2001 Gti Vr6

I have a few question regarding my car and I would be very happy if someone could help me out. I bought a '01 GTI VR6 about a year ago and the previous owner had done a few mods to it. I'm mainly concerned with how low it is and the very stiff ride it has. He changed the suspension (something from FK automotive). I'll be honest, I really don't know that much about this car! But it's very low, most places can't get it in on lifts or it bottoms out/rubs and the bottom of the front bumper has already been broken and pulled off. That is getting fixed but my real concern is the stiffness. It's like there are no shock absorbers at all! If I hit a pot hole or even a small bump, it honestly feels like the car will fall apart right then! Everything shakes in the car and it makes this horrible thud noise. I was reading a few posts about lowering these cars and someone had mentioned that it can destroy the shocks or coils and that you need to be careful with doing this. Should I be concerned about this with my car? Is it fixable? Anything I can do to prevent it from being damaged or stopping further damage? My car has become quite creaky over the year also and i'm worried that something serious might happen or has already happened due to the abuse it takes with regard to the stiffness. He also put this ITG (?) intake on it and I was told that the foam can break off and ruin the engine or that the spray you use can decrease your horsepower. Is this true? If so, what can be done about it? And lastly, I want it to be faster :-) I don't have thousands to spend on it so what would give me the most bang for my buck? Any suggestions are greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone in advance!

You should figure out what suspension kit you have on it, then upgrade it to some decent koilovers cause it sounds like some icky springs. Low profile tires don't add any grace to all the potholes either. If you invest in some koilovers you can at least have some control over your ground clearance until you get used to driving a lower car.

About your intake, just don't drive through any rivers and you'll be fine. Keep it clean. If you're worried just upgrade that too :)

Alot of engineering went into everthing that comes on the car stock, when you make changes they have consequences. If you want certain features you live with their bad side too.

Alot of engineering went into everthing that comes on the car stock, when you make changes they have consequences. If you want certain features you live with their bad side too.


I don't think that the good friend over here did such "engineering" by it's own, so being lectured doesn't solve any problem.

Regarding the suspension, you may want to install the stock suspension on it, wich i guess is cheaper than the performance one. You can try shocks and springs, and that will reset the suspension to stock.

Good luck.

Going back to stock is always a good option as pepe suggested. My last GTI had a lot of mods and my cup kit made it ride like a wooden rollercoaster. Once I got my new one, I swore off of suspension mods. It was fun to have the lowered car, but uncomfy.

I bet you could find a vw proformance shop and buy old springs off of someone who is switching theirs out for aftermarket. Might be cheaper than purchasing new or from a dealer.

Until then, take any steep inclines (in/out of parking lots, etc) at an angle. drive down it sideways and as soon as the front of your car seems like its close enough to bottom out, turn your steering all the way out (perpendicular to the road, if that makes any sense at all). That way you aren't diving head first into the concrete.

About being faster... cheapest route would be a good chip and some bolt on mods. You already have an intake, throwing on a slightly larger exhaust will add a few hp. One thing I miss about my vr6 is how it sounded once the intake and exhaust was on... you just can't get it from a 1.8t.

Regardless, fixing the springs would be the most costly but probably the most beneficial if you're worried about the life of your car. It all depends on what you want to do with it.

Ok I have this on my 95 VR6 Jetta. Neuspeed sports springs and bilstein shocks. They ride very well and I never hit or scrape places. Yes it will be about $500 to replace but it will be worth it. For the Love of God don't stock suspension on unless you want to look like your driving a truck/hatch. The stock suspension albeit giving a nice ride is prone to body role and doesn't give the driver hardly any respnsiveness and reduces handling a great deal. Ok if you want get a new intake GHL, Turn2, AEM, Jetex, Neuspeed, etc. I've had a turn2 CAI on my car for 2 years and have had no problems in Nebraska winters and springs and it gets pretty wet here. As for a exhaust I recommend Borla, Jetex, GHL, or Techtonics.

Again for the Love Of God please don't revert back to stock suspension that would be utterly retarded. You also could get Coil overs whic you can adjust the heighth of the ride at will. Good luck.

Ok revise from my last post.

All of the info was attained from a 2 parts series in Eurotuner. They used a 01 VR6 GTI and tested 10 exhausts and 10 CAI(Cold Air Intakes) on a dyno. I am giving you the top 3 of each. I don't have tme time to do all of them.
The top 3 Cold Air Intakes to get that make most power are.

1. ABD Cold Air Intake(CAI for short)
10-12whp and 8-9lbs. TQ at wheels on a 01 VR6 Jetta
$209.95

2. GHL CAI
9-11whp and 10-12lbs of tq at wheels gain.
Pricing $140.00

3. AEM 8-10whp gain and a 10-12 wheel tq gain.
Pricing $258.31

Those were Cold Air Intakes. Yeah you probably want to get rid of your ITG.

The Top 3 Exhausts.

1.Jetex 9-10whp and 10-12 tq at wheels.
Pricing at the time was $499.00
Could be different if you can find one at that price tell me. Exhaust size 2.5inches

2.Magna Flow Performance Exhaust size 2.25 inches.
8-10whp and 10-12wheel tq.
Pricing $547.05

3. Techtonics Tuning Exhaust size 2.5 inches
8-10whp and 8-10 tq at wheels.
$360.00.
(Also take into consideration other factors such as heat and ambient temp when choosing the exhausts. The numbers can have a 2-3whp and tq difference)
If you can get it Stainless steel is the best over all for longevity of the exhaust.
Also the bigger the piping usually the better the power results. The 2.25 Magna Flow piping is somewhat of a mystery why it made more power than a lot of the other 2.50 exhausts.

OK the next thing to do after getting the exhaust and CAI cleared up is to get a Chip.
To make things easy for you get the
GIAC chip. Garret has been doing VR6 chips for the last 15years and has a lot of experience and they give most hp also.
You can also get
Autotech Q chips
Neuspeed P chip but it gives quite a bit less hp over the other however does get rid of the pesky rev limiter.
Upsolute makes a chip
AMS makes a chip

I recommend
GIAC, TT, or Autotech
3 very good chips and good companies to work with. You can get your GIAC through Matrix motors out of Oregon.
Call TT ask for Collin he will set you up with a TT chip. From talking with both Matrix and TT both chips have very similar programs.
Call Autotech for a Q chip. Never talked to the guys on the phone there but they seem to be very nice from what other people have experienced.

How far do you want to go with tuning your VR6?
I already covered suspension. Just don't go back to stock it will suck very badly.

Cams are a good choice if you don't want to go Turbo or Super Charged. If you respond back to my post and are interested I will hook you up with the info on cams and where to buy them.