Straight outta... Germany?!

[Dr.AK]

humm.. i think there is some weird shit going on about rideheight.. :\ i havent yet gone to register my lowers.. and i think ill do it next time i go tüv my car.. next year.

but if it helps you can allways say that those coils have just settled down and dropped little.. in here cops don't have that much knowledge about these things

Whitelie isn't bad if it lets you off ticket

I tried that actually.
He refused to believe that the springs settled 5cm, though.

[Exami]

humm.. i think there is some weird shit going on about rideheight.. :\ i havent yet gone to register my lowers.. and i think ill do it next time i go tüv my car.. next year.

but if it helps you can allways say that those coils have just settled down and dropped little.. in here cops don't have that much knowledge about these things

Whitelie isn't bad if it lets you off ticket

[Dr.AK]

Thanks guys.

I'll say it again, i love your car. That sucks about ride height regulations, i had no idea.

It's not so much regulations as it was my own stupidity.

Basically we have to get almost every modification to the cars approved by the TÜV. The parts usually come with a set of papers, either a "Teilegutachten" or a "ABE" ("allgemeine Betriebserlaubnis"). If you're lucky to score a part with an ABE that means you're free to run it as it is, no need to get it TÜV approved.
Suspension and Wheels always come with only a Teilegutachten, so you have to get them TÜV approved.
Usually they'll take some kinda reference point and write down the new height, in my case they took the space between the center of the wheel and the fender edgė.
I cranked it lower, so the ride height didn't match that approval anymore, I could have gotten it approved by a different TÜV (the one where I got the original setup approved was very picky, there are also some very tolerant TÜV stations out there) but that'd cost money, so I figured I'd do it if I ever had some money over I didn't need, as I didn't expect to be pulled over here as our cops in general are very tolerant in my area.

It was just my luck to get pulled over by a cop who wanted to show the rookie cop, who was following him around like a lost puppy, how to bust a modded car. He measured the approved height - found my car to be lower and BAM! Busted.


Officially we don't have any real regulations for ride height, the only regulations we have is for the lighting on the car. The light output edge of the headlights for example has to be at least 50 cm above the ground. Even with my Tüv approved ride height, I'm 2 cm below that, so if I get pulled over by another nit picky cop again, i'm f*cked.


Oh my, look at me, there I go and almost write a book on this... why do I always write so much?

[Travis]

I'll say it again, i love your car. That sucks about ride height regulations, i had no idea.

[SeanDub]

Nice little history

[TheStig]

Both cars look great, I had no idea that GTi was yours, I still lurk on vortex and always liked your car, verry clean and simple.

[M.Burroughs]

welcome aboard

[Dr.AK]

'sup guys?

Just wanted to share the timeline of my Bimmer from start to now. It's nowhere near finished, as it is a rolling project.

History Lesson!

Back in '07 I bought my first car, a '92 VW Golf Mk3 GT Special - meaning it was a 1.8 90hp with disc brakes all around and the full GTI flare kit and sports seats.
Of course couldn't leave that stock, a set of coils followed, matched up with a set of polished ATS Cup in 7x15 ET20. The front end was changed drastically to Votex dual round headlights and an ABT frontgrille. I made the error of not keeping tabs on the usual wear and tear items and when it finally came to the time that this couldn't be ignored any longer, the list of stuff that needed replacing was way too long, so I made a spontaneous decision and sold the car.






A fresh start - 05/05/2008

I picked up my new car around the same time I put the Golf up for sale. I found it at a local used car dealer, a 2-owner E36 320i.
The car came with black fabric seats and matching doorcards, power windows (in the front, not in the rear though), power sunroof and an A/C, rest was pretty much bare.

When I got it, it had 180.000km.

And before anyone asks, no it's not Calypsored, it's the even more rare Cordobared.

As it looked when I picked it up, the typical german grandfather's car:










Let there be light - 05/10/2008

First mod was some new lighting, new headlights, red/white tails, smoked turns.






In the living room - 06/19/2008

After that, I tackled the interior. Beige, heated leather seats, which came with completely beige door cards. I ripped out the inserts of the beige door cards and placed them in my black door cards.
Also installed a new carpet as my old carpet had some big holes.








The next problem showed up: The rear bench would not fit exactly in my car, as it was a static one piece bench. My car came stock with a foldable two piece bench. So I had to fab a backing plate, I used some wood for that. The side visible in the trunk is still bare as I haven't had the motivation to put some carpet on it yet. I most likely won't either, as I have some plans for the trunk area, which I will talk about at a later point.











Going down - 06/21/2008

The interior now way more comfy, it was time to do something else.

I picked this up:



And installed it, along with all new bearings and so on, basically all the usual wear and tear items in, on and near the suspension were replaced.

Of course I didn't know that my stock wheels wouldn't fit with the coils, so I ran the winter wheels for a few days until I got new wheels.




It's all about the stretch... without the poke? - 06/27/2008

So, I got a set of used Azev A. 8x17 Et35 and 9.5x17 ET30. Tires are 205/40 and 225/35 Falken FK452.

Then I put some 15mm spacers in the front to make them 8x17 ET20.









When I went to the TÜV to have them approve the setup, they wouldn't do that. I had to remove the spacers and raise the car up again.

This was the TÜV approved height:



A friend made some new centercaps for me:




Tightening it up. - 09/24/2008

Next, a Wiechers strut brace was installed.




Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow! - 11/23/2008

Then came the first winter.






Roar - 03/21/2009

Installed a new exhaust, just a cheap Supersport piece, but it does it's job.




Going lower - 04/19/2009

Cranked down the coils until I was almost satisfied. I figured "F*ck the Tüv, I like it low!" - until the cops pulled me over.





Then I was pulled over on 05/11/2009, received a ticket for the ride height not matching the ride height written in my car's papers. Still awaiting the consequences of that - worst case scenario: ~150€ ticket, ~400€ for retaking my driving test.


Foggy situations - 06/06/2009

"Built" myself a set of new fogs - had a set of yellow fogs lying around which were not OEM, as the previous owner just painted them yellow, so I took them apart, removed the yellow paint and painted the reflector black:

Left: My painted one

Center: Stock OEM piece

Right: One of the yellow painted ones





Just need to seal em up now and fix my driver's side fog holder then I can install them.


Spring cleaning - 06/07/2009

Cleaned the engine bay a bit and discovered that my strut bearings are pretty much destroyed even though I haven't noticed anything while driving. I replaced these last year, so I'm a bit angry about this - I know that lowering will increase wear and tear on these and other bearings, but it should be nothing to this extreme.
















That was it up until now.

I'm not 100% sure about the future of the car, I know I want to keep it and keep the engine stock - I want to try to get as much kms out of it as possible, at least 400.000 km is my goal.

I do have quite some ideas, not sure when and if the stuff from these ideas will happen, though.


One thing I'm really thinking about is getting the car bagged next year, imo the pros outweigh the cons on this.

Pros:
Cops can't do isht because of lowness; able to get around everywhere, even the steepest parking garages; able to drive really, really low and just raise the car up for bigger bumps and stuff

Cons:
Expensive, need a bit more maintenance than coils

I'm really not 100% sure, I'm strongly leaning towards it, but I'd like some input on this, please. And no jokes like "bags are for pussies", k?