UK-POLOS.NET - THE VW Polo Forum

hey everyone.. im new to the site but just recently bought a polo. I dont no the exact model(eg mk w.e) but its 03 and its a 1.2.il get some pics up shortly and let you lot check it out and then maybe you can tell me more about my own car i also want to get it lowered so whats the best height to go for? help would be appreciated cheers.

Hello mate welcome to the site. Your polo will be a Mk6 or 9n like mine

When it comes to lowering usually how low you go depends on practicality and budget. I started out with a set lowering springs which lowered the car 50mm on the front and 35mm on the rear.

So It looked like this (on 17''s):


Then after about a year I wanted to go lower so I upgraded to Air Ride, now its like this:


Most people will say go for coilovers as you can set the hieght that you want it and there are alot of kits to suit budgets from about £200 -onwards. But like most things the more the kit costs - the better it will normally be.

Hope this helps. Scott

cheers mate car look great aswell . ive just got my pics uploaded. Its just standard atm but i hope to change tht very soon

is that the model you thought?lol.and once again cheers for the help

welcome to the site mate!
yup that is definately a mk6 (9n) model.
The amount that your lowered by all depends on the size of alloys that you have. The smaller the alloys the lower you can go in general.

Most people on say 15 and 16 inch alloys will be able to lower their cars around 50-60mm without much trouble. People with 17s usually lower around 30-40mm (unless you have air ride ).

DanDiesel wrote:People with 17s usually lower around 30-40mm (unless you have air ride ).

Or 65mm if inner arch bolt mod is done

speedsix wrote:

DanDiesel wrote:People with 17s usually lower around 30-40mm (unless you have air ride ).

Or 65mm if inner arch bolt mod is done

Or just happen to have the right sized 17's (and Tyres) you can low 60/65mm with out a problem... I've never had any clearance problems just droplink and bush problem due to normalish wear.

SiDaBa wrote:

speedsix wrote:

DanDiesel wrote:People with 17s usually lower around 30-40mm (unless you have air ride ).

Or 65mm if inner arch bolt mod is done

Or just happen to have the right sized 17's (and Tyres) you can low 60/65mm with out a problem... I've never had any clearance problems just droplink and bush problem due to normalish wear.

Is the bush/droplink problem increased with having 17s fully lowered? (65mm)

Which tyres are you running?

The problem to be honest came out of no where. I've had coilovers on around 60/65mm for about a year and a half. I've had 17's on about 10 months running on 205/40/17 Toyo Proxes T1S's

Alloy's are TSW Volcano's by the way.

As said the problem started happening about a month ago when I would get a knocking noise coming from the front going over speed bumps in particular. Then it started happening when just going over bumps.

Looked at a couple of topics on here and decided that it would either be droplinks or bushes.

I know my droplinks were in poor condition when I fitted my coilovers but being ignorant and on a budget I whacked them on with the intention of getting them replaced asap... well I didn't and just left them while it was all good. So when the knocking started I just thought sod it I need droplinks I'll get them and I know from reading other topics that the bushes can also be the problem. Instead of just getting VW replacement bushes I thought I'd go for uprated Powerflex ones.

They seem to have done the trick as I had them fitted last week and took the car out for a while resterday and there were no noises.

I got a full set of Powerflex bushes by the way. The only ones not on at the moment are the ARB bushes as they ordered the wrong ones but these will be getting fitted Saturday hopefully.

So the coilovers + 17s + lowering 65mm wasnt the direct cause of the failing of the bushes/droplinks, it was because of usual wear and tear right?

In terms of tyre size, theres a few people on the forum who had problems with 205/40/17 tyres rubbing on the inner wing bolts on the front arch when lowered 55mm (ie. when going over bumps, turning at high speeds etc). Thats why I was kind of unsure if going for 17s was the right thing to do

wishbone bushes can also be greatly affected by extra lowerage, mine have been and when they get wet, they creak like a b***h! this is because they are very compressed!
luckily i can sort it by get white grease sprayed onto them, this seems to do the trick for a while!