Passat H&R Sport Springs

I was a little disappointed the Passat didn't have a sport suspension option from the factory. You couldn't even order 17" wheels. I decided that once the 928 was sold I was going to install a set of sporty springs on the wagon.

I did a little shopping and found the H&R springs from the helpful guys at AWE Tuning to match my requirements quite nicely and cost only $169 plus shipping. RTFO. Unfortunately H&R does not yet have a B5.5 wagon sport spring set. Mike at AWE tracked this down for me directly through H&R in Germany who responded that part number 29794 would do the job. Don't bother looking in your H&R catalog. Rumor has it this part is not listed. Thanks for the help, Mike. Mucho appreciado.

Car buddies Hugh and Parnell volunteered to help install a week or two beforehand. Later in the morning Sean (Hugh and I helped install springs on his CRX Si) and Dave arrived so we ended up with a fair-sized crew. That was good because it allowed us the take water and air conditioning breaks quite regularly without having to stop work on the car. Everyone agreed that the next mod should wait until cooler weather arrives. We should be ready for more outdoor activities sometime in October. :-( We still had a good time wrenching and BSing. Thanks a bunch, guys. There's no way I could have done this myself in one day.

After a few miles to settle the new coils I had the car aligned. Unfortunately the VAG B5/B5.5 chassis has a very complicated front suspension that requires special tools, software in the alignment rack and knowledge to align. Even then there are no factory camber adjustments to correct for the 1.25" drop and there are two toe adjustments.

All in all I love the new ride and looks. Should've come like this from the factory. As far as I'm concerned this was the best $200 I ever spent on a car. (And then another $180 to align it at the dealer. Eh.)