VW lowering springs + Rear sway bar review

[Ares]

I've overloaded the back with the new springs and, in my opinion, this is how the car should have come out from the factory.

When I overloaded the car back with the original springs, the car bottoms out every slight bump. Not even close with the VW springs.

[f0k4l]

I bought this kit, thanks for trying it out Ares . I installed the front as well. One thing I noticed in your picture, is the springs you installed on the back, are for the front. There is no way the wider coils that come in this kit, could fit under the top plate of the front suspension. With that being said, I'm going to need to order some rubber coil sleeves to put on the rear, as the factory bushings don't fit the wider springs. It's fine right now, but over time would probably cause squeaking. When I put on the just the rear, I drove briefly to turn my car around in my driveway, and the car felt odd being soft up front and firm in the back. With the whole set firm, the car rides wonderfully. You mentioned it still felt uneasy on the highway, replace the front and it will be more stable.

I second what Ares says, this is how the car should have come. To anyone who lives in an area with bad roads and or speed bumps (forgot the user's name on here, but had mentioned he had to drive REAL slow not to scrape) should definitely get these springs.

I have the stock ES wheels / tires, without any sway bar. This is my only suspension upgrade and the difference is huge. Body roll is reduced greatly, still there just not nearly as bad. I think the reason being the stiffer coils can recover from the rolling quicker, plus it doesn't roll as hard.

This has to be THE best bang for your buck upgrade I've ever done to a car. Just $45.

Be warned tho, if you're worried about your car not looking "cool" this does lift your car up. I don't have any before pictures to compare. I personally am function over form.

[91cavgt]

I bought this kit, thanks for trying it out Ares . I installed the front as well. One thing I noticed in your picture, is the springs you installed on the back, are for the front. There is no way the wider coils that come in this kit, could fit under the top plate of the front suspension. With that being said, I'm going to need to order some rubber coil sleeves to put on the rear, as the factory bushings don't fit the wider springs. It's fine right now, but over time would probably cause squeaking. When I put on the just the rear, I drove briefly to turn my car around in my driveway, and the car felt odd being soft up front and firm in the back. With the whole set firm, the car rides wonderfully. You mentioned it still felt uneasy on the highway, replace the front and it will be more stable.

I second what Ares says, this is how the car should have come. To anyone who lives in an area with bad roads and or speed bumps (forgot the user's name on here, but had mentioned he had to drive REAL slow not to scrape) should definitely get these springs.

I have the stock ES wheels / tires, without any sway bar. This is my only suspension upgrade and the difference is huge. Body roll is reduced greatly, still there just not nearly as bad. I think the reason being the stiffer coils can recover from the rolling quicker, plus it doesn't roll as hard.

This has to be THE best bang for your buck upgrade I've ever done to a car. Just $45.

Be warned tho, if you're worried about your car not looking "cool" this does lift your car up. I don't have any before pictures to compare. I personally am function over form.

So you installed both the front and rear springs in the position that they should be in on your car (the front springs on the front and the rear springs on the back), is this correct?



My family and I took a short trip out of town and back yesterday. On the way back home, my wife had to sit in the back along with our daughter as she was fighting sleep, but I also had two AGM 50 amp/hr batteries back there and a 120 watt 24 volt solar panel back there too. It was not comfortable when hitting bumps on the highway, and that was with 1" rubber spring inserts in the rear. I briefly mentioned this mod to my wife and she thought it was a good idea and she asked me when I planned on doing it!

[f0k4l]

So you installed both the front and rear springs in the position that they should be in on your car (the front springs on the front and the rear springs on the back), is this correct?

Yeah, you'll see if you get the kit it comes with two wider coils, these are for the back.

[Ares]

I'll have to check again. IIRC, the springs have a F and R on them.

[Ares]

CONFIRMED. The springs have F and R on them... I don't think I'd want to flip them.

I know it's for different vehicles, but this website shows a set of springs which have F and R after the model number. Notice how the rear are skinnier than the front.

http://www.gtworx.com/index.php/race...a-yellows.html

Here's another image I found:


I think more coils on the rear is because it's more likely for the rear to 'bottom out' than the front.

[BecauseRaceCar]

The MK3 VW front springs are wider at the bottom. f0k4l has the fronts on the rear. There is no way to use the front springs from this kit on the mirage. The rears alone are worth the money though. The fronts are meant to be stiffer to support the weight of the engine and transmission.

[f0k4l]

Well, I guess I've got them flipped then lol. Been going on 4 days with no problems.

[Ares]

Keep us updated.

I'll wonder if I should purchase another set then to use the rear springs up front, but I'm just not sure if I want to put rears up front...

[91cavgt]

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!