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The Car Thread


MadManMike

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Has anyone got any 15mm 5x112mm spacers I could borrow, think I'll just get through with 15mm but if I could try it first it'd be much obliged!

there's a set of VAG57.1mm centred spacers in my garage mate, but I can't for the life of me remember if they're double drilled or not for 5x112. I'll look tomorrow night when I get in, if they are I'll send them up.

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I just annihilated my credit card. :(

Powerflex front and rear lower arm bushes, Powerflex steering rack mount, Powerflex ARB bushes, Powerflex rear beam mount bushes, Powerflex front dogbone bush, an engine and a gearbox mount, a tube of Tiger Seal and a set of mats.

Cheers Amazon.

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Not saving for a new gearbox then?! :P

Still, sounds like a nice list of goodies. I bought a load of little bits for mine the other day, nothing exciting...but its nice to tie up some odd ends (pipe bungs for my intake pipe instead of spark plugs being one of the items haha!).

Always been intruiged by the idea of polybushed arb mounts and steering rack mounts...surely you can't actually feel any difference? I've seen lots of people talk about Tigersealing the standard engine mounts, might have to give that a go.

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Thanks Seamons, it is a pretty good list.

The way I see it is that it's a 10 year old car that's done 120K; it is going to feel better by fitting all these things regardless. Not many people change new bushes for polybushes; but I am certain there is improvement to be had. Especially in the lower arm bushes.

The front dogbone bush will also make a huge difference; that much is apparent from what has happened to my one.

The steering rack bush really helps if you spin the wheel up; it stops any unwanted knocking coming through the wheel apparently. I know the rack is bolted down; but it's mean to be better.

The ARB bushes on the other hand I doubt you could feel the benefit over standard; but for the sake of £6 difference I'd rather do them once.

The rear beam bushes make a huge difference; I plan to fill them with tiger seal too. As well as the engine mounts.

Yes Danny they do make inserts to take up the slack in original bushes; never been a fan of them myself. Not sure why. :)

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Obviously; but I was referring new for new with regards to minimal benefit on the roll bar bushes. :)

Also the bar is designed to flex so there is an element of suppleness within the bushes to smooth the transition between side loads. I am not sure how much of that is going to translate to driving feel; but yeah old to new it should be very different.

Edited by Pashley26
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Regardless of them being polybushed or not, renewing that many bushes will totally transform the car. I remember doing just the rear beam bushes on my Toledo, and it tightened the back end up no end.

I always thought polybushes in the rear beam were bad though...omething to do with the twisting forces not working in the poly? Everybody seemed to recommend Cupra R bushes, so that's what I did in my Toledo. I keep meaning to polybush my wishbones, but I always seem to find something else to spend the money on!

When you say "front" dogbone bush, what do you mean?

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Dogbone mount has two bushes.

The standard brick shaped rear one which is in two pieces and a front bush which bolts to the box. You can buy a polybush for the front mount which makes it solid and tightens it up quite well.

ECS tested it and with a new standard mount the engine moved 40* apparently and with a rear dogbone bush that was reduced to 21* then with a completely polybushed mount it went down to 16* or something.

Found the info on the ECS mount which is basically just a polybushed standard mount.

MKIV_ECS_Dogbone_TransmissionMount.jpg

Edited by Pashley26
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You have to cut the rubber out...Or in my case keep driving until it falls out.

The 6 year old 100k+ one that I took out (which was in Prawns car for years) despite being a Powerflex it was ruined. Far too soft; I have put a race use diesel one in which is supposed to be a little stiffer than a normal petrol one whilst not being too stiff like the petrol race one.

You guys might be wondering why I need "race" stuff for a road car; launch control. It ruins everything that isn't bolted down!

Edited by Pashley26
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Not sure I'd agree that stiffer ARB bush's aren't worth while. They will act to stiffen the ARB, which if it's what you want could well be a good thing. You've basically just got to think of the bushes and the ARB as 2 springs which are in series. If you place springs in series then they're combined stiffness is softer than that of either spring alone*. Replacing the bushes with a much stiffer material can effectively increase the ARB's rate quite a lot. Admittedly this is only relevant until the bush flexes to it's full extent, but then body-roll mid corner shouldn't really be a huge deflection of the suspension anyway. It can be a handy way of balancing the cars handling a bit more for cheep too. (i.e. only polybushing the rear ARB instead of uprating the bar its self.) Admittedly I've not tried it my self, and it'll depend a lot on the bush design, but on some cars they are supposed to make a noticeable difference. If it's only £6 difference like Jardo says I'd probably do the same as him about go for poly ones.

Speaking of which I had a go at casting polyurethane the other day, cool stuff to use and I'm quite tempted to have a go at making some bushes at some point in the future. Just need to work out what for!

*The combined spring rate = (1/spring 'a' + 1/spring 'b')^-1 (exactly the same calculation as electrical resistance in parallel)

Edited by RobinJI
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In my allbeit fairly limited experience poly bushes made a large difference to my xr2 but that's probably because its a stage car and normal bushes get destroyed after 2 or 3 rally's and the car starts to feel sloppy whereas the polys take a beating better. I also fitted them to my saxo daily a few years and they made absolutely no difference whatsoever. I'm sure it depends alot on the car and what you use it for. On a road car if your bushes need replaced I would say its worth the extra few quid to go for polys.

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If Prawn is reading this, FYI the Tornado F1 soft tyre results in hopelessly inaccurate steering. I've never come across anything like it, it completely ruined my car when used on the rear. Can't imagine how bad it would be on the front wheels. The car feels like it's floating or riding on jelly, you turn the wheel and then wait for a response. It's literally that bad. I aimed a GoPro at the tyres to see how they behaved on cornering and they're stiff, it must be the thread that's moving about. Changed back to 595's straight away. I guess I misused these tyres, they're probably designed for heavy rain and dirty surfaces, tried it in the dirt and they are really good, very good on wet asphalt too under acceleration. Need to get in touch with Profil and ask about this.

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Bought myself a mk3 golf estate, do not ask why, i hate mk3's. Its a 2L Gti and cost me 550 with a Vento front end so will fit it tomorrow, Ill get some before and after pics.

Its also got a MotoGP exhaust on it, why is beyond me. Car is clean body wise, no rust all electric, not bad inertia for a mk3. Paint needs a G3 buff up but not many scuffs really, no dents.
"Full" service history from new. coil-overs, mk2 steels. The gayest sub-woofer creation thing i have seen.

Basically the plan is to slam the shit out of it and put it on banded steels and maybe paint the roof black as the bonnet is black(with some siht pin-stripe thing on).
De-sticker the whole thing also is a must, the back-window has some good ones, but never been a fan of stickers on cars.


I'm sure Pashley will have some kind advice for me ({)

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