Keen to drop my Jetta on its nuts.

[Idle]

Air ride? Now why would someone want to do that?

Haemorrhoids?

[GoLfMan]

Got a quite for some H&R Monotube Coilovers - $2048 delivered to my door.

How much do you think it would cost to get them fitted? Or could i do it myself at home?

Cheers.

do itself at home, its not too hard!

[WABIT]

yeah but it will void warranty if something goes wrong with your home install....

dom

[platzie]

Hmmm i'll probably get it done professionally. Hmmm not really a fan of airbags.

[Creniac]

Here you go, H&R coil overs for our Jettas, delivered from the US for AUD$1608.... check link.

H&R COILOVER SPRINGS 06 07 08 09 VW JETTA V: eBay Motors (item 350237893370 end time Aug-04-10 00:16:28 PDT)

[maca]

Cheers Josh, all that info will come in handy in about 6 months

[robby_jai]

sorry with out being rude or disrespectful i completely disagree with your advice about getting the coil overs. the whole purpose of adjustable coilovers is to give you the ability to adjust your damper, rebound and heights of your suspension set for various driving conditions such as track and street. coil overs also give you the added benefit of better suspension control through uprated dampers and springs are typically designed for motorsport or sports driving. sadly VERY VERY VERY few people go to the bother of actually adjusting their suspensions for the various road conditions there are on the public road. Majority of people leave their suspensions on a set and forget setting cos its a complete pain in the backside to adjust

if you are only driving on street and your WHOLE purpose is to maintain street driving coil overs are totally unnecessary and a complete waste of money and over kill. there is NO driving condition on public roads which would require the enhanced performance of coil overs. it would appear that OP has taken your advice and wasted close to 2k to buy a set of coil overs just to have his car lowered ??????? that's really not good advice and if i can be quite honest quite a biased and so not so honest advice from yourself. it completely smacks of bias. you have advised the person asking the question to go straight to coil overs with a very feeble explanation about the benefits of coil overs and have not even considered or recommended cheaper alternatives like matched shocks and springs which are great combination at a great price.

A well matched set of sports springs would have also done the same job and be far more cost effective for the poster since he has clearly stated he has no motorsport intentions and the OP's car is hardly going to stretch the limits of his OEM suspension set up. also sport springs from the big companies like H&R and Eibach usually design springs that are quite well matched with the OEM shocks and is a highly recommended upgrade from reputable tuning shops for people on a tighter budget.

any professional suspension shop will tell you good springs are a simple and cheap upgrade.

sorry mate but i think your missing the point of coilovers.

Its not to track the car (it may have been initially), they are designed to give you the height you desire without the trade offs of having a lowered spring (un-matched damper/spring rates = bumpy crap ride). Believe me I've had both...

I say just get a nice quality coilover, get the height you desire and still retain a nice daily ride quality

[robby_jai]

i should also add that advising some one to do their own suspension install at home who is obviously not qualified to do so is down right stupid and completely irresponsible. as a moderator of this forum i would have thought you would have had a modicum of sense to advise the poster to seek out a qualified mechanic to install his suspensions from a safety perspective and provided direct answers to his question like how much it cost to install rather than dishing out irresponsible advice

[platzie]

I realise that coilovers are probably overkill for the kind of driving i do. But i'm probably going to need something adjustable, i'm looking at airbags now, except they are probably a bit expensive. The issue with lower springs and matched shocks is that if i drop it to the height that i would like, it would be a nuisance to use the car every day. I'm really tossing up between airbags and coilovers. Airbags would be nice

[DubSteve]

sorry with out being rude or disrespectful i completely disagree with your advice about getting the coil overs. the whole purpose of adjustable coilovers is to give you the ability to adjust your damper, rebound and heights of your suspension set for various driving conditions such as track and street. coil overs also give you the added benefit of better suspension control through uprated dampers and springs are typically designed for motorsport or sports driving. sadly VERY VERY VERY few people go to the bother of actually adjusting their suspensions for the various road conditions there are on the public road. Majority of people leave their suspensions on a set and forget setting cos its a complete pain in the backside to adjust

if you are only driving on street and your WHOLE purpose is to maintain street driving coil overs are totally unnecessary and a complete waste of money and over kill. there is NO driving condition on public roads which would require the enhanced performance of coil overs. it would appear that OP has taken your advice and wasted close to 2k to buy a set of coil overs just to have his car lowered ??????? that's really not good advice and if i can be quite honest quite a biased and so not so honest advice from yourself. it completely smacks of bias. you have advised the person asking the question to go straight to coil overs with a very feeble explanation about the benefits of coil overs and have not even considered or recommended cheaper alternatives like matched shocks and springs which are great combination at a great price.

