An uplifting thought... I need to lift my B4V just a little.

My '96 B4V wagon is due for some maintenance, tires, and, well for a bit of a suspension lift. By maintenance I mean a front end suspension refresher with ball joints, bushings, strut tower bushings, etc to tighten things up. I am also hoping to do the whole 'tune, injectors, etc' performance thing in the next month or two.

I think my car would like a 1" to 1.5" suspension lift. If I do lift the car just a little, I am also wondering if I stock suspension bits are ideal, or if I should seek out modified bits... At this point i am hoping for super, super simple: a 1" to 1.5" spring spacer on each corner, keeping my stock 14" steel rims, and buying some M/S rated road tires that are 1" or 2" larger in diameter.

Why lift it? Tulbirt is my road trip to Mexico car, and when south of the border I am often compelled to drive long distances along poorly maintained gravel roads. On my last trip my oil pan clipped a "baby head sized" rock as I drove over it. I was super lucky that nothing bad happened but I 100% could have been stranded out in the proverbial middle of nowhere... this inspired me to also want to add a simple oil pan skid plate, maybe a 2nd one for the fuel tank. Not sure if one can be purchased, or if I will have to fabricate one myself.. I am receptive to something as simple as using strong epoxy to permanently glue a 2nd layer of armor to my oil pan...

So I am looking at a small suspension lift and slightly taller tires. I already did the "5th gear mod," and I think my diesel still has enough torque that slight taller tires might possibly continue to improve my fuel economy.
*shrugs. I don't really know. (I always hope for this, install bigger tires, and loose fuel economy. lol)

So questions:
1. Are any of you familiar with anyone selling complete kits of "all the bushings" or "all the ball joints, etc?" I think I prefer rubber of Polyurethane for the smoother ride.

2. I don't really ever see people lifting these cars... they're always being lowered/slammed/ with huge rims and silly skinny tires. My driving needs suggest the exact opposite might be best for me.

3. I have a budget for all this of maybe $1500 to $2000. I think half of that will go to injectors and a tune, and the rest for tires, hard parts, and fiddle-faddling.


Thoughts, comments, snide remarks?

They're lifting them all the time now, I just commented in a FB B3/4 35i forum just minutes ago about this same thing.

I wouldn't bother, just maintain the suspension the way it is now and you'll get the best and most reliable vehicle operation.

The big question is why bother going down this road? What does it really get you?

Good luck with what you decide to do.

Somewhere in my post history is a photo of how much B4V rear springs lifted my B4. It was probably about 1.5" and I'm really happy with it.

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thechoochlyman said:

Somewhere in my post history is a photo of how much B4V rear springs lifted my B4. It was probably about 1.5" and I'm really happy with it.

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Which begs Philospher's question: What to use to lift a B4V?

My Mk3's are lifted with B4 springs (back end only). Love it, couldn't imagine going back.

My Mk5 is lowered. Hate it passionately. I have 2 sets of springs to try (Mk6 JSW and Tiguan), but it cheeses me off that I have to buy new TTY bolts for the privilege of reversing the abortion done to my car.

For OP's B4V, I'd probably go with spacers if you have no sagging issues or whatnot. My Mk3s were sagging, so the upgraded springs were a necessity.

On one of my B4Vs I have the Suplex Heavy duty springs on the rear and the only Suplex springs Idparts lists for the front. I also installed Bilstein TCs on all corners. I replaced mounts and rubber pieces. I'm running Michelin Defender 185/65-14 tires on stock steel wheels. My treadwear gauge has gone AWOL so I can't measure the tread depth for exact information. From the ground thorough the center of the VW emblem on the hubcap to the bottom of the wheel lip I measure:


LF 25-3/8"
LR 25-3/4"
RF 25-3/8"
RR 25-11/16"


I did not measure prior to the repalcement. It was noticeably sagging all the way around and set flat front to back when empty. It now sits higher in the back sort of like most pickup trucks do.


