KW Suspension Questions

[victorofhavoc]

A good alignment will transform a car's handling! All cars are factory aligned to understeer...damn lawyers designing alignments!

I'm running -2.3 camber up front and at certain angles the wheels look crazy sunken and the car looks crazy low (to me) as a result. With my wider wheels/tires on it looks like there's plenty of gap. Funny how that works!

 

[kskoglund21]

I'm looking at picking up a decent coilover set. KW is on the short list, but I've got a few questions. There are obviously 2 primary routes - keep / delete DCC.

Here are the options I found. I'm pretty sure they are listed from the least to most aggressive aside from the DDC kit.

Street Comfort
V1
V2
V3
Clubsport (Could be wrong about this one)
DDC Kit (Obviously Variable)

Question #1 - Where does the DDC kit fall categorically in terms of ride / stiffness? I'm not sure how it's classified considering it's a variable suspension. Where would each setting fall in terms of stiffness? - Comfort, Normal, Race.

Question #2 - Does the DCC Cancellation Kit actually work? I'm reading some reviews where people are saying the kit doesn't eliminate some of the codes / lights in some cases.

Question #3 - Is the DDC kit worth it? How good do they actually ride compared to stock VW DCC suspension?


I found this thread - https://www.vwvortex.com/threads/kw-ddc-coilovers-for-mk7-r-beware-before-ordering.8456905/

Looks like KW was having some serious issues with coil binding back around 2017. Customer support also didn't seem the best based on the OP's experience. Have the new kits been revised? Does anyone have experience they can share?

Thanks

PS: Why does KW call it a DDC kit instead of DCC?

Little late to the chat but I currently run Bilstein B16 Damptronic (retains DCC) and here's what I have to say after a year and 20,000 miles. FYI - Bilstein tend to run stiffer than KW.

1) For this kit, OEM comfort mode turns into OEM race mode. OEM normal mode turns stiffer but better compression than OEM. OEM race mode turns into an extremely stiff and bouncy ride, not practical for 98% of roads and I usually only use this for track or extremely smooth canyons.

2) Yes the kit works. I have many friends with cancellers from many brands and they work.

3) No it is not worth it at least for Bilstein. This is partially because the non-dcc B16 have better dampening than the Damptronic because the regular B16 adjust both compression and rebound while the Damptronic ONLY adjusts rebound. This causes a generally uncomfortable ride quality IMO and I dont mind a fairly stiff ride. Additionally the stiffer ride is not always beneficial, sometimes you will catch air on little bumps instead of dampening them and handling better. I have ridden in another Golf R with regular B16 and the ride quality is superior. However, looks like KW DDC is electronically adjustable for both compression and rebound so this may not be relevant, but my opinion is to skip the eletronic coilovers and just go regular. Even if KW is softer, I highly doubt you will get what level of variable ride quality you are looking for. The different modes do make a difference but the change in ride from comfort - normal - race is minimal compared to OEM. I plan to swap my B16 damptronic for KW V3 next.

 

[aloha_from_bradley]

Little late to the chat but I currently run Bilstein B16 Damptronic (retains DCC) and here's what I have to say after a year and 20,000 miles. FYI - Bilstein tend to run stiffer than KW.

1) For this kit, OEM comfort mode turns into OEM race mode. OEM normal mode turns stiffer but better compression than OEM. OEM race mode turns into an extremely stiff and bouncy ride, not practical for 98% of roads and I usually only use this for track or extremely smooth canyons.

2) Yes the kit works. I have many friends with cancellers from many brands and they work.

3) No it is not worth it at least for Bilstein. This is partially because the non-dcc B16 have better dampening than the Damptronic because the regular B16 adjust both compression and rebound while the Damptronic ONLY adjusts rebound. This causes a generally uncomfortable ride quality IMO and I dont mind a fairly stiff ride. Additionally the stiffer ride is not always beneficial, sometimes you will catch air on little bumps instead of dampening them and handling better. I have ridden in another Golf R with regular B16 and the ride quality is superior. However, looks like KW DDC is electronically adjustable for both compression and rebound so this may not be relevant, but my opinion is to skip the eletronic coilovers and just go regular. Even if KW is softer, I highly doubt you will get what level of variable ride quality you are looking for. The different modes do make a difference but the change in ride from comfort - normal - race is minimal compared to OEM. I plan to swap my B16 damptronic for KW V3 next.

Great info.

I've heard this extrapolated out like this before, specifically the differences between the drive modes.