A well matched set of sports springs would have also done the same job and be far more cost effective for the poster since he has clearly stated he has no motorsport intentions and the OP's car is hardly going to stretch the limits of his OEM suspension set up. also sport springs from the big companies like H&R and Eibach usually design springs that are quite well matched with the OEM shocks and is a highly recommended upgrade from reputable tuning shops for people on a tighter budget.

any professional suspension shop will tell you good springs are a simple and cheap upgrade.

Ease up here big boy! I don't see how you can say that coilovers are a complete overkill on the streets? Thats nonsence and of all people you should know this. Coilovers allow you to set a correct ride height for your car where you want it, how you want it. I have KW v2s that I put in my mk3, 3 years ago. Never tracked it, taken it for a few drives and hugged and handled well.

On the other hand I had hottunings in my mk1 gti and all i wanted was low that was it. There was no dampness or anything like that. I even fitted those coilovers in my backyard. Did I lose warranty?....no but I saved myself some money and I am not a mechanic.

i should also add that advising some one to do their own suspension install at home who is obviously not qualified to do so is down right stupid and completely irresponsible. as a moderator of this forum i would have thought you would have had a modicum of sense to advise the poster to seek out a qualified mechanic to install his suspensions from a safety perspective and provided direct answers to his question like how much it cost to install rather than dishing out irresponsible advice

If some one knows how to install there own goods why can't they?

[Big Yellow]

i have KW V3s on my R32, and i have yet to track the car, and ive only hit a mountain pass once since putting them on.

do i regret getting them? nope. are they overkill? nope, cos i know ive got a high quality product that has been proven to be reliable - which i want in a daily driver.

sure springs and shocks are a cheap alternative, but can you be guaranteed that the drop heights will be equal on all 4 corners? I highly doubt it! i've had to adjust my coilovers numerous times so that all 4 corners sat at equal heights. so thats a big win already over springs and shock combo. that is of course, you don't care if you're car has a wobbly, crooked stance.

my opinion would be to get what you can afford. if you're budget does not stretch to dampening/rebound adjustable coilovers, i would still get height only adjustable coilovers over a spring/shock combo any day of the week.

and if have a massive budget.............slam it on air

[noone]

Personally, I'd pick a product and price you are happy with and research it until you have the best price and enough info to go on.

As the Jetta was sold in the USA, jumping in on a group buy (fairly frequent ones with ECS Tuning) should see you get your gear at a good price. If you buy from OS, you are likely to save a packet on the cost, but loose warranty. That side of things is up to you...

Seems H&R are generally a good product, but I'd make sure the ride is not going to be too harsh.

For fitting the gear, I'd allow about $400 although you can certainly get it done for less...

[platzie]

Thanks for all the info guys. I'm getting a bit more hooked on air ride suspension as i read more about it. Although it is quite a bit more expensive. Mostly just because if i feel the need i can slam it on the ground or if i need good clearance i can raise it up with the push of a button. What would you guys suggest, assuming that i can afford air suspension, coilovers or airbags?

[DubSteve]

To be quite honest airbags I would go, they are good enough these days to be compared to coilovers in terms of handling. For comfort you can't compare.

What guys in the US do is usually drive with the car pretty low but just enough to go pan slamming all over the place. Once they stop and park you slam it down for the overall look which is always the money shot.

[platzie]

Yeah i wasn't a fan of airbags before but i quite like them now, very convenient in the way that i can roll low most of the time, but if i need some clearance i can just pop it up. How much would i expect to pay for a decent set of airbags full installed and engineered?