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Thread: VW lowering springs + Rear sway bar review

  1. #61
    Senior Member Ares's Avatar
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    91cavgt: The VW springs will not just help with the height, but also the load the scooter will bring. It will feel so much more stable.



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    Quote Originally Posted by Ares View Post
    91cavgt: The VW springs will not just help with the height, but also the load the scooter will bring. It will feel so much more stable.

    That is the primary reason why I am looking at the VW springs. Plus, I typically carry about 100 pounds of stuff in the trunk of the car anyway.
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    I cant state enough how much better the car feels with these springs.

    I might order a 2nd set of springs to put the 2nd set of rear springs up front to raise the front. I did notice the lights are focused a lot lower now so I know the rear was raised a good amount.

    Definitely need a front alignment too, either way.

    Another thought is to just fix the light issue and adjust the lights. I might want to buy a thicker swaybar up front to compliment the stiffer rear when on turns.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Ares View Post
    I cant state enough how much better the car feels with these springs.

    I might order a 2nd set of springs to put the 2nd set of rear springs up front to raise the front. I did notice the lights are focused a lot lower now so I know the rear was raised a good amount.

    Definitely need a front alignment too, either way.

    Another thought is to just fix the light issue and adjust the lights. I might want to buy a thicker swaybar up front to compliment the stiffer rear when on turns.
    What springs have you installed
    ?

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    My setup is still going strong with zero hiccups.

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    Senior Member Ares's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by XxPuNTeRxX View Post
    What springs have you installed
    ?
    I installed the rear VW springs on the rear of my mirage. Person above me have put the rear VW springs up front of the mirage and the front VW springs in the rear of the mirage.

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    Quote Originally Posted by f0k4l View Post
    My setup is still going strong with zero hiccups.

    Did you ever get your car aligned after the spring swap?
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    What if i use the toyota Yaris (Vitz) front and back springs? Or Suzuki Swift springs?

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    Senior Member Ares's Avatar
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    Someone has mentioned that they used the yaris springs. I was unable to verify though.

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    Quote Originally Posted by 91cavgt View Post
    Let's look at a few things here.


    VW Beetle has a curb weight of around 2800 pounds. This is 800 pounds heavier than our Mitsubishi Mirage.


    I can not find actual weight distribution of both cars, but a typical front wheel drive car has a weight distribution of 65% of the weight over the front wheels and 35% of the weight over the rear wheels, on average anyway. If we use these numbers then here is what we come up with;


    VW Beetle Front weight 1820 pounds
    Rear weight 980 pounds

    Mitsubishi Mirage Front weight 1300 pounds
    Rear weight 700 pounds


    So if the springs are reversed then we have VW Beetle springs that are designed to handle 980 pounds supporting 1300 pounds in the front of a Mitsubishi Mirage for a 320 pound deficit. In the back you would have springs that are designed to support 1820 pounds supporting only 700 pounds which is perfectly fine, but it might be a bit on the stiff side.


    BUT WAIT!!!!! Would it be dangerous to have the springs reversed since we would be overloading the springs on the front of the Mirage? While the new Beetle does weigh about 2800 pounds, it has a gross vehicle weight of 3677 pounds! So 35% of 3677 pounds ends up being 1287 pounds which is only 13 pounds off of the front wheel weight of the Mirage.


    So, in conclusion, yes, if you swap the VW Beetle springs on a Mirage then the front springs will still be over loaded, but not by a huge amount. I would assume that you would end up with a decent amount of settling on the front springs compared to what you would see with the rear springs. But you should still end up with a stiffer spring than what comes stock on the Mirage.





    EDIT: The weights above were for a base model. Upon more research, I found that the heaviest Beetle was an automatic with a convertible top with a gross vehicle weight of 3991 pounds. So as long as the lowering springs do not have a notation stating do not use them with a convertible than that means we would be looking at them being rated to support 1397 pounds which is 97 pounds MORE than what the Mirage has over the front wheels!


    In this original post, I assumed the weight distribution to be 65% front and 35% rear, and I was wrong. Come to find out, the weight distribution on the Mirage is 61% front and 39% rear according to Motor Trend. So, it is in fact safe(load wise) to run the VW lowering springs reversed with the rear lowering coils on the front of the car and the front lowering coils on the rear of the car.

    http://www.motortrend.com/news/2014-...ge-first-test/


    Maybe this spring I can get my hands on a set of the lowering springs and try it out for myself.


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