Ooookay time for more updates!!
Had a busy weekend on this car!
FIRST AND FOREMOST, thread shoutout to Jay745 & Das Gespenst (better known as Jay and Carson) from Chicagoland for helping me out on installing all the stuff known below. Top notch work, both are great guys! We had a pretty serious issue arise midway through (bolt broke inside control arm which meant we had to drop the cradle to extract) but these guys took the punch without wincing, even though it turned a 5 hour job to a 10 hour job. They know sooo much about these cars, they know most torque specs off hand and all the correct procedures to do anything suspension, clutches, turbos, meth systems, timing systems you name it! Totally recommend them to anyone strapped for time & space or expertise to do some of these jobs; their pricing is great and they generally meet you in the middle from what the dealer would charge respectively. Win win for all.
At any rate!
Yesterday we all got together and installed:
vwr springs
tyrolsport deadset subframe front kit
KMD tuning front stress bar (and the bolt for the control arm you tie into for this is what was seized and broke on us, so be careful if you go for the same bar!
powerflex antilift kit for the front arms
dsg service and Re-learn
aurora spherical bushings installed in both the rear control arms and rear toe arms.
10mm & 15mm spacers for the wheels
Superpro adjustable front endlinks
Some stretch bolts
New front strut mounts
Think thats it?? Lol.
Overall the install went super smooth, I usually do all my own work on my cars, but decided to have jay and Carson do this one for/with me, since there was so much involved and it only made sense to do it all at once for alignments sake. Plus no room for such a project at my house currently.
Initial impressions:
Holy crap what a drop with these springs!
I was expecting a super harsh ride with all the above in the car, alot more NVH, and generally feeling the road much more. But to my surprise, none of the above!
Springs: Awesome feel to these, seriously no stiffer feeling of a ride than before, just tighter, if that makes sense. Does not allow as much body roll, but takes bumps just as good or better than my stock springs. Obvious handling benefits are obvious.
Deadset kit: YES YES YES. Totally killed all drivetrain slop. NO NVH. In fact, with full 034 mounts and HPA puck, I already had some NVH prior but now it's gone. Unreal. Shifts are more direct, no feeling anything rock back and forth when on and off the gas. Love it.
Endlinks: Seemed to be the best for the money and I found no horror stories on these vs the whitelines and others, so went with these. adjustments are super easy, we will see how they hold up!
Anti lift kit: Hello traction! Yes, you can seriously feel a difference with the added caster, not to mention lack of soft OEM control arm bushings! Would recommend, these are also supposed to help limit understeer, which i have not pushed the car yet.
Spherical bushings in the rear: Again was totally expecting to feel like a railcart offroading with these but nope, nothing added whatsoever. I can feel the rear more, the softness i had going through corners prior is gone. These are totally kickass.
Front stressbar: To tie the control arms together in the front and limit flexing. It helps aid the positive theory of having a soft suspension and stiff chassis. Can feel the difference. For 89 bucks, and comes with arp bolts. recommend.
DSG re-learn was seriously needed. Before i had delays between shifts often, and when creeping the whole car would shake. I hated it and was really starting to dislike the DSG. Now everything is butter smooth and as i always wanted it to be. Anyone with a dsg that hasn't done this - do it.
Spacers: 10MM up front with my MK7R wheels don't rub, but the rear 15mm's were making them rub like a lonely man on a friday night. Will have to replace with 10mm later. maybe even 5.