springs vs coilovers (60mm)

[identitidrjekyll]

Right ive got a budget of £300 to lower my car and im undecided on wether to lower it on springs or coilovers, just worried that any coilover that comes in that price band are gonna be useless, any ideas on what to get with that type of money?

[Ed Doe]

Personally I'd get Eibach lowering springs & Bilstein dampers if your budget will stretch. IIRC the Bilstein B6s are slightly stiffer, and the B8s are stiffter again and are designed for -40mm, but are more expensive! The b6's will be fine on -40mm though...

Are you uprating the rear dampers too? I would suggest it, as a soggy back end with an overly stiff front end will result in some fairly tragic understeer!!

If you're on a real budget and not massively concerned with ride comfort, get the Ta Technix coilovers. They're not great, they'll be crashy as f*ck, and you need to spec the right spring rates or they'll either give you way to soft springs or way to hard, but they do lower the car....

[4WayDiablo]

Spoken like a true GTI6 owner^^^

[Ed Doe]

In what way???

And the 'i' in GTi6 is a little 'i'. Just so you know.

[ginge191]

In fairness I would put an input into this as I've had both '60mm lowerin springs and coilovers' but know Ed has somewhat a large base of knowledge in the area, so take his word ^^^^^

[strictly_perv]

Ed's better than some of the members on other forums who are middle aged, earning a much bigger wage than some me and seem to think that if you don't spend over £500 on suspension and have anything other that a petrol it will be shit, break and be slow. Such a TSB as all the budget diesels on here are totally wank and slow, right? /rant.
I've had budget coilovers on my 205 for over 2 years now, no issues at all (touch wood) yes they are hard and need to get better rear shocks to compensate as the ones they give are sloppy but it handles well in my opinion for the price.

[Ed Doe]

In fairness I would put an input into this as I've had both '60mm lowerin springs and coilovers' but know Ed has somewhat a large base of knowledge in the area, so take his word ^^^^^

at the rep you just left me though!!!

Ed's better than some of the members on other forums who are middle aged, earning a much bigger wage than some me and seem to think that if you don't spend over £500 on suspension and have anything other that a petrol it will be shit, break and be slow. Such a TSB as all the budget diesels on here are totally wank and slow, right? /rant.
I've had budget coilovers on my 205 for over 2 years now, no issues at all (touch wood) yes they are hard and need to get better rear shocks to compensate as the ones they give are sloppy but it handles well in my opinion for the price.

That was my point though man, I wasn't slating the Ta Technix, just saying you need to be careful as to what spring rates you get with them, and for the money you pay they aren't that bad Personally with that budget though I'd defs look at the billies. My gaz's are still pretty friggin harsh for daily use tbh!

[ginge191]

Lol Ed, all serious. I know how much research you've done handling aspects on the 306's; gaskets on the other hand /RGtroll

[identitidrjekyll]

Cheers for the responses, found a kit called g maxx which are springs, shocks, and dampers which hit my £300 budget spot on, any of you had experience with these? (and i need comfort as got to have my eleven week daughter in the car)

[Ed Doe]

I've no personal experience, but dumdum raves about them. You want to watch out though, they do make you prone to reversing into bollards at 40mph and writing off perfectly good (if a little imbalanced due to weight distribution) bianca gti6's.

So as long as you don't have a bianca gti6 you'll be fine

















So just to clarify, trolling aside; I think they are pretty good going on what Dumdum has said before. And teh fact he's bought a set for prettymuch every car he's had LOL

[kernow_joe]

I ran gmax shocks and springs on my old dturbo and they wheren't bad at all.
Actually picking up some front shocks and springs for the gti on the weekend

[Pompey306mark]

Extra £50 and you will get gaz coilovers.

Phone them and get a deal.

[GP123]

Just got coilovers off ebay myself there for 150 all in brand new! Id still take coilovers over springs anyday due to being able to adjust your height..!

[Ed Doe]

Mark you'd struggle to get em for 350... They do em for 400 if you ask the right people, and but gain as the op said the ride comfort is an issue for his nipper. And seriously the 150 coil overs are cheap for a reason, they are very harsh and the internals aren't very well made. Sure they will do the job and if all you're interested in is improving the dry handling to a certain degree, or getting the car on the floor, but if you actually want to markedly improve the handling you need to spend money on a decent set of coil overs.

