Tiguan Lowering Springs for Jetta??

[YoursTruly]

I have a 2012 Jetta TDI with the beam rear suspension. My goal is stock ride height, or a bit higher, with an improved handling balance. I am currently running Godspeed coilovers because my stock suspension was shot at 80k miles.

BUT WHY WOULD YOU PUT SUPER CHEAP COILOVERS ON YOUR CAR INSTEAD OF PAYING THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS????

• Morbid curiosity: How bad can they be if people keep buying them? It turns out that the answer is more complex than you think.
• Camber plates and spring rates. The Mk6 platform is too softly sprung and has terrible front suspension geometry. The GTI/GLI/R/TT have electronic countermeasures and different spring rates to mitigate the terminal understeer under all driving conditions. Putting the same springs rate on all 4 corners and setting the front camber to -2 degrees allows me to trail brake the car into oversteer when the ABS fuse is pulled.

BUT WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO LIFT YOUR PERFECTLY ENGINEERED GERMAN SEDAN????

• It is interesting.
• I have had a car in the past onto which I installed actual stage rally coilovers built from Bilstein HD shocks that I bought used from someone with trophies. The car was 0.5" higher than stock, handled flawlessly, and soaked up bumps. Ever eaten cake and had it too?
• I routinely drive on both curvy nice roads (including track days) and straight ruined ones, so I want a compromise suspension.
• The super cheap coilovers make annoying popping sounds when I turn the steering wheel.
• The super cheap coilovers are designed for ultra-slamtastic-camber-bro-stancy-bois, so the front dampers are too short. Total travel is 4" and I have set spring preload to have 60% compression and 40% rebound travel. I touch the little bumps stops in only 1.5" of compression. Even with 7 kg/mm springs, this is achieved at 5mph coming off speed bumps.

BUT WHY WOULD YOU TAKE YOUR DAILY DIESEL ONTO A TRACK????

• It is interesting.
• No one expects the nutjob in the eco-sled to chew on their exhaust pipes into into turn 1, let alone earn them a blue and yellow flag at the next marshal for holding up the aforementioned nutjob in the eco-sled.
• Because I can.

IF YOU WANT HANDLING, WHY DON'Y YOU SWAP IN THE GTI INDEPENDENT REAR SUSPENSION????

• The IRS adds negative camber and toe-in under suspension compression (aka: the outside tire during body roll), which improves contact patch and reduces the slip angle at the rear relative to the vehicle centerline. Think about it like its a passive rear steer system that is being controlled by some engineer from 10 years ago. These are bad things on a car with too much understeer to begin with.
  • Note: VW mitigates this with a rear sway bar and having the ABS system drag the inside brakes. It helps, but not enough and it overheats the brakes. My rear brakes overheat before my fronts unless I pull the ABS fuse.
• The beam suspension motion ratio causes the effective spring rate to be drastically higher than intended when installing springs made for IRS. This is ideal and has made even my super cheap stance-o-matic coilovers handle pretty well on track. If you look at the spring rates on fast FWD cars, the ratio between the effective spring rate and the corner weight is much higher in the rear in order to promote front grip.

I have done some searching and found several threads on other forums (with names like people's-car-spiral) that talk about adding Tiguan springs to the sportwagen. I even found this here in TDI club.

Sadly, after all of that I still have a question that no one seems to have answered:

What if I put lowering springs from a Tiguan onto my Jetta?

Why tho?

• Tiguan is 2" taller and many lowering springs drop in the neighborhood of 1.5", so this might be 0.5" of lift while also increasing spring rate for handling.
• I want suspension travel. I don't want to spend $1600 on budget rally suspension to get it because I am not going to rally the car. Bilstein HD dampers, Vogtland Tiguan springs, and camber plates are still under $1200 even if I don't shop the sales or pull strings to get discounts.

Has anyone done it, seen it done, or even heard from your auntie's sister about some dude-bro who gave it a shot?

Pic in case curious:

 

[YoursTruly]

I attended a rallycross just for fun, but I had the opportunity to scope out some mk5 cars that were running taller and stiffer suspension.

Specifically, one entrant was running Vogtland lowering springs for a Tiguan on the back of his GTI, but the front suspension was stock GTI springs on Tiguan struts. This made the rear of the car relatively stiff compared to front and provided just a touch of lift. Apparently the lower perch on the Tiguan struts sits higher to provide more room for tires.

 

[YoursTruly]

Well, since no one has done it, I did it.

I am running Silver Project camber plates, Vogtland lowering springs for a 2012 Tiguan, and Bilstein B4 shocks for a 2012 GLI (with a ECS bushing kit to make the rear shocks bolt up to my beam).

-1.5 degrees of front camber, stock alignment otherwise.

I have to say, I think I really like it. The ride is fairly stiff compared to stock, but it soaks up the potholes and speed bumps on my daily commute. Body roll is limited until you really push the car.

I will be back with a track review next time I have a chance to get it out there.

 

[YoursTruly]

10k miles update

I still like it, but the age of all the other components is showing and the various thunks and clunks are getting on my nerves to the point I have almost sold this car a couple times. I am loading the parts shotgun as I type to replace every bushing, tie rod, ball joint, and engine mount.

Additionally, I think the front needs a Bilstein B6 instead of a B4 because as the dampers have aged, the front is a little underdamped.

Sadly, I haven't had the opportunity to take it on track in the last few months and really push the new setup.