BamaQLD's 'It's getting there' Polo build

[Sydneykid]

Bilsteins arrived today, will be throwing them in over the weekend.. Got out of paying any customs fees as the threshold is on the goods only. B16's would have been nice but B14s $1100 landed.. all smiles here.

Best bang for buck choice, plus the B14's can be converted to damper adjustability at any time the funds become available. Either single adjuster (bump and rebound together), double adjustable (separate bump and rebound) or remote canister triple adjustable (separate high and low speed bump adjustment plus rebound adjustment).

Cheers
Gary

[BamaQLD]

Best bang for buck choice, plus the B14's can be converted to damper adjustability at any time the funds become available. Either single adjuster (bump and rebound together), double adjustable (separate bump and rebound) or remote canister triple adjustable (separate high and low speed bump adjustment plus rebound adjustment).

Cheers
Gary

Thanks Gary that is very good to know as I will be thinking about it in the future.

[BamaQLD]

Spent the long weekend in a wrestle with the car, removing and then installing the coilovers. Can't say it went smoothly or exactly as planned but a bit of improvising and persistence has hopefully paid off. Rears were pretty straight forward and did not encounter many issues. The fronts are a totally different story. Quite easy to prepare the passenger side but the coilover does not want to part with the hub. Did use improvised spreaders and chisels to spread the strut housing then bashed it with a rubber mallet which did bugger all, then purchased a mallet which worked much better. Got the OE coilover out but then had to improvise again to get the OE bearing and strut top/mount off using a 21m sparkplug socket with the allen key through the middle turning the socket with a shifter.

Not so easy getting it back in again but a bit more bashing with the mallet slowly but surely got it in far enough to do the bolt up. The coupling rods that come with the Bilsteins were a lot shorter than the OE ones and after thinking about it I rotated the sway bar upwards and everything lined up then. Can't see a problem with this???

Drivers side just would not pop off and then I realised the driveshaft was preventing the hub from moving down to release the original strut. After reading the workshop manual they suggest removing the shaft from the hub but you needed a 36mm socket. Long story short after watching a bit of you tube, you can undo the shaft from the gearbox end with 6 M8 12 spline bolts. So did that and removed the hub out from the swivel joint and it popped out and went back in a lot easier than the passenger side.

The car sits noticeably lower now and maybe a bit too low on the front. The front wheels are a bit wonky (not lined up with each other) and the steering wheel is not centered when the wheels are "straight". Probably being stupid but I needed to do some food shopping which is a 5 min drive so took the polo out. Feels scary on the road and I am hoping this is all to do with the alignment (I know you need one after doing coilovers/ride height etc). Just praying I have not bent anything in the steering. There is also a clang noise coming from the rear springs when going over speed bumps/driveways. I have re-inspected the rears as I thought the springs may not be aligned with the metal stop that usually prevents springs spinning. I had a pretty good look and did not notice any stops in the bottom spring seat? Pretty sure they are installed the correct way up as the installation guide said the printed text on the springs should be upright.

Not sure how to rotate pictures?? Will get better pictures when I can drive somewhere nicer.

[sambb]

Don't worry about rear spring stops. I thought the same thing when I had mine really low at the back too. I was expecting to find a cone shaped rubber stop on the beam somewhere that would hit the chassis before coil bind but there's not one. The rear bump stop is associated wirh the dampers. The standard OE dampers have a rubber stop sliding on the damper shaft. When I went to Bilstein B8's they told me not to fit those to the B8 dampers as they had an integral stop. Must admit I was dubious but did what they said and I never bottomed them out anyway. Might be worth a call to be double sure.
Re the fronts yeah the drivers side can be a nightmare till you work out whats happening. Its incredibly dodgy but I actually positioned a rod between the struts spring platform and a jack. If you can hold the strut upward just a smidge to stop the damper trying to extend into the hub while you bang it with a hammer it'll pop out. Don't worry re your steering - nothing will be broken. You just need to set your heights and once that's done go and get the tow alignment which will be out. I know that on a mates Clio that the B14 collars were set ridiculously low like an auto salon car and they needed to be raised a mile to get the wishbones more or less level which is what will get it handling well. It could be a similar situation with yours.

[Sydneykid]

I know that on a mates Clio that the B14 collars were set ridiculously low like an auto salon car and they needed to be raised a mile to get the wishbones more or less level which is what will get it handling well. It could be a similar situation with yours.

That's normal out of the box, the idea being that there's no preload on the springs so the struts are easier to fit, no need for spring compressors. Then you wind them up to the desired height. If they were set at some "guess" height it most likely wouldn't be right anyway.

