debating on upgrading to air ride myself. I think ultimately I will change my BC Coilover setup to KW V3's. I like my car reliably functional, and pulling over to correct air ride pronlems just does not sound like fun.

Just to be honest, having air'd my GTI and MKIV GLI, I never had to pull over because of a leak.....the only issue I ever had was a compressor froze in the dead of winter in the "on" position, causing my tank to continue to fill. The emergency kit is just for that...an emergency, but yeah....there will always be that nag in the back of your mind of trip length and "what if" LOL

 

[ChristopherNeil]

What's the problem you're trying to solve by switching to bags??

If it's height or ride quality, bags will fix neither and open the door to unnecessary complexity/potential failures.

$0.02

 

[El_bigote_AJ]

2 cents worth 10th of a penny

 

[El_bigote_AJ]

Like said above… unless you really enjoy getting to air out the car when it’s parked or you want a really low driving height but still want to get into driveways easy sticking with coilovers is the better move, I wouldn't loosely say cause you can track your car or it’s gonna be more comfortable cause you can setup you air system and parts to 100% do anything your asking it to do well - if you want super comfortable a setup from universal air will get you there - you want dumb low driving heights the new superlows bags from bagriders will do that for you as well as give to a plenty stiff and strong dampened setup for aggressive driving. Simply, fun, well rounded type kit - airlift performance will do it, there’s a timeattack Sti that’s on airlift and been plenty competitive and there is a member here on air that has made numerous 10sec drag passes on airlift performance kit as well. So yes an air setup car can indeed beable to provide results on pare with coilovers like b14s - you are adding lots of money and time for really only the added results of looking good while parked - so that’s really the question to ask yourself “does that really matter to me” lol .

 

[miikez.]

I had a mk6 gti that was bagged. Looked cool when parked but that's about it. Had a couple issues here and there, ended up switching to coils. So much easier to not have to mess with anything and just get in and go.

 

[nomunic]

Like said above… unless you really enjoy getting to air out the car when it’s parked or you want a really low driving height but still want to get into driveways easy sticking with coilovers is the better move, I wouldn't loosely say cause you can track your car or it’s gonna be more comfortable cause you can setup you air system and parts to 100% do anything your asking it to do well - if you want super comfortable a setup from universal air will get you there - you want dumb low driving heights the new superlows bags from bagriders will do that for you as well as give to a plenty stiff and strong dampened setup for aggressive driving. Simply, fun, well rounded type kit - airlift performance will do it, there’s a timeattack Sti that’s on airlift and been plenty competitive and there is a member here on air that has made numerous 10sec drag passes on airlift performance kit as well. So yes an air setup car can indeed beable to provide results on pare with coilovers like b14s - you are adding lots of money and time for really only the added results of looking good while parked - so that’s really the question to ask yourself “does that really matter to me” lol .

I guess I’m going for the low look, but would like to raise the car while doing long trips. Maybe I’ll just stick to the b14s but I may look into something that goes a bit lower

 

[Maiden69]

I guess I’m going for the low look, but would like to raise the car while doing long trips. Maybe I’ll just stick to the b14s but I may look into something that goes a bit lower

As far as I know, unless things changed with the new systems, you have to align the car at the ride height you will be driving the most. So if you plan on raising the car for long trips, but you aligned the car at a lower ride height, you will eat up the front tires on your trips. This was one of the key points when I was helping a friend install bags in his shop.

 

[swcrow]

I guess I’m going for the low look, but would like to raise the car while doing long trips. Maybe I’ll just stick to the b14s but I may look into something that goes a bit lower

Here’s the deal, if you’re going for low look, only bags will satisfy you. It gives you the flexibility to raise for those trips, and then return to low look when you are in and around town. With the option of having multiple presets you can raise and lower on a whim. There’s nothing like the look of an air it out car, period.

Only advice I will give is pay the extra amount to get dampening.

 

[cblock406]

I own a bagged car (not the GTI) and they are great and a lot of fun. I would NOT want them on my daily driver.