Lowering the s3. How long will it take me?

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L4V15

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Iv heard people mentioning the driveshaft when lowering the s3, surely not??? Do you actually need to remove the driveshaft to lower the mk1 s3? Planning on doing mine on the weekend. How difficult is it?
 
L4V15 said:
Iv heard people mentioning the driveshaft when lowering the s3, surely not??? Do you actually need to remove the driveshaft to lower the mk1 s3? Planning on doing mine on the weekend. How difficult is it?
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OK, serious answer now, if you need to ask about driveshafts, I seriously think lowering the car is not a job for you, pay someone else to do it!

Just my opinion of course.
 
Take it to TT Shop or APS mate, think they do wheel alignment too. Perhaps get some spacers fitted at same time, car will look awesome : )
 
rear can be done in 30 mins , front id say 45 mins a side if you have the tools ready. Are you doing springs , shocks and adj arms ???
 
Agree with fingermouse. Took me ~90mins for the rears, mainly as I almost cross threaded the bottom strut bolt :banghead:. Fronts took a bit longer as it was rather awkward getting the compressors in there.

I found this guide Noah's MkIV VW H&R Coilover Installation HOWTO which gave me some good pointers to getting everything I needed ready in advance, and the necessary steps.

Cheers,
 
I changed my springs only and it took me ****** ages!! Fronts weren't too bad apart from trying to get the bottom of the strut out of the hub (plenty of WD40) but the rears took forever! I undid the bottom strut/ARB link bolt but couldn't work out how to get the arm to lower enough to get the spring out. After a few hours of taking everything apart, Jonny the persuader came to help (a nice long crow bar) and everything was sorted! Needles to say, the other side took all of about 20 minutes! :banghead:
 
scoobyra said:
I changed my springs only and it took me ****** ages!! Fronts weren't too bad apart from trying to get the bottom of the strut out of the hub (plenty of WD40) but the rears took forever! I undid the bottom strut/ARB link bolt but couldn't work out how to get the arm to lower enough to get the spring out. After a few hours of taking everything apart, Jonny the persuader came to help (a nice long crow bar) and everything was sorted! Needles to say, the other side took all of about 20 minutes! :banghead:
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Why didnt you just put some spring clamps on the rears to remove them, takes no time at all.
 
Why didnt you just put some spring clamps on the rears to remove them, takes no time at all.
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To cut a long story short...................... I didn't have any! lol
 
Ideal cheers for the advice chaps. Just bought the s3 for £3850 which I was pleased with. It's a black 2001 with 107000miles. Just about to start modding. Yea it's a set of -30mm Apex springs. Leaving the struts standard. Is it safe enough to take it -30mm and leave everything else? Other than the camber change which I think I can cope with. Well if there's nothing different then somebody must have just been getting confused with something else. I did my mk4 Golf without any trouble so I was just imagining it to be pretty much the same as that other than some slight difference on the rear. P.S, Jojo you're a funny man...Im a sparky not a mechanic :) Thanks everyone.
 
with 107k on the clock the struts are probably near shot anyway (assuming they're original), and then lowering the car down 30mm will mean the shocks will probably be too compressed in order to operate properly and they wont offer sufficient damping so you will get a bouncy ride...my thoughts anyway.
 
That's a pretty good price!!!

Mine's done 126k and it's on H&Rs with standard shocks and I wouldn't say it was bouncy, more like bang crash wallop!!! Lol
 
lol, yeah probably bouncy with brand new standard shocks with lowering springs, and just ****** ***** with old shocks

your car is looking redder than usual there, you sure you havent been playing with photoshop :haha:
 
L4V15 said:
Ideal cheers for the advice chaps. Just bought the s3 for £3850 which I was pleased with. It's a black 2001 with 107000miles. Just about to start modding. Yea it's a set of -30mm Apex springs. Leaving the struts standard. Is it safe enough to take it -30mm and leave everything else? Other than the camber change which I think I can cope with. Well if there's nothing different then somebody must have just been getting confused with something else. I did my mk4 Golf without any trouble so I was just imagining it to be pretty much the same as that other than some slight difference on the rear. P.S, Jojo you're a funny man...Im a sparky not a mechanic :) Thanks everyone.
Click to expand...

Very good price bud, facelift model? There's nothing wrong with running lowered springs on standard shocks, but the standard shocks are pretty poor out the box, so after 107k miles, I would have thought they would be a bit on the tired side?
 
Don't forget to undo the Xenon light self leveller sensors from the passenger side rear tie bar and passenger side front wishbone to prevent you from snapping off the sensor arm....

Have fun...
20090313_IMG_4803.jpg


<tuffty/>
 
Yes facelift. Ok well iv already bought the springs now so I'll see how it feels when done. Then may have to change it again if I dont like it and sell the Apex ones. Thanks
 
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