Warning!

[gtimk5]

One of my customers recently had the terrible experience of hitting a pedestrian. The outcome was the worst for the poor old fella that was hit....
The Mk2 GTI was taken to the police garages for inspection, it was found to have been doing 67 km/h in an 80 zone and no blame was put on this poor young fella.
The transport inspectors here defected the immaculate Golf due to the windscreen missing (umm...!) which was to be expected.
The main worry is that because it had coilovers fitted it required an engineering certificate. That involves 7 pages of paperwork!
What I am getting at is that if you have coilovers fitted and are found to be at fault in an incident, the insurance company may well not pay out and the authorities may try and lay blame on these mods being fitted without the neccesary certificates. I notice on this forum the theme is to "slam" the cars as low as you can go, there lies yet another problem.
food for thought fellas,
Andrew

[team_v]

I didn't think you needed an engineers certificate for coilovers and that lowering was legal so long as you followed the regulations specified in your state's dept of transport modifications guide.

It is shocking though, hope that it doesn't happen to anyone else.

[dylan8]

Thanks for posting. Sad to here.
I remember reading coilovers were illegal if they didn't have such things as a 2nd lock nut (to stop them winding down as you drive)
lol at no windscreen though. Is the driver in trouble due to having a defected car and hitting someone?

[Tim]

I didn't think you needed an engineers certificate for coilovers and that lowering was legal so long as you followed the regulations specified in your state's dept of transport modifications guide.

its a real grey area here in vic. Some places say its no problem and others refuse to roadworthy a car with coilovers.

[velly_16v_cab]

very sad story Andrew...the death of a mk2 GTI
no, but really, very sad...I totally agree with you. Modding your car without the correct paper work can land you in trouble.

a friend in the uk had a letter from his insurance, someone had reported him for modding his car!!!
they cancelled his cover untill he could prove the car was either standard or he declaired the mods (with him being so young he had to put the car back to standard due to the cost of his insurance)

[Water Boy]

its a real grey area here in vic. Some places say its no problem and others refuse to roadworthy a car with coilovers.

Yeah thats what I have found to. Some places aslong as the car is 100mm off the gorund height adjustable coilover suspension is fine.

Bad luck for the guy with the Mk2 and RIP Old man.

[The_Hawk]

The recent changes (which were put on hold) in NSW made it far less grey saying ANY lower (or more than 50mm higher) required an engineers certificate. The way it read it was still a little grey in my mind if a stock Commodore had it’s suspension replaced with OEM equivalent gear at Pedders as to if it needed to be engineered or not. I also recall hearing talk about coils being illegal since they *could* lowered further than legal (Regardless of where you run them).

So I got bored and rang the RTA then an engineer...

According to an engineer you do not require an engineers certificate (since it's considered a minor mod) if you change only the shock/spring combo (and not arms and other things) providing you stay within ADR’s. (Mind you outside the ADR’s is NOT legal and cannot be engineered anyway). I have been told this means > 100mm clearance AND maintaining > 2/3 of original suspension travel. For new cars this information can be worked out form the Road Vehicle Descriptors (RVD’s) at Certification Unit Search

Look up your car and the information would be down under Suspension Data under “minimum acceptable vertical measurement wheel centre to top of wheel arch”. For something like the new Golf wagon this figure allows you to lower a card by only 25mm.

Long story short, there is a damn good chance that many of our vehicles are actually too low by a good margin...

[gtimk5]

The Mk2 survived it remarkably well. The bonnet was dented badly as was the roof. The roof popped out ok. The car had a grill eyebrow which was undamaged as was the grill and bumper (big bumper model) I seriously thought they might have been upset with the eyebrow but it passed ok.
The dashboard suffered a big split and one of the front seats got a tear in it.
As far as the authorities thing is concerned, its not such a "grey" area here. He will be removing the coilovers and refitting the near new Billsteins he originally fitted.
The car is far from dead but the poor young fella doesnt know if he will be able to drive it anymore.... A very very sad situation...

Mainly just a heads up for others here, and if you didnt already realise, I do not agree with "dumping" cars into the weeds. Suspension arm geometry is significantly altered for a start...
Both my GTI and Caddy have coilovers fitted by the way.

[Jarred]

do you know what insurance company he was with? Since its the insurance here that's the main issue (not so much the legality)

The way I see it, as long as my insurance company covers me with coilovers, I'm not too concerned about the 'legalities'

[gtimk5]

Jarred,
this is not insurance company stuff. Its when you have a serious accident and the car goes to be fully inspected for mods and defects. Lose control and clean someone up or whatever, if its serious, they go through your car. If by some chance there is any doubt about the car they will be looking pretty closely. This car was spot on although the disc thicknesses were measured and found to be undersize.
This poor kid wasnt in any way to blame for this incident, it was an elderley man who parked on the side of a 4 lane highway and walked accross on a friday afternoon. He was hidden from view by a couple of 4wd's. Unfortunate, if the guy had used the right lane "U" turn lane he would have had a lot of parking space in the Bunnings store...
This was 300 metres from my workshop.
I watch Accident Investigations on TV and by the looks of it, they look pretty damn thoroughly.

[gtimk5]

Alsi must give the police a BIG THUMBS UP for ringing my customer 6 times over the saturday and sunday to see if he was coping with his trauma too.
They did sen him for councelling too.

[Stephy]

I read about that - it was an horrific accident.
I've had coilovers fitted in all my cars, Shannons insurance are aware and it isn't an issue for them. I had the transport people "go over" my Polo once when they were doing the roadside inspections, and they were very thorough (it passed - with the butterfly in the exhaust shut...), the car is legal ride height and i told them i had coilovers (and then explained what they were) and they didn't have an issue.
So is the issue having the coilovers themselves? Or having the car below legal ride height?
(by the way all the boxes mine have come in say FOR RACE USE ONLY all over them - so it really wouldn't surprise me if an engineering certificate would be needed)
I've got major respect for the road trauma counsellors/police - their line of work is unbelievable, and i know i'd never ever be able to do what they do.