Post #20
So it’s finally time for and update and god is it hard remembering everything that has happened!
Just after new year I paid a visit up to Manchester where both me and James (JammaPic) had a play around with the suspension on my car. I had recently replaced the front tyres from illegal T1S’s to Falken ZE912s and had noticed that the car was under steering like crazy, especially under wet conditions (spinning the inside wheel up as well when putting power down on tight corners). This was odd as it hadn’t happened with the previous tyres!
Upon investigation it turned out that the front was about 10mm higher than the rear, ie a reverse rake and this had been causing me no end of bother! I imagine the reason it become more apparent was the increased height now due to the increased tread depth on the tyres. Whilst we had the wheels off we also took the time to adjust the rose jointed drop links in order to level out the ARB. All in all a good day working on the car and it improved the handling no end!
Fast forward a couple of months and it snowed, well the Falken tyres didn’t handle the conditions too well, however it helped me determine that finally my ABS had been fixed after nearly failing the MOT because of lack of a bulb in the dash
. All I did was clean CV grease off the sensors and all was fine and dandy. Finally I fitted some new track rod ends because I determined them to be the cause of a knock that I get when turning the wheel when just moving off from stationary. This later appears to be caused by the UV joint that is very close to the exhaust manifold as having sprayed this up very very liberally with grease it appears to of stopped. Having fitted the TREs I went down the garage and had the track set parallel for the tiny sum of 5 quid!
Pictures –
A random picture of the Rallye slaving the DT to get it moved around the back of the house.
I then progressed onto thinking about stiffening the engine mounts due to a sloppy gear change, especially after full throttle or rapid removal of my foot from the throttle making it hard to get into gear. So I decided using the cheap pattern part mount I found in my shed and some liquid rubber than I have obtained I decide to fill it:-
I still haven’t got round to fitting it yet but let’s hope it makes a difference and makes it last longer than 5 minutes! I’ve marked it with red to indicate the direction of the larger rubber buffers that everyone says to turn 90 degrees.
Then it was time for the Curborough PSCUK meet and what a fantastic day it was, the weather was a bit wet but all in all it was great to meet some new people and having spent a lot of the day going around the track in a 205 Rally car with a 250Hp Mi16 engine and Marks Rallye I plucked up the courage to get on track myself. It was a great experience and I can hand on heart say that slippy conditions and my inexperience around a track highlighted my need to learn to drive all over again! It was great fun. Below are pictures of the day before, having fitted my new yellow and black badge (which im still not 100% sure about) and a few of me on the small sprint track itself. The blessing in disguise was the bad weather as the tyres were barely scrubbed!
So all went well, oil temps saw 120c though, didn’t go any higher but aspirations of further track work rather predictably point to needing and oil cooler for any sustained use! Anyway.. having seen 306 RXS (Andre)’s project thread and seeing his custom made gearbox mount I just had to have it
So after waiting a few weeks for Royal mail to get over the Easter rush it arrived. And what a difference! Really tightens the car up! Less axle tramp changing from 1st to 2nd at full throttle and generally better gear changes makes me a lot happier! It is however knocking when pulling off due to the fact I don’t have an 18mm deep socket and don’t think I’ve got it quite tight enough!
It does however highlight how f**ked my gearbox is, all noises (whining etc.) are transferred straight into the cabin.
Upon doing this and fearing the worst for the top mount cradle I removed that to find the rubber mount itself still fully intact, however there is signs of cracking, I have taken the washer out now and torqued it down fully with locktite. Picture below :-
Rather predictably the added stiffness of the gearbox mount has led to slight vibrations through the dashboard. So I removed the upper glove box and had a play around. I wrapped the alarm module in foam to prevent that vibrating off things, and whilst I was there I removed the non-functioning ultrasonics from the top of the A pillars, I finished my little play by locktite-ing the screws that hold the top glove box in and tightening them FT. Much reduced resonation now so it was definatly worth it.
A random picture (albeit s**t quality) parked on the street behind my dads Lex-arse.
And finally after about an hour of thinking and typing, on to what I’ve been doing today. Sick of the worn and dirty brake servo hoses I replaced them with some yellow silicon hose that I had lying around, tidies up the bay a fair bit I must say. I then cleaned up the bay a bit because I’m a geek and did some small “adjustments” with the wiring to clean things up. Re-attached a clip that had come off the power steering pipe and stripped off some brackets and the rear heat shield for painting. As you can see with the rear cam cover a small sneak peek of what I have planned when I can stop the lacquer reacting badly with the paint! And to top it all off I’ve used a whole roll of self-amalgamating tape to protect the top rad hose as the PO had left the jubilee clips facing upwards causing it to begin rubbing through the protective hoses that surround it. So I adjusted the clips and think it came out OK.
Thank you for reading.
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owain wrote:A GTI-6 with a good dashboard and the seats down can outsprint an E46 M3 in July.
atterz
Posted 12th Oct 2011 at 19:57
