Lower suspension

[Ca11um43]

Does anybody have pictures with 50/40mm lowering springs fitted? I've found a set of Lowtec springs (from Germany) which say they lower the front by 50mm and the back by 40mm, but I'm not sure if that will be too much or not. I'm currently running the stock 17 inch wheels but I'm going to get some aftermarket 17 or 18 inch wheels later down the line. I've watched videos of other people fitting 35mm springs but the front normally sits higher and there is still too much of an arch gap for my liking. I'm going for more of a flush fitment ideally.

I have just purchased a 2006 Seat Leon FR (170hp 2.0 TDI) and the suspension was recently replaced by the previous owner, but I assume they fitted parts from a base model as it currently looks like a monster truck. From what I've read the FR should be lower from factory, but mine isn't at the moment.

Another option is air suspension. I already own a full air suspension kit from another car which should also fit this Seat Leon, but since I'll be daily driving this car and taking it on quite a few long journeys, I'm not sure that's the best option (never daily driven a car on air). I don't want to spend mega amounts so I think coilovers are out of the question, as I've heard some pretty bad things about the low-mid range options.

TIA.

 

[Armin Sohrabian]

Hey. I've got KW V1 coilovers on mine. The little sheet that came with them said not to lower it too much but I lowered them all the way and it's been fine, speed bumps are a problem but other than that it has been ok. I'm honestly not sure how many mm this is lowered by, I could go measure if needed - I think I have the measurements before I lowered it written somewhere. Here is a picture of how low it is on these coilovers (KW V1s aren't the type to go super low anyway so they might be comparable to what you could get with lowering springs).

These are on 16 inch wheels and the tyres are on their last legs so with new tyres they would probably be about 6mm wider.

This car's wheel and arch gap is quite large (especially on the rear) so trying to close that gap will mean you need to lower the car a lot. As you can see I have a decent amount of ground clearance but I still scrape on speed bumps (a lot in London) but sometimes in other places. The weird type of bumps that don't go fully across the road are the worst because you are supposed to take them in a way that minimises how tall they are but if I do that the underside scrapes really bad so I need to hit them with one side of the wheels to avoid scraping - even then sometimes it scrapes the pinch welds. For this reason I would recommend bags if you have them, I am pretty sure in America plenty of people daily bags but I'm also pretty sure they're more expensive than coilovers - the kits I saw were more than £3k but I got my KW V1s for £1200.

Anyway let me know if you want me to measure the amount it's lowered by. I will probably measure them and put it here anyway next time I'm outside if I remember in case someone else finds it useful later.

 

[Ca11um43]

Hey. I've got KW V1 coilovers on mine. The little sheet that came with them said not to lower it too much but I lowered them all the way and it's been fine, speed bumps are a problem but other than that it has been ok. I'm honestly not sure how many mm this is lowered by, I could go measure if needed - I think I have the measurements before I lowered it written somewhere. Here is a picture of how low it is on these coilovers (KW V1s aren't the type to go super low anyway so they might be comparable to what you could get with lowering springs).
View attachment 53450View attachment 53451
These are on 16 inch wheels and the tyres are on their last legs so with new tyres they would probably be about 6mm wider.

This car's wheel and arch gap is quite large (especially on the rear) so trying to close that gap will mean you need to lower the car a lot. As you can see I have a decent amount of ground clearance but I still scrape on speed bumps (a lot in London) but sometimes in other places. The weird type of bumps that don't go fully across the road are the worst because you are supposed to take them in a way that minimises how tall they are but if I do that the underside scrapes really bad so I need to hit them with one side of the wheels to avoid scraping - even then sometimes it scrapes the pinch welds. For this reason I would recommend bags if you have them, I am pretty sure in America plenty of people daily bags but I'm also pretty sure they're more expensive than coilovers - the kits I saw were more than £3k but I got my KW V1s for £1200.

Anyway let me know if you want me to measure the amount it's lowered by. I will probably measure them and put it here anyway next time I'm outside if I remember in case someone else finds it useful later.

I do have air suspension (currently fitted to another vehicle that I am stripping for parts) but decided to go for lowering springs in the end, so the air suspension will be going up for sale at some point. I really did like the idea of putting the air suspension on the Seat Leon and I have seen some really nice builds on air, but as a daily it would just be too high maintenance for me.

