Car: 2001 Jetta Wolfsburg Edition (1.8T)
Springs: VW / Eibach sport lowering springs
Installation time: 3-5 hours, depending on tools
Tools needed: jack, jackstands, set of metric wrenches, set of metric sockets, prybar, spring compressor
Update! The drop after a few weeks of being installed has settled at 1.1 inches, front and rear.
Installation
The VW / Eibach springs are sold through VW dealerships, and are designed to be used on the stock shocks / struts. These are similar to the springs are similar to the Eibach Pro-Kit set. Below is a picture of the car on stock springs. Note:Some of these pictures are from the Autotech swaybar install -- I didn't want to re-take all of them.
We first measured the distance from the ground to the fenderwell.
The rear was 26 3/4", and the front was 27".
We jacked up the rear of the car and laid out all of the parts and tools
needed.
Once the car was up, we removed the lower shock bolts on both
sides.
Once the lower shock bolt on each side has been removed, the
torsion bar and the rest of the rear suspension hangs freely,
allowing easy removal of the rear springs.
Below is a picture of the old and new rear springs (new on the
right.) You'll notice that the new ones are shorter and have
considerably more coils.
After installing the new rear springs, we put the lower shock
bolts back in, and lowered the rear of the car. After jacking up
the front of the car, and placing it on jackstands we removed the
front struts. This required unbolting the front swaybar, the
lower pinch bolt of the strut, and the top bolts inside the
engine bay. This required some shuffling around of parts and
pieces to be able to remove the struts. Here is a picture of one
of them after removal.
Most people would now use a spring compressor like the one
shown here:
We had access to a better spring compressor, so we used it:
We used an impact gun to remove the top nut from the strut,
enabling us to remove the spring.
Here is a picture of the new front spring (right) and the old
spring. The new spring is shorter, and has one more coil.
We used the spring compressor to compress the new springs, and
to put them onto the struts. Here is a picture of one of the new
springs installed.
The struts go back in easier since they're a little shorter
now, and all bolts get re-tightened. You can see the squashed
1.8T lower intercooler pipe really well in this picture.
We put the wheels back on, and took the car off the jackstands, and
decided to measure!
The front had come down 3/4" of an inch to 26 1/4". The rear came down
about 3/4" of an inch to 26". Here is a picture of the car
completed.
