how can i decrease my cars height?

Question

its a hatch back vw gol
but i wana know it about every kind of suspansion

Answer 1

let the air out of the tires

Answer 2

There are several different methods. Note that in any case, a poorly designed system can screw up your handling. Beware of cheap parts.

1. Lowering springs will make the car sit lower and have a stiffer ride. They should be paired with performance shocks / struts as the extra stiffness can give a bouncy, pogo-stick ride if you leave the original shocks and struts in place.

2. Adjustable coil-over kits contain springs with threaded mounting points. This lets you adjust the ride height to whatever you want. Usually the springs will be stiffer, just like with lowering springs, and if they do not include high performance shocks or struts, I recommend buying them.

3. Air bags can get a soft ride and adjustable ride height that you can change from inside the car. They are not the best choice for ultimate handling, though - that would be a correctly engineered set of coil overs or lowering springs.

4. Hydraulics are what you see on "dancing" lowriders. They can move quite fast but the ride quality and handling won't usually be very good at all. More of a show car mod than something most people would want to live with on the street.

5. Chopping the top. Cut sections out of the windows and pillars and bring the roof down a bit. Pretty expensive unless you're a bodywork expert yourself. But a Golf with a chopped top might look interesting.

Answer 3

It depends how far you want to go....

I'm not intimately familiar with a VW Golf, and I believe they're on the fourth generation. I'm quite certain they've used struts in the front, but I'm not sure about the rear suspension. I suspect earlier generations used a twist beam, and later generations would use trailing arms with upper and lower arms and a toe link.

A typical strut will have a suspension travel of about 150 mm or so (six inches?). The car will sit statically (not moving) about one third of the way to full jounce (compression). If you want to do this inexpensively you can buy new springs, no more than about 50 mm shorter than the ones you have. Any more than this and you'll bottom your suspension almost constantly. You'll have to adjust the camber and toe. Toe is easy. Camber will require you to slot the attachment points in your struts. It is best to take it to a good alignment shop, as you'll never get it even by eye, and then your car will "pull". The caster angle on your car will increase with the lowered height, but there isn't much you're going to be able to do about that inexpensively. If you want to spend a little more money, (and you should) you could buy shorter struts and go a little stiffer on your springs. This will still make your car ride rough, but you won't bottom out the suspension and you'll have better control. The additional caster will increase your steering effort, but improve the "centering" a little bit due to a bit longer caster trail. Caster won't impact the tire wear of the car, but camber and toe will. You need to get them re-set after lowering the car.

You'll have to do similar things in the rear. Since the rear strut/shock is at a different angle than the strut, you'll have to decrease the length a bit more in the rear to maintain the "rake" of the body (you'll notice the front of the car sits a bit lower than the rear). Correcting the rear alignment once you're done could be a little more challenging in the rear depending if the car's suspension is adjustable or not. If it isn't adjustable, then you're going to have to modify the rear upper arm (which I WOULD NOT suggest) or slot the hole in the rear trailing arm. Then you'll have to set the rear toe. IT IS VERY important you do this, as positve toe or camber in the rear will make your car handle a little strange. A significant positive toe will really reduce your understeer and possibly make the car unstable at a critical speed.

If you want to go EXTREMELY LOW, you'll need new springs, shocks/struts and new front knuckles and rear trailing arms with a vertical spindle offset.

All this being said, this isn't a weekend project for someone without experience. I could probably do this in a weekend, but I've been doing this kind of stuff for 15 years.

Answer 4

You can lower the suspension. This might entail installing new suspension however which is quite a job. If you have damped suspension the car will ride closer to the road but it can be uncomfortable although it will be easier to handle as it grips the road better.

Answer 5

you can do 1 of 2 things ..... 1) get new springs that will lower your car or 2) buy a set of rims along with either a high / low profile tires

both can lower your car ... just depends on how low you want to go

Answer 6

the better ramp enables the vehicle to take greater benefit of gravity for accelleration. i'm guessing the decrease angled ramps have the vehicle achieving max velocity earlier the tip of the ramp. a a methods better , close to vertical ramp, the vehicle remains accelerating till it hits the floor. The tension of gravity is sufficient to triumph over the friction of the tires and axles.

Answer 7

By a lowering kit. They compress the springs. I think they can drop it a couple inches and are adjustable.

Answer 8

reducing ride height will also reduce ride comfort, and will be a lot harder on tires, suspension, steering linkage, and coffee drinking ability, wouldnt advise u do unless your building race car

Answer 9

start with low profile tires with a very low hieght, & see if they make lower font axle spindels that will fit, the back just flip ur axle & leaf spings

Answer 10

put air bags on it you can lower the car when parked but can raise the car when you are driving it