I went for Lowtec springs from Germany, which claim to lower the front by 50mm and the rear by 40mm for a level ride height. With shipping and import fees they came to around £250 in total, and I fitted them to the standard shocks (which are not that old). I'm not 100% happy with the fitment but I think that's because I'm still running the stock FR wheels with 225/45/17 tyre's. I'm after a completely flush fitment ideally, but with the current set up there is a 1-2 finger arch gap on both the front and rear, which is still a million times better than it was before so I guess I can't complain too much.

I'm looking to upgrade to a set of 18x8.5 ET35 wheels which I've read is the best fitment for a MK2 Seat Leon, and I'm hoping they will create the nice flush fitment that I'm looking for, with no arch gap. But trying to find a second hand set with the correct fitment, correct PCD, and in decent condition for a good price is near enough impossible. And I'd rather not pay more than what the whole car cost me, for a brand new set of rims (plus the cost of tyre's on top of that) just to get destroyed by the terrible UK roads. So for now I will just have to put up with the current fitment until I find a new set of wheels worth buying.

 

[Armin Sohrabian]

I do have air suspension (currently fitted to another vehicle that I am stripping for parts) but decided to go for lowering springs in the end, so the air suspension will be going up for sale at some point. I really did like the idea of putting the air suspension on the Seat Leon and I have seen some really nice builds on air, but as a daily it would just be too high maintenance for me.

I went for Lowtec springs from Germany, which claim to lower the front by 50mm and the rear by 40mm for a level ride height. With shipping and import fees they came to around £250 in total, and I fitted them to the standard shocks (which are not that old). I'm not 100% happy with the fitment but I think that's because I'm still running the stock FR wheels with 225/45/17 tyre's. I'm after a completely flush fitment ideally, but with the current set up there is a 1-2 finger arch gap on both the front and rear, which is still a million times better than it was before so I guess I can't complain too much.

I'm looking to upgrade to a set of 18x8.5 ET35 wheels which I've read is the best fitment for a MK2 Seat Leon, and I'm hoping they will create the nice flush fitment that I'm looking for, with no arch gap. But trying to find a second hand set with the correct fitment, correct PCD, and in decent condition for a good price is near enough impossible. And I'd rather not pay more than what the whole car cost me, for a brand new set of rims (plus the cost of tyre's on top of that) just to get destroyed by the terrible UK roads. So for now I will just have to put up with the current fitment until I find a new set of wheels worth buying.

I've ordered a set of wheels that are 17x8 ET45 that I'm planning on running 225r45 tyres on and I'm expecting it to be pretty close to flush fitment. The wheels should be arriving mid april so I will post a picture when it arrives. I didn't measure it very accurately but I went with a safe estimate so I can add spacers later - I checked your measurements and I would need a 10mm spacer to get to your fitment (might need that to clear the suspension anyway, I just eyeballed that part).

I tried to find wheel fitment info for a while but seems everyone wants to run 18s or 19s on this car and I'm happy with 17s.

Also, the wheels I ordered are rep te37s from woaforged (alibaba seller). The total was 1180USD with delivery to my house in England. I had originally ordered a set of enkei T6S but enkei took forever to supply it to the retailer I was buying from and they let me cancel it after 2 months. The nice thing is they let you decide all the specs because they custom build them for you. You specify dimensions, PCD and they model it for you before they start making them.

When I get them and install them I will make a post here with information and pictures of various things. I'm not worried about build quality because I've seen a bunch of videos of people hitting these with sledgehammers compared to other forged wheels and it seems pretty much the same, but I'll post if I have issues with them. This could be a route you decide to go down too - a set of forged wheels with custom specs for cheaper than flow formed wheels is pretty good so I had to give them a try.

Alas I think the amount your car is lowered is probably a lot more practical than mine - I expect you to scrape far less than I do. Also I've hit a pothole once and there was a horrible noise of where it hit the fender. If you want to close the wheel gap more you could get bigger tyres, it'll affect the handling in all sorts of ways and your speedo will be wrong and the car could feel a bit sluggish but to what extent any of these are noticeable or important is beyond me, the speedo is a big enough dealbreaker for me. It has the advantage of extra ground clearance though (higher center of gravity though).