Cheers
Gary

[BamaQLD]

I finally got a chance to test out the new coils over the weekend and I am happy with they way they react with the road. The reason it felt so bad straight after the install is I forgot to torque the wheel bolts . I torqued every other bolt, got the car off the jack stands went upstairs, cleaned myself up, came down and forgot to do the wheels. Lost my wheel stud lock key in the process but feel lucky that nothing else major happened.

Correct on the lowest setting on the front coilovers when it leaves the factory. I have since had to raise the front so the wheels didn't scrub the guards anymore. Now everything is done up properly and the wheels are aligned there is no more clunking in the rear springs and I am very happy with the outcome. Also set the rear sway bay on the softest setting as I have been told that is the way to go when you get the front sorted. I didn't realise you can remove the collar in the rear springs to lower the rear a bit more but that's a job for another day.

Spent a small fortune getting these black beauties. Might not be the best bang for buck but I am sure I can't go wrong with a lifetime guarantee and I am hoping that they will never need replacing or upgrading. Will be getting them installed shortly but I am feeling a bit lazy doing these myself so might be forking out to pay the 'pros'. Looking at getting Fulcrum suspension in Yeerongpilly to throw them in and align everything.



Bloody roof lining is starting to sag so the DIY didn't go so well. Maybe not enough adhesive, although I did spray both sides. Thinking of just painting it now or removing it all together as it will remove a bit of weight from the top of the car. Could be too hot in QLD though without some insulation on the roof considering my car is black.

[sambb]

re the wheel bolts its so easy to do mate. I've done it myself. I always make a point now of putting my breaker bar that I tighten with on the roof after I nip up the bolts before lowering the car onto the ground. For me at least, that way its right there at eye level when I stand up to remind me to do a final tightening.

Those bushes look pretty schmick. Please please when you're at the aligner ask them to turn the eccentrics on those front bushes through their range so we can know what camber range they give.

[simon k]

Those bushes look pretty schmick. Please please when you're at the aligner ask them to turn the eccentrics on those front bushes through their range so we can know what camber range they give.

yes please!

[BamaQLD]

Bushes installed today and the car feels pretty good. Only tested them a tiny bit on the drive home and will get time this weekend to really enjoy the new set up. I got around to removing the collars from the rear springs so the rear sits a little lower now but looks a fair bit lower? Overall very happy with everything and can't wait to drive a semi vacant twisted road. Next step is to look at the stage 2 in a couple of weeks. After reading through the forums it seems CC is the way to go. Wouldn't mind looking into plug in tunable ecus such as the link one louis19 is using, don't look cheap though I suppose it is the only one you will ever need. But I am still uneducated in tuning ecus as I grew up on carbs and dissys. Still trying to learn and any advice on what to go with will be appreciated.

As requested I got a copy of the before and after suspension angles. Another area where I am still learning. Basically I know some negative camber is a good thing and more traction (anti-lift?) can only be beneficial. So that's why I went for the adjustable LCA bushes. Here are the specs, still a bit confusing for me but had to rush back to work so couldn't ask about it at the shop. Let me know what you guys think as I get a free 1000km inspection and adjustment. Fulcrum at Yeerongpilly were a pleasure to deal with even though I asked them to install their foreign competitors bushes .

Before is on the left and after install on the right. Not sure why there is more negative camber before than after and why the left and right fronts have different camber settings? I maybe interpreting it wrong. I know how camber, caster, toe in works but setting it up, degrees etc.. my knowledge is limited. The powerflex website claims the front bushes only give you +\- 0.5 degrees camber adjustment.

[sambb]

you've gained castor (0.20 on one side and 1.40 dec degree on the other) were they installed in the less anti dive position or the castor position? Are the rear lower control arm bushes installed so that their offset is in exactly the same position in both subframes? Not quite square but you may be able to get one of the subframes slipped to square that up. Doesn't look like you've gained more camber, but as you say the stated gains were going to be small anyway. Did they install them in the max neg camber position? eg eccentrics adjusted so that the front of the lower control arm is as outboard as possible compared to the subframes that the bolt goes through the bushes and into. Without having a look they may have installed them and just used the adjusters to get a convenient square up between left and right and not actually tried to get the most neg camber that they could for you. Good thing about those fronts is that they can always be adjusted. The rear lower control arm bushes are another story - pressed in and you get what you get in terms of castor other than maybe slipping the subframes to square them up. Post a pic of the left and right, front and rear control arm bushes if you want. Either way its going to feel great with the stiffness those bushes will give.