Saggy Springs or Incorrect Rear Struts?

Last month I swapped out the blown Koni Reds from my '96 VR sedan with Bisltein HDs The PO also cut both the front and back springs by one coil to lower the car so I swapped in a different set of springs I had from a previous B4 and MK3 project.



As you can see the rear end is quite lower than the front. I measured the front distance from the top of the wheel well fender arch to the ground at 24.5 inches. The rear measured 22.5 inches.

I have 2 theories on the matter and would like to pass them by the gurus before I purchase new springs. First off, I'm not positive the company I bought the rear struts from sent me the correct ones. Ill double check the stamped part number later this evening. I'm also going to measure the distance from the bolt hole at the bottom of the strut to the bottom of the spring plate to see if the distance matches the OEM struts I have laying around.

My second thought is that these springs are beat. They have 205xxx miles on them so being worn out could be the likely reason.

Any expert opinions?

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Springs support the car.
Dampers keep the springs from oscillating.

Whatever gas charge might be present in the dampers is there to prevent oil aeration and not additional load support.

What "MK3 project"? A 2 door Golf GL? the springs for that car are not up to the heavier weight of the B4.

Also be sure you don't have B4 wagon dampers as the perch height (and spring, too) is different than that used on the sedan.

Springs may support the car, but if the spring mount is lower because it's the wrong strut, the spring height won't matter.

I have wagon rear springs on my sedan and they look almost identical to the sedan springs,but I do have the sedan struts.

I had a Golf shock on my B3 when I got it. The spring perch was definitely over an inch different from the Passat part.

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The problems here are complicated because the car was a VR and is now a TDI, or rather I'm assuming that...am I wrong?

Was the suspension ever changed when the engine swap was done? If not that's half the problem on the front end.

Based on observation it looks like the front is too high but also the back is too low, but that's judging based on how my B3V looks from the side.

The rear spring situation is thus, there are three different springs for B3/4 chassis cars.

B3 sedan
B3 wagon & B4 sedan (shared)
B4 wagon

The front springs are more complicated but if you start fresh I think you should pick Mk3 springs with either 3 pink & 2 green marks or 3 pink and 1 green marks. Those are the springs for HD suspension or AC / automatic trans cars and you will find a lot of those installed on mk3 Jetta in the US. Just be sure and get them from a 1997 and up Jetta so you get the type compatible with the Plus suspension mounts. My 97 Jetta TDI has the 3 pink 2 green springs and so that's what I duplicated for the B3V when I selected springs for that car.

For the rear...pick either replacements for the B4 sedan (and B3 wagon) or go with the extra lift of the B4 wagon springs.

Oh, and be sure and pick struts that are specifically for the B3/4, especially in the rear. The Passat does not share rear struts with anything else, they are exclusive to Passat B3/4.

I hope this helps.

Steve

A3 rear dampers are definitely shorter than B4. B4 owners would purposely install A3 lowering kits to get the B4s even lower.

When I purchased my B4 coilover kit, I was surprised to see it was an actual B4 kit and not a rebadged A3 kit.

-Todd

I appreciate all the help and advice! My apologies for the delay in responding, I've been away for the last 2 weeks and haven't had a chance to work on the car.

Last week I was able to get confirmation that the distance from the bottom of the shock to the spring plate of the new Bilstein matched the distance from the existing Koni. Next I checked to make sure the Bilsteins were also the correct B4 spec rather than MK3 which was my initial assumption. Lastly, I figured it couldn't hurt to purchase some new springs considering they were they last "unknown" for the problem.

I think it's safe to say that those of you who guessed saggy springs were correct ?



Can you guess which spring is new?

Here's a ride height shot to compare to my original picture. Overall the rear end came up to 26" from 22" 1/2 and the front rose up to 25" from 24" 1/2 or so. The new springs I swapped in are the Suplex standard rate sedan springs. The ride is quite nice now, not too rigid but sporty enough for my taste.





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Are there any paint markings on the old springs? I'd be curious to know if they're factory springs or some kind of lowering spring that was installed previously.

Steve

Good eye, the springs were on a MK3 GLX car while it was being repainted and the individual responsible for taping the car off did not do the best job.

c3k said:

Good eye, the springs were on a MK3 GLX car while it was being repainted and the individual responsible for taping the car off did not do the best job.

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Yeah, I saw that but I was really talking about something like this:



The dots (color and quantity) tell you what features they were rated for.

Just wondering whether your old springs have any color dots on them and if so what they are.

Steve

Abacus said:

I have wagon rear springs on my sedan and they look almost identical to the sedan springs,but I do have the sedan struts.

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Abacus, I need to know how those springs worked in your sedan. I'm thinking about using HD wagon springs in the rear of mine.

Wow, not sure how I missed this, my apologies. While it's probably too late, they are working fine. No sag, nice height, and no issues with hauling weight.

Abacus said:

Wow, not sure how I missed this, my apologies. While it's probably too late, they are working fine. No sag, nice height, and no issues with hauling weight.

Click to expand...

haha Thanks for the late response! I did get them installed, and really love the increased height and ride stability.