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Should I Do A Full Suspension Overhaul With My Eventual Coilover Upgrade?

geokilla

Go Kart Champion
Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Car(s)
2018 VW GTI DSG
I got everything installed prior to this year's first track day, which was this past Saturday. This is everything I bought that would affect handling:

Bilstein B14 (Adjusted too low by mechanic)
Whiteline Front Control Arms
Whiteline Front Sway Bars and Sway Bar Links
Whiteline Front Roll Centre/Camber Correction Kit
Whiteline Front Strut Mount Kit
BFI Stage 1 Engine Mount Kit

One of the Whiteline parts weren't installed. I don't remember which as the mechanic said it wasn't required. I'm thinking the front strut mount kit if I remember correctly. Anyways, here's my observations:

The car rides amazing at the track. The steering is definitely a bit heavier and stiffer and there's slightly more steering feel but I don't think it compares to my dad's Infiniti G37S he had or the BMW 528i (E39) we had. Paired with worn out Vitour Tempesta Enzo tires, I managed to shave 2s faster off my previous personal best, hitting a 1:44 at CTMP DDT according to the GTI lap timer. There is a bit more understeer so I'm going to ask the mechanic to adjust the front sway bars. I didn't track last year so I'm pretty proud to achieve a 2s improvement compared to my previous personal best. Of course, different days, different conditions, but still, an achievement.

Now as a daily, the car feels terrible. I know the B14 is too low and my girlfriend actually got car sick. It's extremely firm and harsh. Going over bumps and road imperfections, I feel like I'm on a roller coaster and it makes a knocking or clunking sound. Turning the steering wheel also makes noises. This is my first time driving a car with modified suspension. Is this all normal? I know raising the coilovers will help. How high do you guys recommend setting it? The rear is slammed and I couldn't see how many threads there are in the front but I recall it's not much. Maybe 4 or 5?

As for the engine mounts, the vibrations when driving under 1000 RPM is terrible. There's a lot of vibrations throughout the floor, firewall, steering wheel, everywhere. As my friend said when he rented a Mitsubishi Mirage, the car feels like a woman's vibrator. I'm thinking as the engine mounts get broken in and slightly worn, the vibrations will decrease? It's so bad even the doors vibrate when they're open.

Overall as a car that is a daily first and track toy second, I'm hoping some of these things improve with time. Otherwise, I made a mistake but it's a mistake I'll have to live with for the next few years until I get Bilstein B16.
 

krs

Autocross Champion
Location
Las Vegas, NV
Car(s)
MKVIIS R
I got everything installed prior to this year's first track day, which was this past Saturday. This is everything I bought that would affect handling:

Bilstein B14 (Adjusted too low by mechanic)
Whiteline Front Control Arms
Whiteline Front Sway Bars and Sway Bar Links
Whiteline Front Roll Centre/Camber Correction Kit
Whiteline Front Strut Mount Kit
BFI Stage 1 Engine Mount Kit

One of the Whiteline parts weren't installed. I don't remember which as the mechanic said it wasn't required. I'm thinking the front strut mount kit if I remember correctly. Anyways, here's my observations:

The car rides amazing at the track. The steering is definitely a bit heavier and stiffer and there's slightly more steering feel but I don't think it compares to my dad's Infiniti G37S he had or the BMW 528i (E39) we had. Paired with worn out Vitour Tempesta Enzo tires, I managed to shave 2s faster off my previous personal best, hitting a 1:44 at CTMP DDT according to the GTI lap timer. There is a bit more understeer so I'm going to ask the mechanic to adjust the front sway bars. I didn't track last year so I'm pretty proud to achieve a 2s improvement compared to my previous personal best. Of course, different days, different conditions, but still, an achievement.

Now as a daily, the car feels terrible. I know the B14 is too low and my girlfriend actually got car sick. It's extremely firm and harsh. Going over bumps and road imperfections, I feel like I'm on a roller coaster and it makes a knocking or clunking sound. Turning the steering wheel also makes noises. This is my first time driving a car with modified suspension. Is this all normal? I know raising the coilovers will help. How high do you guys recommend setting it? The rear is slammed and I couldn't see how many threads there are in the front but I recall it's not much. Maybe 4 or 5?

As for the engine mounts, the vibrations when driving under 1000 RPM is terrible. There's a lot of vibrations throughout the floor, firewall, steering wheel, everywhere. As my friend said when he rented a Mitsubishi Mirage, the car feels like a woman's vibrator. I'm thinking as the engine mounts get broken in and slightly worn, the vibrations will decrease? It's so bad even the doors vibrate when they're open.

