Time to make some suspension decisions

[hjr]

Well i was replacing my strut mounts this weekend and all was going well. i got the struts out with little hassle (thnx jeff for pitching in) but the first thing i noticed was that i had a spring cracked at the base of the coils. well this is just no good, it cannot do. It turns out both front springs are cracked, boooo.

So anyways, new springs for me. Im not sure what yet but i have some thoughts. Back to the story, i pull out the spring compressor and get to taking the units apart. everything goes easy. when they are all apart i pull off the bump stops and notice there is almost 0 resistance in the shock. both front ones are completely done, im not sure how the car was driveable in this condition???

so i guess everything will be replace. i was kinda planning on replacing the whole deal anyways, but now it looks like i dont have much choice.

So here are my thoughts : no coilovers. dont care for hight ajustability or the freaken cost.

i can get springs made reasonably cheap, but i dont think there is much warrenty on that, but the reason for this would be to keep the overall stiffness down. more than stock, but this isnt a race car! now spring rate is my issue, i can find info on that, but i plan on a 30mm drop at most. The car may see some autocross use this summer. So here is the point of this post --- what shocks should i go with for my 16v VW Jetta?

-bilstein hd or something from their line. quality stuff i hear, but i dont know much about it.
-tokico blues. ummmm, ya i dont know
-no agx's for my vw i believe so no luck there
-koni yellow are more than i want to spend
-other??? im sure some of you folks would know some others

2nd part - with a 30mm drop do i need to look into shocks designed for shorter springs, or is that drop pretty negligable?

Thanks for making it all the way down to here. i appriciate it.
-boge make some average shocks that i have heard average things about

[Weapon_R]

I just bought some Konis and I thoroughly researched all available shocks for my car. Here's what I found.

The Bilsteins are in a league of their own. Absolutely fantastic shocks.

Koni Yellows were generally on par with the Bilsteins.

Tokico blues are not liked much in the Honda community. Swing over to honda-tech.com and see how many people are dissatisfied with them. A LOT of them switch over to KYB GR-2's as a slightly-better-than-stock replacement.

Otherwise, I haven't heard of any other ones you listed (sachs, boge etc).

A 30mm drop, or 3cm drop is just a little more than an inch. KYB will honour their warranty on the entry level GR-2s for anything less than 1.5". The drop is negligible IMO.

[DonJuan]

as weapon R said Bilsteins are soem of the best around, koni's are good too but are usually prived more than the bilsteins cuz its koni. Tokico are good replacements for nissans and have also heard good things about them, and are good replacements for more sportier than stock use.

BTW: how do you have springs made??? and how can I have some made???

[GTS Jeff]

Ok here's what I know:

-Tokico HP (blues) are basically an OEM replacement, but ghetto people use them in performance setups. Tokico's performancey shocks are the Illuminas. These are adjustable for compression and rebound off the same screw, which some people don't like.

-KYB AGXs are the performance shocks from KYB. Supposedly, they're the same shocks as GAB SuperHP. AGXs are cheaper than most and they have adjustable rebound and compression off a handturn knob. KYB GR-2s are basically an OEM replacement with no adjustability.

-Koni reds are internally adjustable IIRC and yellows are externally adjustable for rebound only. Most people say that it's worth it to spend extra for the yellows.

-I know nothing of the other brands.

I think you should first decide if you want OEM replacement shocks that are slightly better than stock and are nonadjustable, or if you want adjustable performance shocks. Cuz it's hard to compare say...Koni yellows to Tokico blues.