MK4 Jetta 1" Lift Complete

I completed a 1" lift on my 2005 Jetta TDI about a month ago and I wanted to share how I approached the lift and provide some before and after measurements.

From the start, my goal was to use as minimal lift as possible to fit General Grabber AT2 tires in the 205/75/15 flavor (27.1" diameter). I had read many of the lift threads, including the Beef on Budget thread, and decided to aim for 1-1.5" of lift using a combination of MOOG 81134 front springs, 81055 rear springs, and aluminum strut spacers. I wanted to avoid using spacers in the rear and use the shortest spacer possible in the front in order to retain the majority of my strut travel.

Below are pictures of the front and rear MOOG springs together. Note that they are essentially the same length. The other two pictures are a comparison of the factory springs and the MOOG springs. The spring specs are as follows:

MOOG 81134: 14" long, 0.518" wire diameter
Factory Front: 14 1/8" long, 0.502" wire diameter
MOOG 81055: 14" long, 0.502" wire diameter
Factory Rear: 13 5/8" long, 0.450 " wire diameter

Front and rear Moog springs


MOOG front versus factory front


MOOG rear versus factory rear


The spring install was simple and has been documented in other areas so I will not go into detail here. For the rear springs, some people complained about the springs rubbing/making noise. The key is to get the tight winding on the bottom of the spring to rest in the front of the lower bucket, closest to the axle. This takes patience to get both springs in correctly because you have to have the axle in the right position and bend the springs so they are slightly curved to engage the upper cone extruding from the body and the lower bucket. You can see the spring properly placed in the driver's lower coil bucket below.

Properly installed rear MOOG spring



For the front, I knew I would need some amount of spacer since the MOOG and factory springs were similar in length and wire diameter. I ended up making 1" long spacers out of 1 3/8" x 1/4" wall 6061 aluminum tubing as shown to match the height of the rear. The spacers install in between the coil plate and the strut bearing.

Strut spacers


Strut spacers and MOOG coil spring installed


Now for the important details. With the stock springs and and very worn 195/65/15 tires, my front fenders heights were 26 1/4" and 26 1/2" and my rear fender heights were 26 3/4" and 27". After the spring and spacer install (no driving miles on the springs), my front fender heights were 27 3/8" and 27 5/8" and my rear fender heights were 27 7/8" and 28".

Summary
The MOOG 81134 front springs only gave me 1/8" of lift and I added another 1" using strut spacers.
The MOOG 81055 rear springs gave me about 1" worth of lift.

Stock suspension and stock tires



Lifted suspension and stock tires

I mounted the 205/75/15 General Grabber AT2 tires on the stock wheels and surprisingly have minimal rubbing issues with the 1" lift. I have had no rubbing issues in the front and some slight rubbing issues in the passenger rear where the fender liner has a bump in it near the filler neck. With only driver and passenger, I have no rubbing. When I have people in the back seat and the trunk full, the tire contacts the fender liner. I have massaged the fender liner a little but need to do more work on it.

Below is the car with the 1" lift and the new tires. The front fender heights are both 28 3/4" and the rear fender heights are 28 1/2" and 29" after 600 miles of driving.




As far as driveability, I have 600 miles on it so far and love it! The springs are a little stiffer than stock which I really enjoy. There may be a touch more sway on the highway but nothing extreme and you get used to it very quickly. As far as fuel economy. I think I am down about 2 mpg (5%) based on one tank of mixed city/highway driving.

Overall, I love the feel, look, and increased ground clearance. I should be able to tackle the dirt roads and snow around my house with confidence now!

well done.....nice write-up

Good job! Thanks for contributing to the brain trust!

Thank you guys, it was a fun project! I wanted to share the specs of the MOOG springs versus factory and how much lift they provided. I was never able to find all the answers in my searches.

And for those who are interested, here was the cost breakdown for the lift parts:

MOOG springs from rock auto: $69.59
1' of 1 3/8" x 1/4" wall 6061 aluminum tube from online metals: $31.53

Total: $101.12 with ~10" of aluminum tube remaining

My struts and rear shocks were in good shape so I did not need to replace them and I had done the upper strut mounts about a year ago. I could use new control arm bushings but those will wait until I have the space and tools to do them.

I wanted to give a quick update after another 600 miles of mixed driving.
The Jetta handles great and I am really enjoying the new look! On this last tank, my corrected fuel mileage was 40.4 mpg. This is ~4-5 mpg less compared to similar driving before the lift/tires.
I will be driving from OH to NM for Christmas and am curious to see how my mileage compares. My average for the same trip in the past was ~48 mpg.

Nice. I just ordered the same tires for my beetle with the same springs and metalnerd 2" lift. I just did a manual conversion and got the cruise wired in and working.

So my question is, cruise will still work with the larger diameter tire? Also, how is the speedo and odo accuracy?

Just had my Beetle up to the dealer with a 2" lift. The service writer thought it was cool. I was just tired of scraping the ground.

Will some chains fit without tearing the fender off?
I Imagine if the tires were low enough you would not even have to worry about chains.. I used to have a 2" lift on my sedan and the thing was a damn snowmobile with proper deflation I swear... Nice look!
If your alignment is off even slightly thou, you will be replacing suspension parts alot! Alot more wear and tear in general on my pocket book so I took it off, my Jetta sedan had been t-boned though.

Thank you for the replies everyone, it is good to hear there are some other lifted tdis running around!

rpm-inc, the cruise works just fine, no issues at all. With the stock tires the odometer was correct and the speedometer was 2-3 mph slow (I think this is a common issue that is part of the VW programming). The new tires are ~8.5% greater in diameter on paper so I use that correction for the odometer. This 8.5% also applies to the speedometer. At city speeds, the speedometer is now accurate. On the highway, 70 on the speedometer is ~73 mph on the gps. Considering the initial error in the speedometer with the stock tires, I think the speedometer is now ~5% off (slower than the actual speed) which is no big deal to me.

indysoto, I have pretty good clearance all around in the front fenders. To run chains I think I would need to trim the front lip of the inner fender near the bumper though. I imagine aired down I would be able to get pretty far! I am not worried about the lift on wear and tear, my main hobby is trucks/modified 4x4s so lifted suspension is nothing new to me.