Lowering my tdi, advice please...

[Leroy]

Hi, just after some advice on lowering my tdi130.

Someone has offered me an Apex shock/Spring kit for a decent price 2nd hand off a gti he's breaking. I was just going to go for springs but these kits are £300+ So reckon it would be worth the investment. Now I have done some searching and I thought all mk4's as long as the are not 4wd could use the same kit. eBay has a 45mm apex kit for petrol and a 50mm apex kit for a tdi? The guy has measured and said its 50mm so should fit. So first question is, why are there different kits?

Secondly, there is a warning on eBay that if you lower more than 45mm then the anti roll bar may touch the r/h driveshaft so you have to buy a bar separately. I spoke to a guy at my local tyre place who had a slammed mk4 and he had to switch to a tt setup to accommodate.

So finally for all the guys who have lowered their mk4' is this likely to happen with this apex setup because tbh I haven't got the funds to be dicking about, it's my daily and I do a lot of miles so don't need it to be dragging its arse on the floor, if this apex setup going to be a lot of work and extra expense, I would just be a big jessy and play it safe with some 35mm springs only for now.

Any advice mucky appreciated.

[Mr_Orange]

The diesel engine is heavier and has slightly stiffer front springs to compensate. Petrol springs on diesel might drop the front slightly more, but quoted spring drops are always a little optimistic.
You'll be fine at that drop. Worse happens you get a little bit of arb rub and need to fiddle about with some adjustable drop links.
TT setup is needed if you max out on coils or go for an air-ride setup. It gets rather expensive when you start chopping TT bits in.....

[Wazzzer]

Yep, I was lowered 50mm and this happened...

[Leroy]

Cheers for the advice, I'll go for springs now and upgrade to coilovers when the time comes then at least I can adjust it if needed.

[rupture]

I've got fk coilovers on my gti and I found a good way to get over the rubbing between the ARB and the offside driveshaft was to get 60mm drop links and replace the driveshaft for a smaller radius after market 1 (60quid from ECP). This stopped any rubbing at all and I'm dropped about 60mm at the back and 50mm at the front even on full lock it doesn't rub. This meant I didn't need to fork out stupid money for a tt, r32 or whiteline ARB. Also I found because I've got r32 rims with 225/35 rubbers they rubbed on the adjuster rings so bought the wheels out 15mm front and back with hubcentric spacers. Hope this helps 😉