Gti ARB

[Tom]

Right all, was thinking of a few more handling mods tonight and i remember i think im still on a boggo 5 door xtdt front roll bar. Is the gti6 one any different? And worth doing? Would be awesome if someone has a 5 door with the roll bar in and has driven both, thanks ladies

[Frosty]

I'm pretty sure the gti front anti roll bar if thicker than a standard dt 1. I will be fitting 1 to mine but I have a big to do list at the moment

[gareth7]

^ this...the 6 front arb is definitely thicker.......I'm fitting one to my 5 door later this month

[Grant]

I fitted a '6 front ARB to my old meridian, along with new bushes and drop links. Probably a combination of the three, but it definitely made a noticeable difference.

[puglove]

i did this on my old XUD brilliant upgrade. i still have front & rear bars could be tempted to sell

[darrenjlobb]

This is something ive always meant to do, in all the times the motor has been out, ive never got around to it yet!

[puglove]

simple job darren even with the engine in situ . get on with it

[Tom]

Not sure if i have a rear one already because the ginger one done the rear beam... Pretty sure its the standard on the front though!

[Toms306]

How do you get it off easily?

I had to take the subrame off to get mine out!

[Tom]

I guess its a lot of "jiggery pokey" ahaha

[puglove]

How do you get it off easily?

I had to take the subrame off to get mine out!

just undo the back 4 slacken the front 2 undo the 2 bolts holdind the ARB/P bush and wiggle it out the back of the sub frame. simples

[Chris_90]

I have both gti6 front and rear anti roll bars for sale Inbox me if your interested

[Ruan]

I actually don't rate the GTi6 ARB - especially if you've got stiffer springs - on a standard setup the GTi6 ARB is definitely an improvement, however.

But when you consider that you've counteracted quite a bit of the body roll simply from stiffer springs the thicker bar will add MORE to the roll stiffness and the more your car will understeer mid corners, although it's flatter, it'll tend to want to plow on mid corner.

When you've got a stiff setup already, a thicker ARB will often just end up with the car waddling at the slightest bump and understeering - causing quite an uncomfortable ride with an already stiff spring setup - it's just going to make it rediculous! I've known people REMOVE the ARB when running coilovers.

More roll stiffness isn't always better!!

[miles]

Must go against that, I run a 30mm ARB in all my 306 road as well, No issues at all in the wet or dry, No understeer either. But the ride height is the main thing, go too low and the roll centres are buggered up

[Dale]

I actually don't rate the GTi6 ARB - especially if you've got stiffer springs - on a standard setup the GTi6 ARB is definitely an improvement, however.

But when you consider that you've counteracted quite a bit of the body roll simply from stiffer springs the thicker bar will add MORE to the roll stiffness and the more your car will understeer mid corners, although it's flatter, it'll tend to want to plow on mid corner.

When you've got a stiff setup already, a thicker ARB will often just end up with the car waddling at the slightest bump and understeering - causing quite an uncomfortable ride with an already stiff spring setup - it's just going to make it rediculous! I've known people REMOVE the ARB when running coilovers.

More roll stiffness isn't always better!!

I couldn't agree more! A fwd car should be setup stiffer at the rear giving the front end a sharper turn in! Spent many years with Renault sports and 106's 19mm front bar with 21mm rears group n billies and some 200+ pound front springs and no matter where you throw that your onto a winner! A race car is setup without roll bars only once it's dialed will the arbs be added!

[Rippthrough]

I don't run a front bar, although I do run a 24mm rear, although I'll probably drop that down to a ~19mm when the rear springing/dampers get sorted out.

When you start running massive bars you may as well just f*ck the suspension off and stick a beam axle on, as you end up removing the independence of the suspension. FWIW, you can lower the rear of the car as much as you like, you won't change the roll centre on a stock beam.

[Tom]

Well now im not sure what to do :/

[gareth7]

Well now im not sure what to do :/

makes two of us Tom

[Frosty]

I think if you got 1 fit it. Well that's what in going todo

[Rippthrough]

If the rest of car is pretty much standard, stick it on.

[Mattcheese31]

i'm on Xsara VTS springs and Bilstein B4 shocks, i have a gti6 front ARB to go on, do we think it'd suit on my setup? . .

[Rippthrough]

Doesn't matter, you drive like my nan.

[Mattcheese31]

Doesn't matter, you drive like my nan.

haha at least my car spends more time on the road than the workshop . . . .(no you dittant . .yes i did) . .

[Rippthrough]

Mine just thinks it playing Mario Kart, keeps dropping parts in the way of following cars.

[darrenjlobb]

So im better off running old DT ARB then is what your saying suspention people? Have a set of GHA struts and stock rear GTI beam bar the gaz shocks, rest of suspention is pretty much stock, just new. Might replace some bushs with uprated ones, but tbh car handled well really.

[Ruan]

Put it this way, since I went to the coilovers with mine, I think the springs are ~300lbs so probably a bit hard for what I need, with the GTi6 ARB it seems to "waddle" over any sort of rutted road, I can feel the suspension being pulled around, it feels like it can't soak up any bumps without screwing up the whole car... That's just how it feels to me - it feels like on the road when you hit something, it affects the other side...

The rear feels about correct since obviously I've not adjusted the rates from the VTS beam... BUt the front feels like the suspension simply isn't doing it's job of actually tracking the road, it's out and out grip levels are probably slightly improved, but it feels like it doesn't track the road half as well as when I had the stock shocks and springs on...

Is it bad that I actually want to return to OEM GTi6 suspension?

[Rippthrough]

Depends how stiff your front springs are Darren, if you're anywhere around Ruan's rates it'd certainly be worth trying the smaller front arb, whilst the gti bar will probably still give better control on a-roads or smooth b-roads, the bumpy lanes we tend to have up here and down there are better with the smaller front bar

[Ruan]

Would you recommend going for slightly lighter springs? I'm always finding that breaking traction is incredibly easy as it is now, especially under acceleration out of a bend if there's anything remotely rutted for the inside wheel, under braking the feckin' ABS is always cutting in (Unplug it?! Lol!) which never happened before - which I can only assume is due to the setup just simply not tracking the road as it should... Pushing on out of corners nearly always results in either gripping or understeer - nowhere near as progressive as it was - the front end feels more snatchy than it did... But the steering is nothing like as sharp - possibly tracking related, but I swear it's pretty close!?

Sorry to wreck a thread...

[Rippthrough]

If it's on the exit and okay on the apex, try a little less rebound on the front dampers.

[Ruan]

Hmm, they're literally at the outer edge of their adjustment, they're 8 'clicks' in, I may drop that and see how it goes...

Theres also one that is weeping out tbe adjuster top and groans slightly under movement... So to be honest, I think they may just need a service... Though the oil that comes out is clear as, so they can't have done much work I wouldn't have thought...