 

[Ca11um43]

I've ordered a set of wheels that are 17x8 ET45 that I'm planning on running 225r45 tyres on and I'm expecting it to be pretty close to flush fitment. The wheels should be arriving mid april so I will post a picture when it arrives. I didn't measure it very accurately but I went with a safe estimate so I can add spacers later - I checked your measurements and I would need a 10mm spacer to get to your fitment (might need that to clear the suspension anyway, I just eyeballed that part).

I tried to find wheel fitment info for a while but seems everyone wants to run 18s or 19s on this car and I'm happy with 17s.

Also, the wheels I ordered are rep te37s from woaforged (alibaba seller). The total was 1180USD with delivery to my house in England. I had originally ordered a set of enkei T6S but enkei took forever to supply it to the retailer I was buying from and they let me cancel it after 2 months. The nice thing is they let you decide all the specs because they custom build them for you. You specify dimensions, PCD and they model it for you before they start making them.

When I get them and install them I will make a post here with information and pictures of various things. I'm not worried about build quality because I've seen a bunch of videos of people hitting these with sledgehammers compared to other forged wheels and it seems pretty much the same, but I'll post if I have issues with them. This could be a route you decide to go down too - a set of forged wheels with custom specs for cheaper than flow formed wheels is pretty good so I had to give them a try.

Alas I think the amount your car is lowered is probably a lot more practical than mine - I expect you to scrape far less than I do. Also I've hit a pothole once and there was a horrible noise of where it hit the fender. If you want to close the wheel gap more you could get bigger tyres, it'll affect the handling in all sorts of ways and your speedo will be wrong and the car could feel a bit sluggish but to what extent any of these are noticeable or important is beyond me, the speedo is a big enough dealbreaker for me. It has the advantage of extra ground clearance though (higher center of gravity though).

My car is black so I'm specifically after a set of silver wheels...I like the rotiform R170 DTM wheels (my friend has a set on his white MK7 Golf R) but they work out around £1,400 in the specs that I need, then I would need tyre's as well so I'm looking at close to £2,000 in total. I only paid £900 for the whole car so I can't really justify spending that much on wheels. My other option is a set of unbranded replica wheels which are around £600, and they look similar (not 100% the same) as the rotiform wheels. But the quality is unknown.

I haven't been too far in my car since fitting the lowering springs, so I haven't ran in to any clearance issues yet with speed bumps, etc (not many around where I live). I have hit a few pot holes which the 225/45/17 tyre's absorb pretty well, but I can only imagine that going up to 18's with 225/40/18 tyre's will just make potholes even worse.

Although this is my daily I am currently self employed so I don't really have to use the car much on a daily basis, as I have another vehicle for work. Hence why I'm willing to sacrifice some comfort for better looks. I plan on potentially fitting a front splitter at some point (then swapping to a K1/BTCC bumper later down the line), BTCC rear bumper and side skirts, fibreworx spoiler, etc. As well as performance stuff. I have already had the car stage 1 remapped, but I would like to upgrade the turbo and a few other bits, then get a custom dyno map. I've heard that the 2.0 TDI (PD170 in my case) can easily make around 320hp which is perfect for a daily driver, or so I've heard. So that is the end goal for this car.

 

[Armin Sohrabian]

My car is black so I'm specifically after a set of silver wheels...I like the rotiform R170 DTM wheels (my friend has a set on his white MK7 Golf R) but they work out around £1,400 in the specs that I need, then I would need tyre's as well so I'm looking at close to £2,000 in total. I only paid £900 for the whole car so I can't really justify spending that much on wheels. My other option is a set of unbranded replica wheels which are around £600, and they look similar (not 100% the same) as the rotiform wheels. But the quality is unknown.

I haven't been too far in my car since fitting the lowering springs, so I haven't ran in to any clearance issues yet with speed bumps, etc (not many around where I live). I have hit a few pot holes which the 225/45/17 tyre's absorb pretty well, but I can only imagine that going up to 18's with 225/40/18 tyre's will just make potholes even worse.

