Phi1osopher
Veteran Member
Here's my freshly lifted '96 B4V Passat, Tulbirt. (Tulbirt is an acronym for "The Ultimate Low-Budget International Road Trip." )
My goal here is a simple increase of ground clearance for driving on poorly maintained non-paved roads while maintaining the best road touring handling possible. I am aware this will require a compromise of a decreased "track-style" handling, but I hope it will be a minor compromise.
This post is a continuation of a thread I started a while ago: LINK
Yesterday I finished the rather large project of replacing EVERY SINGLE suspension component while also fabricating an approximate 3" lift. I went with yellow Bilstein "B6" shocks, which are really very nice! While working yesterday I rebuilt another new lower control arm with upgraded components (Audi TT rear bushing), fabricated and installed the lift kit, and made some tweaks, cuts, etc to the car's chassis to make it all fit. The front tires are still slightly larger than the rears, and I hope to get matching slightly bigger tires soon.
Shocks are upgraded to Bilstein B6 22-247513 (front), and Bilstein B6 24-015974 (rear). They basically have the same travel as stock. These shocks are 100% compatible with a stock Passat B4V, and an excellent upgrade.
Springs are Moog 81134 (front), and Monroe SP0495 (rear) I understand these rear springs were offered as an OEM upgrade for B4V Passat wagons as part of their optional towing packager, and were only available from Europe. Both springs are slightly more stiff than stock, but only nominally so. Ride performance is only a bit more firm than stock. These springs should also be 100% compatible with an otherwise stock, non-lifted Passat. My old springs almost certainly were original, and thus a bit worn out. The front was lifted about 0.5" with these springs - which probably was the result of removing old sag and a return to stock height. These rear springs lifted the back about 1", but this probably was from old saggy springs, plus these beefier "towing springs" are known to slightly raise the rear.
The purple urethane front strut mount bushings are Powerflex PFF85-239x2. I don't notice any performance change from these. I got about 0.5" to 0.75"" of a lift from these, but my old original upper strut bushings were very worn out, and these are conspicuously taller than stock. I anticipate they will last longer too.
For the actual lift I made spacers for the rear, and in the front I used some washers plus these "tie rod spacers" as strut extenders: LINK
My goal was to maintain sporty short-travel, Autobahn-worthy suspension performance but with increased ground clearance. Short travel, with enhanced anti-roll, as opposed to an off-road long-travel set up. My suspension components were all old and worn out before the lift, and the parts I used should all fit well as a substantial suspension upgrade on an otherwise stock Passat without lifting the car. After my first 50 or so miles I think I nailed it!!
Why would I lift my Passat??? I bought Tulbirt for 'The Ultimate Low-Budget International Road Trip!' (Admittedly I am starting to move from "Low-Budget" into "Medium-Budget" $$$ territory.) For me this means driving down poorly maintained dirt roads in Mexico, and other neat places. I once had a 6" rock strike my oil pan on a dirt road out in the middle of a Mexican nowhere, and I was very lucky it didn't puncture or break anything!!
I think it is important tpo note that the limiting factor for the lift height is determined by my driveline angles. If I try to go too high the CV axles will come into physical contact with metal things, namely the passenger side will hit the lower control arm's front pivot point, which of course must be avoided. I used a grinder to help clearance this a few extra millimetres, and it should be fine.
Basically the car now has significantly upgraded stock suspension that is slightly more stiff with much better shocks/struts; the suspension travel is approximately the same as stock, and the car sits in the middle of the travel like stock -- or in other words I have maintained completely normal up and down travel. It just sits a bit higher.
Picture time!
This is July 27, 2019, the day I bought Tulbirt. Such a happy day!!
Yesterday, as the car sits now.
There's now this much clearance between my coffee cup and the oil pan. You don't have to look too hard to see where a maybe fist-sized rock made a substantial ding along the bottom of that oil pan! One of my next projects will be to fabricate some sort of skid plate armor for this fragile area.
There's this much clearance on the sides of the car.
Morning coffee for scale.
These are my before and after suspension notes.
"A" is fender to wheel center
"B" is fender to ground (this will change with different tire sizes)
"C" is un-sprung (lifted in air) fender to center.
"1" is before, "2" is rebuilt front, but not lifted, "3" is current.
I basically got about 3" lift in the front, and about 3.5" in the back. Both front and back have about 3" to 4" un-sprung travel.
Also, the car actually sits more level now.
All things considered, I'm happy with this. Time to put some miles on the car to see how things settle in.
Front Bilstein shocks (22-247513) with new bump stops, bellows, and the new Moog 81134 springs next to my OEM "pink-pink-pink-green" springs. note the Moog springs are slightly thicker and taller, with an additional coil.
One of the front assembled front struts with "5 washers" for about 1" of lift.
A detailed image of the "5 washers" lift. This setup yielded a front lift that was about 26" from the fender to the ground - with 195/70-14" tires
This is the M14 x 1.5mm "tie rod extender" i used to extend the front an additional 2". This is the thread pattern of my Bilstein B6 shocks; I don't know if this is the same thread pattern of the OEM ones. eBay LINK
continued...
My goal here is a simple increase of ground clearance for driving on poorly maintained non-paved roads while maintaining the best road touring handling possible. I am aware this will require a compromise of a decreased "track-style" handling, but I hope it will be a minor compromise.
This post is a continuation of a thread I started a while ago: LINK
Yesterday I finished the rather large project of replacing EVERY SINGLE suspension component while also fabricating an approximate 3" lift. I went with yellow Bilstein "B6" shocks, which are really very nice! While working yesterday I rebuilt another new lower control arm with upgraded components (Audi TT rear bushing), fabricated and installed the lift kit, and made some tweaks, cuts, etc to the car's chassis to make it all fit. The front tires are still slightly larger than the rears, and I hope to get matching slightly bigger tires soon.
Shocks are upgraded to Bilstein B6 22-247513 (front), and Bilstein B6 24-015974 (rear). They basically have the same travel as stock. These shocks are 100% compatible with a stock Passat B4V, and an excellent upgrade.
Springs are Moog 81134 (front), and Monroe SP0495 (rear) I understand these rear springs were offered as an OEM upgrade for B4V Passat wagons as part of their optional towing packager, and were only available from Europe. Both springs are slightly more stiff than stock, but only nominally so. Ride performance is only a bit more firm than stock. These springs should also be 100% compatible with an otherwise stock, non-lifted Passat. My old springs almost certainly were original, and thus a bit worn out. The front was lifted about 0.5" with these springs - which probably was the result of removing old sag and a return to stock height. These rear springs lifted the back about 1", but this probably was from old saggy springs, plus these beefier "towing springs" are known to slightly raise the rear.
The purple urethane front strut mount bushings are Powerflex PFF85-239x2. I don't notice any performance change from these. I got about 0.5" to 0.75"" of a lift from these, but my old original upper strut bushings were very worn out, and these are conspicuously taller than stock. I anticipate they will last longer too.
For the actual lift I made spacers for the rear, and in the front I used some washers plus these "tie rod spacers" as strut extenders: LINK
My goal was to maintain sporty short-travel, Autobahn-worthy suspension performance but with increased ground clearance. Short travel, with enhanced anti-roll, as opposed to an off-road long-travel set up. My suspension components were all old and worn out before the lift, and the parts I used should all fit well as a substantial suspension upgrade on an otherwise stock Passat without lifting the car. After my first 50 or so miles I think I nailed it!!
Why would I lift my Passat??? I bought Tulbirt for 'The Ultimate Low-Budget International Road Trip!' (Admittedly I am starting to move from "Low-Budget" into "Medium-Budget" $$$ territory.) For me this means driving down poorly maintained dirt roads in Mexico, and other neat places. I once had a 6" rock strike my oil pan on a dirt road out in the middle of a Mexican nowhere, and I was very lucky it didn't puncture or break anything!!
I think it is important tpo note that the limiting factor for the lift height is determined by my driveline angles. If I try to go too high the CV axles will come into physical contact with metal things, namely the passenger side will hit the lower control arm's front pivot point, which of course must be avoided. I used a grinder to help clearance this a few extra millimetres, and it should be fine.
Basically the car now has significantly upgraded stock suspension that is slightly more stiff with much better shocks/struts; the suspension travel is approximately the same as stock, and the car sits in the middle of the travel like stock -- or in other words I have maintained completely normal up and down travel. It just sits a bit higher.
Picture time!
This is July 27, 2019, the day I bought Tulbirt. Such a happy day!!

