OE Springs, But What Dampers? OE OEM Bilstein Koni or Other?

[EB2019]

Hi

Looking for some info on what others have done to the GTI/TCR without wanting to resort to coilovers? Car is 5 years old this year (2019 seems like yesterday to me though)  so wanting to refresh things as i think it has a little too much roll and pitch. I have had coilovers from Bilstein on other cars, but don't really want to head down that road with the GTI and want to keep the original springs. 

Searching the VW part system non DCC dampers are all the same on the front and rear regardless of GTI GTD or TCR only the springs are different which was a bit of a surprise. but with this in mind I was thinking

OE 
The default low pressure gas, I took one off today and you can push it down to the bump stop with 2 fingers pressing on the top mount and it rises back up at moderate pace. I'm sure new ones will be better although mine are not blown leaking or faulty just 5 years old.

OEM Sachs
List 1 part number to fit the entire multilink rear suspension range, being new its likely to be better than 5 year old with improvement on 5 year old dampers. definitely the safe choice

Bilstein B6
Stiff both in compression and rebound? do they pair well with GTi springs, Anyone fitted these? Did they raise the ride height at all, I have heard the high mono tube pressure in the B6 can raise it a little?

Koni
Stiff in compression but adjustable rebound so could set softer than B6 a little, but the rears need to be removed to adjust so its likely fit and forget.  Anyone tried these?

[Paul70]

I was tempted to refresh the suspension on my ED40 which runs passive suspension. My conclusion (but did not act on it) was to go for the B6 dampers, even if they raised the ride height a few mm. Volkswizard did a install drive video around 4 months ago which is worth watching.

[EB2019]

Yeah I'm sort of thinking the same, B6 is a safe mod option, brand cost ratio, if a little hard for UK B roads, but Likely fit and forget, and if you really really wanted to I guess you could later on pair them with Eibach pro springs (b12 kit) which lower 25mm (from full suspension height) and the gti is already 10mm lower so a small drop overall 15mm?? I would like to choose a UK damper option as our roads are far worse than Europe especially Germany, but not really any options without big £££ and rebuilds each year (thinking Nitron suspension).  If Ohlins did just a damper I would likely go for them but don't want the R&T coilover option they do.  The Koni FSD get mixed reviews about the inconsistent feedback so would only consider the Koni Sport (yellow).

I watch Volkswizard vid, thanks for that, but still wasn't sure on anything other than a few B roads.  I would be interested in town/slow/ road driving. I kind of know they will be better than stock when pushing on, but for 95% of the rest of the driving I'm not so sure. 

[Exonian]

Up until I got my Mk6’s I worked my way through every generation of Golf and modified the suspension on all of them. Since the mk6 and mk7 days I’ve never really thought the cars needed aftermarket with the caveat that if I’d run the cars past about 40k miles the dampers would have been sufficiently worn to consider fitting new ones. If I’d fitted new ones I’d have definitely gone B6.

Albeit it all being a rather long time ago, I’ve had Bilstein, Koni, H&R, Boge and possibly others I’ve forgotten.
Koni yellows too hard, Koni FSD too spongy, H&R too hard, Bilstein yellows too hard when fitted with lowering springs (great on track though!), Bilstein black are nice but very similar to OE. Boge turbogas used to work really well with mk2 and mk3 Golfs but that’s hardly relevant here!

For modern cars running standard springs my attention would immediately focus on B6’s (and that’s nothing to do with Volkswizard!)
If I won the Euromillions it’d be Ohlins. But they be fitted to my Lambo not a poxy Golf 😁

[EB2019]

Its surprising how many options are available, but when you boil it down it seems like almost no options at all.

Euromillions?  Manthey Porsche for a full package me thinks 

[madstaff]

Ride height is determined by the spring, the damper has no effect on ride height.

If you were to remove the springs the car would drop down until it was the bumpstops holding the car up.

[EB2019]

I agree madstaff, it does seem weird, but have read on multiple forums that the high nitrogen gas pressure in B6 acts as a slight lifting force increasing spring rate, and in turn marginally raises the ride height due the spring not fully settling when static, I think I have explained the gist of it. Whether its true or not its seems all over the net for B6 dampers, (it may apply to others).

@ Exonian, one brand I can't see in your list of suspension brands is KW? I've never tried them, but they now seem to do a road version coilover as well as the performance coilover, Comfort V2 and standard V2.

[Exonian]

I had Koni FSD fitted to my mk5 GTI and they raised the suspension nearly an inch compared to the 48k(ish) OEM’s that came off. Same springs, I didn’t change those. So it’s very possible that B6’s will do the same.


I’ve not tried KW’s. They might not have been freely available in the UK back in the days I was messing about modifying.
The last set up I had (on an elderly SEAT Ibiza Cupra that I ran as a second car for years) was a Bilstein B8 and Eibach springs combo. I’m pretty sure those dampers had shortened pistons(?) and were hard. The Eibachs went on after one of the front springs that came with the Bilsteins snapped. Those were some unknown brand supplied by Euro Car Parts as part of a kit when they were UK distributors. Neither set up rode well on urban roads.

[TDInowGTiLover]

https://www.eurocarparts.com/shock-absorber
Seems to be an interesting array of different supposed OE shocks here. Sachs, Bilstein are common names. Monroe and starline?
Although I'm not there yet I was thinking about possibly going with koni Special active dampers when the time comes. They seem to be quite well regarded. My only issue is that it would potentially classed as a mod on insurance as it's not OE spec.
Back when I modded my 2003 Ibiza sport 130 I'd got a weitec suspension kit which KW owned and have now rebranded as ST suspension. It was great, everything about it was better. Original suspension was really crashy. The weitec was a smoother ride and had less roll with about 30mm drop. Strangely felt a lot more like my brother's cupra of similar age. Not sure why the sport suspension was a worse ride than the cupra.

[Exonian]

I once owned an Ibiza TDI 130 Sport of similar vintage back in the noughties.
Hated the thing! It looked like a hippopotamus, the only thing harder than the interior plastics was the ride quality and the gearing was way too long.
I only kept it a very short time.

The 2006/7 facelift big bumper cars were much much nicer and VW nicked the FR bumper style for the current mk8 Clubsport…

Anyway, I didn’t keep the 130PD TDI long.
I went from a 2000 mk3 Ibiza TDI that I’d modified the arse off but couldn’t live with the H&R suspension, to a Leon Cupra 1.8t with which I left the suspension standard as it rode and handled nicely (remapped it though) to the Ibiza 130.
Immediately realised my mistake, traded it for a highish mileage Golf 1.8t which I added a Koni yellow kit to (and remap!) and hated that suspension too…

A Fabia vRS followed which had a much more compliant ride than the Ibiza 130 cousin so was left standard (AmD remap and 17” alloys aside), then a mk5 Golf 140 TDI and then mk5 Golf GTI.

The mk5 GTI was treated to a set of Koni FSD’s which were indeed nice and compliant. However they raised the suspension and would bottom out over large undulations 

That’s the nostalgia trip over for today, plenty more kits I’ve tried in the very distant past though.

Caveat emptor when buying modified suspension parts is the message.