Prior to new suspension the rear sagged way lower than the front when loaded. Granted my struts were completely worn out (2 would compress when removed and would not come back out) but handling was drastically improved.



Unless I'm crazy someone made a metal belly pan for these cars at one time.

Unless I'm crazy someone made a metal belly pan for these cars at one time.

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There is always the Odin Skid Plate that is/was available for the B4. They can take a hell of a wallop without a problem. I routinely hit road icebergs and dead animals with mine (unintentionally) and it doesn’t even have a dent.

Bought two mid-grade 195-70-14 tires for the front today. They are about 1.5" taller than my 185-65-14's they replaced.
Yay for about 0.75" lift.

If the upper strut mounts are getting tired and are a little mashed, just replacing those with good quality new ones will also gain you another half inch or better on the front. Maybe that alone in combination with the taller tires will get you to where you want to be. If the rear needs a little lift at that point, you could also add some spacers. Even the cheap type that you can buy to put between the coil and the spring seat can help without requiring much extra work.

Keep in mind the compromises that come with added suspension height. Even if it helps on a rough or rutted road, it still hurts when you're on the highway, in terms of stability, roadholding, accident avoidance safety, and fuel economy. You can mitigate some of the handling impact with increased roll stiffness (at some cost, if you can find bigger bars for these -- don't even know if that's the case). But then there's a ride quality tradeoff. The reality is that the highway is where the vast, vast majority of miles are driven so when I think about those tradeoffs for highway driving, I take it seriously. Here where I live, the driving environment is presumably similar to your area in Texas, in that speed limits are high with large distances to cover and traffic generally moves at 90-100 mph, or more. At those velocities, any sacrifice in handling or high speed stability is real-world safety risk.

I have an old Volvo wagon I lifted 2.5" and added A/T tires to that I use for getting to trailheads, but at 90+ mph it's outside its comfort zone now, which it was not before the lift. I like how it tackles a bad forest road with the lift, but I freely acknowledge to myself that I basically made the car less functional, and in many respects degraded it, by doing this to it. Fortunately at 350k miles it wasn't much of a left-lane hauler anymore regardless, and I have other vehicles that are better for high speed use, so not too much of a loss in my case. YMMV.

Thank you d24tdi. I 100% agree. I am hoping that with only very minor tweaks I can maintain highway MPG's while gaining just a tiny bit of increased functionality.

And I was thinking about the strut tower bushings. These purple Powerflex polyyurethane bushings arrived in today's mail. I normally prefer rubber over polyyurethane, but these seem like especially high-wear items, so I thought I'd give them a whirl. If it stops raining, I hope to install them today.

Got them installed, and it's an immediate improvement, both in ride quality and ride height. Plus it accomplished what I originally purchased them for: one of my larger suspension clunks is finally gone. Yay! You were right that with no suspension mods simply refreshing these bushings made the car sit at the height I wanted. So double yay!

I think the previous owner may have installed a more stout anti-swaybar (mine is 24mm is stock smaller?), along with stiffer springs? I'm not sure how to find out about the springs since they're not labled?

Either way, I'm now happy with the front of the car's ride height. The rear still has the smaller tires (I only did the front ones), and it is sitting 1" to 2" lower than the front.
I think I'm going to leave the car as it is now for a little while to save money during these uncertain times. My rear tires are in good condition, and they're easy to replace whenever.

Nice! Sounds like a good outcome.

Don't know about the bar thickness. There might be a way to figure out the springs based on the paint dots on them, if they're still there and not rusted/sandblasted away, or if you get them off the car you can measure free length and coil thickness and maybe figure out if they are stock or not. But it sounds like you've got it right where you want it now so maybe that's all moot.

Your wagon is a twin of my daily driver, BTW, although yours is much nicer. Same color and I still run the stock wheels and wheel covers on mine also. Mine is mostly still green but getting more brown (rust) every day. Still put on 4000-5000 hard miles a month though. Nice to see another one out there.

