Bilstein TC Struts and HD Shocks Kit

[laundryeater]

I went ahead and got it since the upgrade to HD didn't involve a wait for a backorder and I got a deal but now I'm having second thoughts. Has anybody tried this on a MK4 Golf? I mainly want to hold the front wheels down without blowing my entire wallet. Would this setup screw up cornering since the rear will be stiffer than the front?

 

[savowood]

In general, the stiffer rear will cause the car to rotate quicker. Basically, it's reducing understeer, or if you look at it from the other side, increasing oversteer. This isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Oversteer is when you hit the wall with the back of the car first. Understeer is when you hit the wall with the front of the car first.

Almost every car on the road is set up by default with a lot of push (understeer) because someone somewhere thought it was safer. If you feel like you're coming around too quickly, you can change the rear bar to compensate. A softer bar (or shock, or spring) will keep the rear from coming around as quickly. Stiffening the front will do the same. The trick is figuring out where the problem actually is. Sometimes your adjustability is only on one side, so you have to fix everything from there and it doesn't matter where the problem is.

Considering you're purchasing springs and dampers, get adjustable bars as well so you can tune it in to your taste. It's likely to be a bit quicker to rotate than you're used to, so give it a few days, maybe a week, and get used to the feel. Another option is to get adjustable dampers, although that may be more expensive.

-Michael

 

[Variant TDI]

Would this setup screw up cornering since the rear will be stiffer than the front?

That's the setup I have, and it's a fair compromise for a daily driven vehicle.

It will make the rear of the car feel more controlled, and handling more neutral. It certainly will not make the car tail happy... but it just won't seem as prone to pushing itself off the road.

 

[savowood]

will make the rear of the car feel more controlled, and handling more neutral. It certainly will not make the car tail happy... but it just won't seem as prone to pushing itself off the road.

That sounds like a perfect setup. One of my biggest complaints about FWD is the tendency to push.

-Michael

 

[laundryeater]

thanks for the tips! the bolt kit just landed on my doorstep. me thinks me has something to do later today.

 

[ruking]

I went ahead and got it since the upgrade to HD didn't involve a wait for a backorder and I got a deal but now I'm having second thoughts. Has anybody tried this on a MK4 Golf? I mainly want to hold the front wheels down without blowing my entire wallet. Would this setup screw up cornering since the rear will be stiffer than the front?

I am curious why you did not go to either all TC's, all HD's? It would seem that all TC's would be cheaper. All HD's would not be that much more. A hybrid would cost more overall unless a deal was cut because of a so called mismatch, deliberate or inadvertant.

Regardless, just one caution. If you are going to drive the car @ the upper ends of lateral adhesion, the "oem" set up gave you pretty much plenty of notice that by way of bias toward understeer, that is was @ or near its limits. The concepts here being: 1. all you need do is to back off the throttle to recover from most situations 2. in earlier backing off the throttle you forego energy transfer to the rear, causing oversteer.

Now that you have altered the dynamics, the car will in effect not give you the same warnings when you are @ or near those very same limits, albeit handling is improved but those HD's and other suspension upgrades does not remove oversteer.

 

[cadman1940]

Shocks purpose

Hi guys a strut is only a shock that also has the job of supporting the upperend of the steering knuckle. I worked for many years in frontend and brake mechanics and in the domain of shocks most people do not understand the real job they do. #1 they are supposed to keep the wheel on the road as much as possiable. The stiffer the shock the less bounce so more contact with the road. The question in my mind is do you want a overstuffed chair or can you stand a bit more abuse on your butt. I used to put HD shocks on the front of my rear wheed drive cars and trucks while I left the OEM grade on the rear to soften the ride a bit. The stiffer the shock the less wheel skip. Thanks Cadman1940 Ps I used to own a Volvo and I had modified the shocks to HD frt & std on rear and the factory sent a maint rep to town and requested that they might be able to inspect some of the owners cars. He knotised that I had modified the ride control. They took it out and punished it really hard and were impressed they also told my wife that I had spent a lot of mony for a small improvment but they were impressed that I would try to improve on the factory design.

 

[Variant TDI]

Now that you have altered the dynamics, the car will in effect not give you the same warnings when you are @ or near those very same limits

Sure it will.

This mild of a change is not going to turn a Mk4 into a Porsche 911.
It just gives you the feeling that the rear end is actually there as opposed to the feeling that it's being held aloft by angels and clouds.

I chose this setup because gave a hint of upgrade without a minimum of comfort sacrifice. The fact that it cost $200 less is just a bonus.

 

[ruking]

Sure it will.

This mild of a change is not going to turn a Mk4 into a Porsche 911.
It just gives you the feeling that the rear end is actually there as opposed to the feeling that it's being held aloft by angels and clouds.

I chose this setup because gave a hint of upgrade without a minimum of comfort sacrifice. The fact that it cost $200 less is just a bonus.

Indeed any performance vendor will tell you "proper" performance tires are one of THE very first steps to ratchet up the lateral G's, albeit marginally. SOTP is well and good but this is simple to test with those new G force meters (multi function in a lot of cases) So for example Michelin Primacy's MVX4's ( aftermarket to the OEM Michelin MVX4) give .93 G on www.tirerack.com road/track testing. Michelin Exaltos (performance tire) are deserving of the good press and ratings but in the lateral G testing give .94 G. (testing is done on their mule BMW's) So if you spend any considerable %/time at those "limits" you can kiss tire life good bye.

 

[Variant TDI]

Good thing we weren't talking about tires.

 

[Kitsune]

I have the bilstein HD's on mine. They're fairly stiff but the wife is still okay with them.