Overall as a car that is a daily first and track toy second, I'm hoping some of these things improve with time. Otherwise, I made a mistake but it's a mistake I'll have to live with for the next few years until I get Bilstein B16.

Aren’t the B14’s better suited for street over the B16’s? Knocks and clunks are not normal. How low are they? Bilstein recommends approximately 30-50 mm is the range over stock height, if they’re below that you’ll have problems.

The control arm bushings added a surprising amount of NVH on my car, so much I initially thought I messed something up on my drivetrain. On my personal scale of 1-10, the vibration was a 8, and now they’re maybe a 7. So it really didn’t mellow out over time.

Engine mounts, yep, vibrate, for me they really didn’t mellow out either.

I had EMD springs on my car before the B16’s, and I raised the height when I did that.

I’m sure you’ll get more experienced answers with some advice. But your NVH issues will only slightly moderate, not go away.

But the clunking and knocking should be addressed as well.
 

Brian_

Go Kart Champion
Location
TX
Car(s)
MK7.5 R
I got everything installed prior to this year's first track day, which was this past Saturday. This is everything I bought that would affect handling:

Bilstein B14 (Adjusted too low by mechanic)
Whiteline Front Control Arms
Whiteline Front Sway Bars and Sway Bar Links
Whiteline Front Roll Centre/Camber Correction Kit
Whiteline Front Strut Mount Kit
BFI Stage 1 Engine Mount Kit

One of the Whiteline parts weren't installed. I don't remember which as the mechanic said it wasn't required. I'm thinking the front strut mount kit if I remember correctly. Anyways, here's my observations:

The car rides amazing at the track. The steering is definitely a bit heavier and stiffer and there's slightly more steering feel but I don't think it compares to my dad's Infiniti G37S he had or the BMW 528i (E39) we had. Paired with worn out Vitour Tempesta Enzo tires, I managed to shave 2s faster off my previous personal best, hitting a 1:44 at CTMP DDT according to the GTI lap timer. There is a bit more understeer so I'm going to ask the mechanic to adjust the front sway bars. I didn't track last year so I'm pretty proud to achieve a 2s improvement compared to my previous personal best. Of course, different days, different conditions, but still, an achievement.

Now as a daily, the car feels terrible. I know the B14 is too low and my girlfriend actually got car sick. It's extremely firm and harsh. Going over bumps and road imperfections, I feel like I'm on a roller coaster and it makes a knocking or clunking sound. Turning the steering wheel also makes noises. This is my first time driving a car with modified suspension. Is this all normal? I know raising the coilovers will help. How high do you guys recommend setting it? The rear is slammed and I couldn't see how many threads there are in the front but I recall it's not much. Maybe 4 or 5?

As for the engine mounts, the vibrations when driving under 1000 RPM is terrible. There's a lot of vibrations throughout the floor, firewall, steering wheel, everywhere. As my friend said when he rented a Mitsubishi Mirage, the car feels like a woman's vibrator. I'm thinking as the engine mounts get broken in and slightly worn, the vibrations will decrease? It's so bad even the doors vibrate when they're open.

Overall as a car that is a daily first and track toy second, I'm hoping some of these things improve with time. Otherwise, I made a mistake but it's a mistake I'll have to live with for the next few years until I get Bilstein B16.
Clunking and knocking is definitely not normal, there may be some install error.
Bilstein B14/16 should not be slammed for ride height or you’ll just be riding on the bump stops as the springs are still relatively soft, especially the rear (371 lbs/in front : 303 lbs/in rear).
Do you know if your mechanic adjusted the ride height based on Bilstein’s install instructions?
Also, did they replace all the one time use TTY bolts throughout the suspension or re-use old hardware?
 

scrllock

Autocross Champion
Location
MI
I'd guess they skipped the whiteline balljoints. and likely didn't install the strut mounts properly, especially if they didn't carefully read the instructions.
 

DSC808

Autocross Champion
Location
HI State
Car(s)
2016 GTI SE MT
If your raising/lowering your suspension you'll need to adjust your sway bar end links.
I'm lowered on EMD springs (1.2" drop)/B8 and I would get a cyclical squeek on cold stats. After getting adjustable endlinks and adjusting to remove preload no more squeek.
 

geokilla

Go Kart Champion
Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Car(s)
2018 VW GTI DSG
Aren’t the B14’s better suited for street over the B16’s? Knocks and clunks are not normal. How low are they? Bilstein recommends approximately 30-50 mm is the range over stock height, if they’re below that you’ll have problems.