Mine has Koni Yellows and a bunch of other suspension upgrades from a previous owner, put on back before the car had turned into such a POS. Handling is not bad for what it is.

Bumping this thread. Hoping to buy some new shocks/ struts today or tomorrow. Looking at the I drive my 1996 Passat B4V through the back off-pavement mountain roads of Mexico somewhat often... I am working on a approx 1-2 inch lift. I have slightly larger tires on it already and am hoping to order some struts & springs for it today... Looking at the Bilstein B4 or B6 models... B6 is more expensive, and I am not sure if they are worth the extra penny... Anyone have a strong opinion on the subject?

ebay link:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/For-Volksw...ete-Bilstein-B6-Shock-Strut-Set/293600764032?

The B4 line is OEM equivalent. B6 is an improved shock/strut. Even on a stock car I prefer higher end line for stability and in theory longer life. I suspect you carry a lot of cargo on these trips. Bilstein states the B6 is better for towing and heavy loads. Is your current wheel/tire combo heavier than stock? If so the B6 will probably work better for that as well.



If you have not called Bilstein I suggest you do. Typically a lifted vehicle may need a longer shock/strut to deal with the longer suspension travel without bottoming. They can probably tell if if the ones you are looking at have the additional travel available. At one inch I doubt this matters but the call is free.



You also need to consider the spring rate of your springs if you care changing them. Shocks/strut need to be matched to the spring rate. Look at heavily lowered Hondas where the young owner just cut the springs to lower the car and bought random struts.....they bounce like crazy. Compare that to properly lowered VWs that don't look like an off balance washing machine.



https://www.bilstein.com/us/en/product/bilstein-b6/

Bilstein B6 struts for Passats have been obsolete for many years. The catalog linked above shows a Bilstein number of 22-247513. But three suppliers I checked show zero stock. If you go for that set I'd make sure you're getting something that will fit. There's a Corrado strut that works, but I wonder how well it would accommodate a lift on a Passat. The part numbers that eBay link aren't Bilstein numbers.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Bilstein B6 struts for Passats have been obsolete for many years. The catalog linked above shows a Bilstein number of 22-247513. But three suppliers I checked show zero stock. If you go for that set I'd make sure you're getting something that will fit. There's a Corrado strut that works, but I wonder how well it would accommodate a lift on a Passat. The part numbers that eBay link aren't Bilstein numbers.

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Excellent information, thank you guys. I was able to verify that the B6- Bilstein shocks on ebay are the correct ones for my Passat B4, so that at least is hopeful. They are listed as:

Bilstein B6 Performance Front and Rear Set of 4
"Kit contains: 2 x 22-247513, 2 x 24-015974" <--- and this is what the Bilstein website indicates as the correct ones. LINK

I've recently replaced the front strut mounts with polyurethane ones, and I am looking to order front strut bearings plus bellows, bump-stops for all four...
Am I overlooking anything obvious?

Read my edited post above. I'm not sure how you verified fitment, but if it was via the eBay vehicle filter I wouldn't put a lot of stock in that.

IndigoBlueWagon said:

Read my edited post above. I'm not sure how you verified fitment, but if it was via the eBay vehicle filter I wouldn't put a lot of stock in that.

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Thank you IndigoBlueWagon. I saw the part numbers for the two sets of front and rear shocks listed in the eBay ad. Then I went to the Bilstein website and looked up my 1996 Passat, and they were the same ones. I also double checked the fronts against a 1995, and they were also the same.

Here is the Bilstein web page with the B6 shocks parts listed for a 1996 Passat:
https://www.bilstein.com/us/en/prod...51609426424410&SubModelId=3362550981953492286

So it looks like they are maybe back in production, or perhaps these are new old stock.

Hopefully I bought the correct things. Fortunately if a mistake was made, the eBay return policy is very good for buyers.

continued here:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=508930