Grant motorsport have quoted me 160+vat fitted for some gmax springs. These are the ones they reccomended. Is that a good price and.......are gmax any good? cheers
I have gotta be honest i fitted some springs on my last mark3 golf with my dad, he is a mechanic so he knew what to do but i had a go and found it pretty easy, so i would suggest to just buy the springs and fit them yourself
don't you need a spring compressor? any other special tools? Also do you know what gmax are like? i wanted to go with eibach but they will obviously be more money
yeah, you need spring compressors (about 12 from halfrauds), you also would need socket setand spanners, which i presume you have, the only other tool you need is a special tool that can be made out of a deep drive 1?mm socket (i can't remember what size exactly). if you have a haynes it shows what you need in there and also it'll tell you the procedure for doing it...so get a haynes as well. it's worth noting that the front camber needs resetting afterwards, and this has to be done professionally and costs about 50, but most places don't have the equiptment to do it accuratly...feltham tyres are the best apparantly. if this has put you off doing it yourself, you may wanna check that the place that quoted you 160 (if that is for parts labour and camber adjustment its not too bad i think) is able to do it properly (but be warned they may lie!). there are cheeky (or dodgy dependent on your opinion) ways of doing this yourself, if you're staying with your o.e. shocks then you can paint a circle around the bottom shock bolts before you undo them and then re-align them in the circles before you tighten them. or you could do what i did...i didn't use a haynes and wasn't aware there was camber adjustment, so when i did it all back up the wheels obviously didn't have enough camber (the tops were sticking out more than the bottom!!), so i just set both sides at full camber...made the steering really direct and i don't have any tyre wear probs...so i've left it like that. i've used gmax spings on my previous car and gotta say i was very impressed...perfect compromise of firmness and comfort.
Yeah this was an all in price. VAT,parts,labour,camber,etc I might go for this then. Could end up spending a fair bit otherwise doing it myself. Compressor,haynes,camber set up etc. cheers for your help
really? coz on the last service note that i've got the engineer said they were on their way out. Any idea on a price for these?
I run G-max 55mm springs on my car, can't recommened them highly enough, much less harsh ride than the spax springs I ran before and can't fault the handling.
You don't need a compressor we did it without one and its much more satisfying to do it yourself and believe me it dosnt cost more to do it yourself than someone else doing it
You don't need to buy a haynes manually either theres been plenty of threads on the forum in the past desribing how to lower your car and i am sure theres websites out there which detail how to do it
erm....yeah you do need spring compressors or you risk serious injury. and, you don't need a haynes, but it helps to be able to look at the pics along with the text, and it is accurate for spring changes on a mkIII (its not for other stuff though!).
fitting them to the standard shocks???be prepared to pay the fitting of new ones in about 12 months time,the dampers will be shagged,spring and damper kit would be a better idea,then just pay the fitting and setup once
okay...why do people always say this. yes, of course doin dampers as well is better, but uprated springs on standard dampers is better than standard springs on standard dampers. i put just springs on my last car, which was brand new (gmax on punto sporting) and i'd say it was a spot on set up, and it definatly didn't do any harm to the dampers. i currently just have springs on my vr6...now the rear dampers are fairly new, and the front ones were worn out before i put the springs on...but its about 100 times better than when i was on standard springs...in fact, worn out fronts, new rears (dampers this is) woks quite well as it reduces understeer more. i have had a full suspension kit on previous cars though, so i know it is better, but there's nothing wrong with just putting springs on if thats all you can afford (which from the sound of it is the case with 'bluebus') Edited by: acf8181
Because for the most part 'standard' dampers are not designed to run with lowered springs, or vastly differing spring rates.
Yeah there is a risk of injury but if you approach the job at hand sensibly you do not need spring compressors i did without them and i know lots of people who have done it without them Also when i lowered my old car 18 months ago i used just springs for a 40mm drop and right up until now the dampners are fine and i know that cause my mrs has got the car
Lesson #135932: Don't put lowered springs on standard shox, I have done it for the last time. Lesson #135933: Make sure some gimboid sends you 2 front and 2 rear coilover springs. NOT 4 front.
you didn't use sping compressors on a mkIII? i know you don't need them on a mkII, but you def do on a mkIII. thankyou for agreeing with me about the standard shock issue. good to know someone gets it (still better than standard springs/standard shocks!)
Nope i didnt use spring compressors when lowering my mark3 golf and yep using standard shocks with lowering springs is fine