But the clunking and knocking should be addressed as well.

Clunking and knocking is definitely not normal, there may be some install error.
Bilstein B14/16 should not be slammed for ride height or you’ll just be riding on the bump stops as the springs are still relatively soft, especially the rear (371 lbs/in front : 303 lbs/in rear).
Do you know if your mechanic adjusted the ride height based on Bilstein’s install instructions?
Also, did they replace all the one time use TTY bolts throughout the suspension or re-use old hardware?
The ride height is definitely not adjusted properly. The rears are slammed to the point where only one of the black rings are in even though I asked them to set the coilovers as high as possible. The front is fairly low too but at least it's easier to adjust he said. The rears have to be taken out and then reinstalled. Not sure if they read the manual or not but they are a shop that deals with modified cars and have worked on lots of MK7s over the years. They are recommended by many so I imagine they know what they were doing. We're all friends too and they attend HPDE with us...

I don't know what TTY bolts are. If they didn't come with all the parts that I brought, it's possible they re-used old hardware.
I'd guess they skipped the whiteline balljoints. and likely didn't install the strut mounts properly, especially if they didn't carefully read the instructions.
I called another shop and they thought the same thing about the strut mounts. They did use the Whiteline ball joints as I got the old ball joints in the box. Possibly the strut mounts is what they didn't use? Either way, I have to live with this for at least a few weeks. They're booked solid and another reputable shop that deals with modified cars is booked till early August. Don't know what the hell is happening in the GTA but it's insane.
If your raising/lowering your suspension you'll need to adjust your sway bar end links.
I'm lowered on EMD springs (1.2" drop)/B8 and I would get a cyclical squeek on cold stats. After getting adjustable endlinks and adjusting to remove preload no more squeek.
Both front and rear are on adjustable end links, though the rears are worn out.
 

GoatAutomotive

Drag Racing Champion
Location
Georgetown, TX
Car(s)
2017 VW GTI SE, DSG
OP - wish you were local! I fix coilover install errors weekly. 👀 😎

Preload and ride height are usually way off. Every car I finish feels like a proper BMW when it’s complete. 👌 🔧

The B14s are quite good when calibrated correctly.
 

geokilla

Go Kart Champion
Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Car(s)
2018 VW GTI DSG
OP - wish you were local! I fix coilover install errors weekly. 👀 😎

Preload and ride height are usually way off. Every car I finish feels like a proper BMW when it’s complete. 👌 🔧

The B14s are quite good when calibrated correctly.
Do you have any recommended settings for the B14? What is preload?
 

geokilla

Go Kart Champion
Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Car(s)
2018 VW GTI DSG
Does anyone know if the Audi RS3 brake ducts work with Whiteline front control arms? I found it in the box. They didn't tell me it was removed.

Also is there a PDF of the B14 manual? I can't find it in the box either nor is it on Bilstein's site.
 

Brian_

Go Kart Champion
Location
TX
Car(s)
MK7.5 R

geokilla

Go Kart Champion
Location
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Car(s)
2018 VW GTI DSG

krs

Autocross Champion
Location
Las Vegas, NV
Car(s)
MKVIIS R
Does anyone know if the Audi RS3 brake ducts work with Whiteline front control arms? I found it in the box. They didn't tell me it was removed.
There’s a thread in here that shows they do fit, albeit with some minor modifications to the deflectors.
 

scrllock

Autocross Champion
Location
MI
Does anyone know if the Audi RS3 brake ducts work with Whiteline front control arms? I found it in the box. They didn't tell me it was removed.

Also is there a PDF of the B14 manual? I can't find it in the box either nor is it on Bilstein's site.
They do, with some trimming. The TTRS deflectors might fit better, 8S0-407-811-E/8S0-407-812-E.
 

ZERO815

Autocross Champion
Location
Köln Germany
Car(s)
2017 GTI SE DSG
While being in the Cincinnati area I started on my B16‘s with 335mm (Center of wheel to Fender). Way too much pothole avoidance steering, and annoying bumps in the road. Raised it front and rear to about 345mm and called it a day. No tire damage or wheel damage. Car was used as a daily, family and vacation car. We took several trips to the surrounding states while we were there.
 
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