Suspension change - Smooth ride?

[gonsped]

My 2011 MK6 Golf (160,000km) is almost ready for a suspension change, I’m not in a hurry to get a new car but I make long trips over cement surfaced highway daily and just want my ride as smooth as possible.

What options would you recommend? Also approximate cost supplied and installed if possible. I don’t mind spending up to $3k or do.

[Hillbilly]

Double post

[Hillbilly]

If its the highway between you and Brisbane a new suspension wont make any difference on that crappy CONCRETE road (cement is a part of concrete)

Its not been laid smoothly as I took a van down there and thought I had a flat tyre with all the pitching and noise. Turns out it was just a very rough area of poorly laid concrete which even after spending $3000, probably wont alter anything much.

[Lucas_R]

Look at your tyres, new struts (shock absorbers) and possibly replacement bushes on your lower control arms.

With 160,000km your original struts will be past their used by date. A high quality replacement (Sachs/KYB/Monroe etc) will be around $200 each for the fronts and a bit cheaper (say $150-170) each for the rears. You can get less fancy (but still perfectly acceptable) brands for around half this price. Have a look on Sparesbox and RunAutoParts for choices.

If you do go down the route of replacing your struts, do yourself a favour and replace the strut tops and bearings front and rear. The fronts in particular wear out (I replaced mine with only 50,000km on them) quickly and then start causing squeaking and knocking over bumps/speedhumps etc. Approx $200 for all of these parts.

Depending on what brand/type of tyres you have and how worn out they are can contribute to poor ride and noise. Also how old the tyres are can cause the rubber to age and makes them noisier and just less pleasant in general to drive on. Also you could move to a higher profile tyre which would give you a thicker sidewall and help with a more comfy ride. (eg if you currently have 205/55/16 you could get 205/60/16 or 205/65/16).

Replacement bushes for your lower control arms are these ones: Topran Front Control Arm Mounts RAPKIT35414 | Run Auto Parts just check your originals before buying new ones. Although these bushes are prone to wearing out (and sometimes the rubber starts to rip allowing more movement), yours may still be ok. Either way they are cheap enough and take like 20 mins to swap over.

But at the end of the day, our roads in Australia are pretty poor in general and you can only do so much to obtain a comfy ride.

[Ozsko]

My 2011 MK6 Golf (160,000km) is almost ready for a suspension change, I’m not in a hurry to get a new car but I make long trips over cement surfaced highway daily and just want my ride as smooth as possible.

What options would you recommend? Also approximate cost supplied and installed if possible. I don’t mind spending up to $3k or do.

A set of Bilsteins with adjustable bump and rebound would be my pick. That way you have the choice of how they are set up for the road and they can be changed if needed. New standard bushes as needed, don't use poly bushes of any description and that is about it unless you want to reduce spring rates to enable the dampers to be set up softer. Matching the dampers to the springs is the most important bit. Murray Coote in QLD might be able to advise a good set up but bring you CC with you, he custom builds dampers as needed.

[gonsped]

Thank you for the many tips! Much appreciated. And yes, its the crappy concrete highway between Brisbane and GC =D