05-03-2013, 09:23 PM
I recently bought Sam's D2 coilovers for this, and have had some Meyle HD wishbones sat in the garage for months (since November!!), and finally put some time in last weekend to getting it done.
What a mission though, the standard GTi strut didn't want to come out of the passenger side, and in attempting to remove it I lost at least a litre of gearbox oil in the process. Finally got it out, and as always the coilover went in nice and easily. Wish I could say the same for the other side, where it really didn't want to go into the hub at first. The wishbones were a bit of a bitch though, mostly due to the order in which I did up the bolts, and not undoing the lower droplink ball joint (in order to allow the ARB clamp to come down to the top of the p-bush easier). Ah well, lesson learned for next time when I give Fooby a hand with his wishbones in the next couple of weeks.
I haven't had a chance to properly drive it yet, as we finished late on Sunday evening and I was shattered and didn't want to drive it and have something break, especially given what happened last time with the balljoint falling out. I double checked everything, and also got Vaughan to check over everything as well and it was fine, but I've not had time to take it out for a short journey until this evening. I'm very pleased with the results! Turn in is much better, and there's a fair amount more grip which is excellent. They're not too harsh at all for general driving, but given that I'm running 21mm torsion bars and the coilovers now the car feels much much stiffer on the whole, and it's fairly noticeable on bumpy roads. It didn't feel out of control, just the movement of the chassis was more pronounced.
I can't wait to get my solid beam mounts and the rear shocks on now! I might look into getting some new TREs as well now given that most of the front suspension has been replaced, just to finish things off.
Here's a photo showing the new ride height (about 15mm lower than the GTi shocks and Eibach springs), and also how filthy she is at the moment! The car will be getting cleaned at the weekend and taken for a drive, and possibly some new photos
What a mission though, the standard GTi strut didn't want to come out of the passenger side, and in attempting to remove it I lost at least a litre of gearbox oil in the process. Finally got it out, and as always the coilover went in nice and easily. Wish I could say the same for the other side, where it really didn't want to go into the hub at first. The wishbones were a bit of a bitch though, mostly due to the order in which I did up the bolts, and not undoing the lower droplink ball joint (in order to allow the ARB clamp to come down to the top of the p-bush easier). Ah well, lesson learned for next time when I give Fooby a hand with his wishbones in the next couple of weeks.
I haven't had a chance to properly drive it yet, as we finished late on Sunday evening and I was shattered and didn't want to drive it and have something break, especially given what happened last time with the balljoint falling out. I double checked everything, and also got Vaughan to check over everything as well and it was fine, but I've not had time to take it out for a short journey until this evening. I'm very pleased with the results! Turn in is much better, and there's a fair amount more grip which is excellent. They're not too harsh at all for general driving, but given that I'm running 21mm torsion bars and the coilovers now the car feels much much stiffer on the whole, and it's fairly noticeable on bumpy roads. It didn't feel out of control, just the movement of the chassis was more pronounced.
I can't wait to get my solid beam mounts and the rear shocks on now! I might look into getting some new TREs as well now given that most of the front suspension has been replaced, just to finish things off.
Here's a photo showing the new ride height (about 15mm lower than the GTi shocks and Eibach springs), and also how filthy she is at the moment! The car will be getting cleaned at the weekend and taken for a drive, and possibly some new photos