My new mk1 GTi has come with coilover fitting..Brucy bonus! Whats the best way to set them up? (ie height and damping).
Wind them all the way to the bottom Just set it at a height you like, measure wheel arch to floor on each corner and make sure the sides match. Then go and getting the tracking done.. Scott
I decided what height i wanted mine and then used a vernier gauge to measure all the spring platform heights.. Setting up is personal. I would start at the softest setting all round and drive it.. then stiffen them all up by 2 clicks (how many you have depends on shocker, my Spax have 34). Keep going until you are happy... i have my back ones set a about 6 turns harder than the front and have a 10mm drop, front to back.
Well, alegidly(spelling?) they're Bilstein. Ie, thats what previous owner told me, but theres no receipts for them, so truthfully I dont know. I was more thinking, was there a procedure to go about adjusting them, as Tubthump has suggested. Cheers by the way! I haven't played with them yet, so am assuming they have damping adjustability, they do have an allum key slot on tops They're red springs (main and helpers), kind of gold adonised height adjusters, and yellow top bit/bit between spring.... that may mean nothing! I really have to get it all adjusted between changes??? Rich got his done at Elite yesterday and it was 40! Seems a lot for everytime I want to change height, or can it be done more simply for less?
I've seen Bilstein PSS and PSS9 coilovers and they both had blue springs. Also, they tend to cost 700+ for a set. The allen key slot at the top of the damper is common to ALL dampers and is used to remove the struts. IIRC with Bilstein coilovers the adjusters are at the bottom of the struts. Regarding tracking, I've changed the height twice on my coilovers and each time I've had to have the tracking re-done.
Not quite all true... The allen key isn't common to all dampers.. Spax and FK don't have an allen key at the top of the front struts as there is a knob there for damper adjusting. Other coilovers could be like that, but cannot say for sure. Anyway.. back to original: Is there a seriel number stamped into the shock body? This might help identify them. If you are just playing with settings until you are happy then you can get away without alignment.. but if it's gonna be left like that for anything past a week or so, get it set.
Fair call, cheers lads, i'll have another look at them. Would good for furture ref to work out what they are.
They could be the old A la Carte shocks, like those fitted to Anders Ranbo's old Silver, caged Mk II Golf on 8-17 MO's from MAx power 7-8 years ago. Mad caged car
I've uploaded some pics of them, spose this is more for my interest than anything else! Here they are: Edited by: ManicGTI
Well they look exactly like Supersports, Manic does say he's not played with them yet and he only assumes they are damping adjustable...
I have played with them now, well when i say played, I oiled them, ran them to the bottom of the tread and back up again to loosen them up, but after a wipe over they look relativly new, no corrosion or anything. I raised the back because I was having scrapeing issues, i'll worry about setting it up once ive got my engine running fine! I dont think they have damping adustability thou, no obvious knob to turn, heres some images of the tops: Eeek, sorry about size of the other images, i'll sort em out!