[cwspellowe]

I've had everything on my 306's bar full on Fox-spec epic stuff, and my correct opinion is thus:

Lowering springs and dampers: Good if you never want to change stance of the car and you're happy with the way they ride. Can be a bit hit and miss though, one man's chalk is another man's cheese. Only real adjustability is by changing full spring or damper setups. And you'll forever look at the car thinking "I wish the front was +/- xmm".

eBay coilovers: Great value for money. Build quality is questionable and they, as a general rule, are underdamped for the majority of spring rates. If you can live with that though, they're probably the best option out there. As standard the springs are on the soft side, but if you have a £300 budget you can spend £150 on coilovers then spec springs for a further £70 or so from the likes of Merlin Motorsport. At £220 you have a lot of money spare then to freshen up suspension bushes which imo will give an even bigger improvement in handling.

"Proper" coilovers (KW, Gaz, D2 etc): Expensive new, around the £600 mark, but offer much more features than cheapo ones and a lot more aftermarket product support. Second hand the going rate seems to be £250-£300 so would be the top end of your budget. Personally I don't think they're worth the expense unless you commit and buy a lot of supporting parts, which will soon stack up the ££. Great adjustability with some sets even coming with camber/castor adjustable top mounts as standard, pillowball bearings instead of OEM top mounts, and damper adjustability (with much better damper matching than cheap coilovers). The build quality is better overall too and you'd be better with something more high-end if you're a track enthusiast, just for peace of mind.

Personally I lucked out as I picked up a set of D2 coilovers for relative pennies. My advice would be either eBay coilovers or second hand high end ones, but I think if you have a budget you should go for eBay ones and spend the rest getting alignment/bushes sorted too. Will handle great, maybe not world beating but noone ever ruled the world on a budget.

/thread

[identitidrjekyll]

Think im gonna end up buying the g maxx, really sceptical of cheap coilovers and the g maxx seems yo be the only ones in my price range after alot of researching, i drive like a gradad with my little girl in the car any way so shouldnt cause to much of an issue (fingers crossed)

[Pompey306mark]

Maria's nipper always slept in here cheap coilovers rallye.

For a silent car an extra £100 seems worth it.

[identitidrjekyll]

Woild poly bushes etc. Make for a comfortable ride? As i side im not after a sporty feel just comfort, adjustabiliyty would be nice though incase i ever decide to stance but then if i did it would proberly end up static yo try and go hellaflush

[Pompey306mark]

Ps I had g max before both my gaz sets. Gaz wins all day everyday.

[identitidrjekyll]

Sorry for spelling errors writing this on a phone

[RePT]

Ta technix handle well, but As said previously they are, well yeh, cheap stuff. But i like them and so does the car, were both happy!

[cwspellowe]

Ps I had g max before both my gaz sets. Gaz wins all day everyday.

I'm sure they would win every day. But they're out of budget.

Personally i'd get ebay coilovers before Gmax kits, but that's just my opinion. Never really liked Gmax stuff

[Ricky]

If you want lows but comfort and on a tight budget, go for '6 dampers, Ebay lowering springs and get some decent bushes and it will be pretty good imo.

[Ben]

What Ricky said, you should be able to get a second hand set of gti shocks and some new lowering springs from ebay for about 100. Rear gti shocks would be good also. This would give better handling, retain comfort and be well in budget.

(Tallguy_2 has gti shocks for sale for 35 quid)

[Ruan]

There's a massive understanding between HANDLING and GRIP...

Handling =/= Speed at which you can nail it round a corner.

Grip =/= How predictable, balanced and supple the car is on the limit...

People get very confused between the two - they say things like - "My car handles really well, the speec at which you can take corners is phenomenal..." Where what they actually mean is "The grip my car has is unreal, I can take corners significantly faster than a stock car"..

I've often found that cars that grip insanely well are a TOTAL handful past the limit, wheras cars with low levels of grip are beautifully controllable and nice to drive whilst playing with the limits of grip... That's the difference between a 306 and an MR2 - an MR2 will probably get places faster, but a 306 you can have more fun whilst playing with the cars limits... A 306 you can poke with a stick and will warn you with either understeer or a bit of lift off oversteer and a massive grin on your face - an MR2 you'll have your face being torn off with cornering Gs and then suddenly before your eyes, you're in a hedge, backwards, in a ball of flames....

[Dan!]

Put down the Cornish cider Ruan.

[Ruan]

NOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!