Re: suspension

["Doug Brekke" <d_brekke@hotmail.com>]

George pretty much summed it up already.  The "dead coils" are there for a 
reason: suspension travel.  When you cut them off, the springs have little 
give, yet the shocks are still compressing, which results in a choppy, 
bouncy ride.  The car may look good, but this creates an unsafe and unstable 
handling situation in which the tires will lose contact with the road over 
uneven surfaces.  Trust me, I fell into the "cutting coils to look good" 
trap when I was a teenager and almost went head-on into a guardrail on 
Mulholland Drive because of wheel hop under severe braking down an 85mph 
straight with small bumps.   Do yourself a favor and buy a matched high 
performance spring/shock set or a quality coilover kit and have a lower 
center of gravity, increased handling and stability, and the good looks that 
we all crave.
-Doug
'95 Jetta VR6


>From: Mitchman <mitchman@owt.com>
>Reply-To: jettaglx@igtc.com
>To: jettaglx@igtc.com
>Subject: Re: suspension
>Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999 20:16:16 -0800
>
>I agree that coilovers are the best (yet a little noisy for the street)
>solution .  But why do you say that cutting the coils make the car "bounce
>around like a Honda"?  Coil springs stiffen 10% for each "live" coil cut.
>Cutting a "dead" coil (the ones stacked on top of each other) won't change
>the stiffness but will change ride height.  In fact that's normally what
>they are there for.
>
>Mitch Lewis
>'97 GLX
>Thinking about suspension/tires/wheels
>
> >John,
> >That is one of the main reasons that I got H&R coilovers-height
> >adjustability.  Your springs did do as promised, the problem is the 
>design
> >of the fenders.  Take a look at your Jetta's profile and you'll see that 
>the
> >rear fender doesn't rise as high as the front does.  That means in order 
>to
> >get an even stance, you need to dump the front far more than the rear, or 
>it
> >will look like the car is sagging.  The only option is to cut your 
>springs
> >in the front and bounce around like a Honda, get coilovers and have 
>infinite
> >adjustability and incredible handling, or learn to live with it.  You 
>know
> >what I did.
> >'95 Jetta VR6
> >
>
>
>
>-------------------------------
>email: mitchman@owt.com
>website: http://www.owt.com/users/mitchman/
>
>
>


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