Yesterday, as the car sits now.

There's now this much clearance between my coffee cup and the oil pan. You don't have to look too hard to see where a maybe fist-sized rock made a substantial ding along the bottom of that oil pan! One of my next projects will be to fabricate some sort of skid plate armor for this fragile area.

There's this much clearance on the sides of the car.
Morning coffee for scale.

These are my before and after suspension notes.
"A" is fender to wheel center
"B" is fender to ground (this will change with different tire sizes)
"C" is un-sprung (lifted in air) fender to center.
"1" is before, "2" is rebuilt front, but not lifted, "3" is current.
I basically got about 3" lift in the front, and about 3.5" in the back. Both front and back have about 3" to 4" un-sprung travel.
Also, the car actually sits more level now.
All things considered, I'm happy with this. Time to put some miles on the car to see how things settle in.

Front Bilstein shocks (22-247513) with new bump stops, bellows, and the new Moog 81134 springs next to my OEM "pink-pink-pink-green" springs. note the Moog springs are slightly thicker and taller, with an additional coil.

One of the front assembled front struts with "5 washers" for about 1" of lift.

A detailed image of the "5 washers" lift. This setup yielded a front lift that was about 26" from the fender to the ground - with 195/70-14" tires

This is the M14 x 1.5mm "tie rod extender" i used to extend the front an additional 2". This is the thread pattern of my Bilstein B6 shocks; I don't know if this is the same thread pattern of the OEM ones. eBay LINK


continued...
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