First time poster needing advice on lowering suspension...

Having lurked on here for a while, I have finally decided to tap into some of the expertise on here, so please be patient if I don't include all of the information I should, or ask stupid questions…..

I am after some general advice. We have finally scrimped and saved enough cash to give our 1989 GTi clipper some much needed TLC - so there may be a huge amounts of posts from me in the next few weeks as we wade through the mountain of work the poor old girl needs; she's been my daily driver for a few years covering in the region of 500 miles a week, so is a bit tired!

We know that one of the shocks needs replacing, and are considering putting all new lowered shocks and springs on. We have, however, just been told that to lower a car there is additional work we need to do to prevent excessive tyre wear and bearings/ steering column issues. Is this true? And if so, what do we need to do?

What shocks and springs would you suggest are best for the car? We do have a little bit of money to spend, but the list of work needed just keeps getting longer, so we need to be a bit careful with what we spend!

Finally, how low can we take her? We'd like to get her as low as possible, but not sure how low is sensible!

If you've managed to read all of this epic essay well done, and thank you for your patience. And thank you in advance for any advice!

the lower you go, the harder the ride. going too low will affect the handling in a negative way. all new standard shocks and springs are not a bad idea. for a budget kit, i've used gmax and boge. would recommend both for a tight budget, but prefer the boge of the two. i've got a 60mm front and 40mm rear on my mk1 and it's too low, too hard. 40mm max is my recommendation. boge is 40mm, gmax do 20mm and 40mm and 60/40mm and 60mm

yeah i would say 40mm too, i have gone 60mm front and rear and its terrible back tyres catch the arches etc, i'm bringing mine back up to 40mm, and yes its true if you go lower it will highlight a lot of problems not noticable on standard shocks and springs, if you have any bushes on there last legs for instance ..

The extra work you're thinking of might be to adjust the camber and tracking (front suspension geometry). This would definitely need doing whatever amount you lower the car. As well as excessive tyre wear, without doing this will render the car pretty much undriveable.

You would also need to adjust the brake load compensating valve, if you have one.

Worn bearings? Extra wear on these doesn't relate to suspension height, but might be attributed to changing to wider wheels, or different offset wheels to go along with lowering. Personally, having done the sums, there's a negligible impact from adjusting the offset of wheels except if it were extreme amounts eg 3-4".

How low you can go depends on the wheels and tyres. I could get my car safely -80mm on 175/70R13 and -95mm on 185/65R13 (but these are little/narrow in the grand scheme of things). But even -80mm is impractical for day-to-day use. (The clipper might differ slightly, due to the tyres rubbing on the wheelarches sooner).

Personally, the amount you lower is a personal choice so its not up to the forum to say what's right for you - 80mm is possible on standard wheels/tyres; on other tyres it might only be 40mm before rubbing, or you might get rubbing even at standard height if the wheels/tyres are too big or wide etc etc. Just for info, mine is -45mm and fine, but its not a clipper its a hatchback GTI.