Although this is my daily I am currently self employed so I don't really have to use the car much on a daily basis, as I have another vehicle for work. Hence why I'm willing to sacrifice some comfort for better looks. I plan on potentially fitting a front splitter at some point (then swapping to a K1/BTCC bumper later down the line), BTCC rear bumper and side skirts, fibreworx spoiler, etc. As well as performance stuff. I have already had the car stage 1 remapped, but I would like to upgrade the turbo and a few other bits, then get a custom dyno map. I've heard that the 2.0 TDI (PD170 in my case) can easily make around 320hp which is perfect for a daily driver, or so I've heard. So that is the end goal for this car.

Sounds good man. Only thing that came to mind while reading that was the wheels you get from Alibaba are reps but you still get them branded as originals - so they're not just reps they're counterfeit. If you don't care about that, you basically get 8k wheels for 1k (I think they let you choose the colour aswell, I didn't ask because I liked the silver).

I've thought about getting a remap but it's a 1.4tsi and I'm not sure it would gain much at all and would lower the reliability. Once I have a garage I'll probably try to make the car faster but it's not super slow as it is so I'm just leaving it for now

 

[Ca11um43]

Sounds good man. Only thing that came to mind while reading that was the wheels you get from Alibaba are reps but you still get them branded as originals - so they're not just reps they're counterfeit. If you don't care about that, you basically get 8k wheels for 1k (I think they let you choose the colour aswell, I didn't ask because I liked the silver).

I've thought about getting a remap but it's a 1.4tsi and I'm not sure it would gain much at all and would lower the reliability. Once I have a garage I'll probably try to make the car faster but it's not super slow as it is so I'm just leaving it for now

I'm not too fussed about having genuine wheels as long as they do the job and look good...My main concern with reps is the quality. As you know, UK roads are terrible at the moment so the last thing I want it a cracked or bent rim!! The only wheels I've ever had that took a good beating, were 18 inch Le Mans alloys on my old Audi A3. They were destroyed when I got the car so I didn't take much care of them, and they never cracked or anything!! They had a few bends in them, but I worked in a garage at the time so I just kept on balancing them every so often and they were absolutely fine.

I did consider buying a set to put on the Seat Leon, but they are only 18x8 ET45 so not quite what I'm after. If they were cheap enough then I would consider it, but a set in good condition go for around £600 or more so for that price I can just buy a set of brand new reps in the exact spec that I want.

I'm not sure what it's like now, but the last time I looked on alibaba a lot of the items had to be bought in bulk. So for example you would have to buy 8 rims as a minimum purchase. If some sellers let you just buy 4 rims then obviously that works out, but I'll have to take a look. It has been a long time since I have been on there.

As for the remap I would say it's worth it in my opinion, but I'm not too up to date with tsi engines. I'm more in to classic cars and diesels. Only "performance" engines I've got involved with is the 1.8t which is what I had in my old MK1 Seat Leon Cupra R, and I am currently building a big turbo 1.8t engine and AWD conversion to go in my MK2 Jetta. That's as new as it gets for me though, engine wise. I've not done too much with newer petrol engines.

 

[Armin Sohrabian]

The ones I'm getting look like this:

That is the image they sent me to confirm the order with the specs I gave them. I wasn't expecting them to be rays branded - I'm sure some people would cringe that they are fakes but I don't really care since they look nice and should be stronger than the original cast wheels for less money than I was going to spend on the flow formed Enekeis I was planning on getting.

This is the video I was talking about of a guy comparing them to forged Porsche wheels

I would just skip to the part where he hits them with a big hammer really hard, they hold up pretty well. Obviously it will vary since alibaba has many sellers but you should get them from a seller who has been on there for a couple years and has good reviews. I specifically went with woaforged since a youtuber showed his that he got from them.

I think this is the short I stumbled upon that made me look into it more.

Also, I'm not sure about all of them but woaforged had a minimum order of 4 wheels at a time, you could probably have them as different specs as long as you get 4 total too if you want different specs for the rear. I considered doing a staggered setup since the rear of the mk2 could do with it but I just decided to keep it as is for easy tyre rotations - I'll probably just run small spacers.

As for rep quality in general I think we have got past the time that reps would be low quality garbage that would crack - I think most of them conform to the same standards so as long as you get a reputable brand they will be fine - I was looking at konig and enkei since they are priced pretty well. I don't know how easy it would be to get a set of new wheels for 800 pounds - for me the cheap cast or flow formed would still be more than 1k for a set of 4 - the alibaba wheels were usually less including the expensive shipping.