torga
Autocross Champion
Thanks! It kind of happened by accident. That's exactly how I wanted it to turn out, but I just don't exactly know how to replicate it.
6
torga's Daily Build - black, 6mt, two-door shenanigans
- Thread starter torga
- Start date
torga
Autocross Champion
I was finally able to swap out my old FK Streetlines for some rebuilt KW V3 coils this past weekend. Spent a good chunk of Saturday wrenching with a buddy at a local DIY bay/tool rental place. Didn't really take any pics during the install, I just get too focused (would make a terrible vlogger/YouTuber). Didn't have to deal with any rust or seizing whatsoever -- the front strut bodies just slipped right out of the hub after spreading it apart with the strut spreader. I slathered the KW strut bodies in anti-seize for good measure.
The hilarious bit was finding out that my toe was horribly off. Y'all, it was so bad, I was running massive toe out and it took all my concentration just to stay in my lane. As I didn't touch the tie rods at all, it must've all come from the SuperPro ball joints. I assumed I had them angled a bit without realizing. Drove home, parked it, didn't move it til it was time to head to the alignment shop. Probably took a month off the tires
Here's the before/after of the toe.
Here's the one photo of the day, which my buddy took. I had the car on the rack to adjust the preload on the sway bars.
Overall impressions are night and day. Yet again, proving that you get what you pay for. My old FKs were horribly bouncy over almost any road feature. Turns out the rear shocks were actually a bit gone, but the coils have felt this way since day one. I bought the car with them installed and they had about 5-8k miles on them at that point.
The KWs are so fucking GOOD. They tackle everything in stride! The car is super predictable now. I dialed in KW's suggested bound/rebound settings before install. Rebound feels perfect, as the car settles very quickly after any sort of imperfection. I think I may have to soften up the bound a bit, as there's a good jolt when going over quick/sharp features, like road seams, lane divider pucks or pot holes.
Overall, very very pleased with this set. The car is finally starting to feel like a cohesive thing. Next big performance mod will be brakes. I'm in the process of collecting parts for a Golf R brake upgrade.
Only one thing wrong with these coils, and one install complaint. The thing wrong is the set screw thread on the RF spring perch is a bit done. I'm gonna go back in soon to tap for the next largest set screw. The annoying thing was the rear spring perches are poorly designed, imo. The actual perch is the only component with ridges for an adjustment wrench, while the threaded body has nowhere to grip. Even with the pressure of the installed spring, the whole assembly would spin while trying to adjust the perch. I ended up having to counterhold the threaded body with a universal oil filter wrench to be able to adjust height.
Here's what I'm talking about.
Here's what I'm talking about.
The hilarious bit was finding out that my toe was horribly off. Y'all, it was so bad, I was running massive toe out and it took all my concentration just to stay in my lane. As I didn't touch the tie rods at all, it must've all come from the SuperPro ball joints. I assumed I had them angled a bit without realizing. Drove home, parked it, didn't move it til it was time to head to the alignment shop. Probably took a month off the tires
Here's the before/after of the toe.
Here's the one photo of the day, which my buddy took. I had the car on the rack to adjust the preload on the sway bars.
Overall impressions are night and day. Yet again, proving that you get what you pay for. My old FKs were horribly bouncy over almost any road feature. Turns out the rear shocks were actually a bit gone, but the coils have felt this way since day one. I bought the car with them installed and they had about 5-8k miles on them at that point.
The KWs are so fucking GOOD. They tackle everything in stride! The car is super predictable now. I dialed in KW's suggested bound/rebound settings before install. Rebound feels perfect, as the car settles very quickly after any sort of imperfection. I think I may have to soften up the bound a bit, as there's a good jolt when going over quick/sharp features, like road seams, lane divider pucks or pot holes.
Overall, very very pleased with this set. The car is finally starting to feel like a cohesive thing. Next big performance mod will be brakes. I'm in the process of collecting parts for a Golf R brake upgrade.
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uglybastard
Autocross Champion
i can show you later.
torga
Autocross Champion
Today I adjusted the RF suspension height, which ended up settling just a bit higher than the left after a week of driving around. Also got underneath to double check the torque on my ball joints, and they were all under torqued. Brought them up to spec and that should hopefully keep my camber settings stable.
Also installed a little in-line filter for my boost gauge.
Also installed a little in-line filter for my boost gauge.
KollinWithaK
Autocross Champion
Missing a hub cap up front?
torga
Autocross Champion
Nah, it was just off so I could try to muscle the extra 180° on the axle bolts.
torga
Autocross Champion
Yesterday, I got my Mk7 GTI wheel installed. For the airbag, I opted for the later Mk7.5 patterned one (Mk7 is smooth in the center). I was bracing to potentially have non-functioning buttons or lights but there was only one way to find out... and to my surprise, everything worked flawlessly! The only bummer is the loss of the mute button -- I used it fairly frequently. Hopefully there's a way to enable it again somehow.
Removing the airbag was a bit of a pain in the ass, getting the right angle on the retainer bars and all. Since it's an airbag, I was trying to pull on it pretty gently and was getting nowhere. I was doing the right thing, but turns out I just needed to put more muscle into it. Popped off really easily with a firm yank. I didn't have a short-enough screwdriver or pry-bar for the bars, so I used a .035" shim from my shim set - worked great. Here's a pic from my propped-up mirror so I could see what I was doing.
And here's a final pic! Pardon the messy interior. Soon I'd like to get a stitch-on suede cover to make this into a pseudo-Clubsport wheel.
But until then, it's looking sweeeeeet. Really polishes up the interior, imo.
While I waited for the electrical system to discharge before disconnecting the airbag, I got underneath to adjust the bound settings on my KWs. I set them up to the baseline that KW suggests, which ended up being ~80% hard. It felt great dynamics-wise, but certain road features were feeling just a bit too sharp. So I toned them down to ~50% hard. Took a quick drive around and I think that may have done the trick. I'll know for sure after I drive around some more familiar routes later this week. For now, I've left the rebound settings as-is; they're roughly ~70% hard up front and ~50% hard in the rear.
Removing the airbag was a bit of a pain in the ass, getting the right angle on the retainer bars and all. Since it's an airbag, I was trying to pull on it pretty gently and was getting nowhere. I was doing the right thing, but turns out I just needed to put more muscle into it. Popped off really easily with a firm yank. I didn't have a short-enough screwdriver or pry-bar for the bars, so I used a .035" shim from my shim set - worked great. Here's a pic from my propped-up mirror so I could see what I was doing.
And here's a final pic! Pardon the messy interior. Soon I'd like to get a stitch-on suede cover to make this into a pseudo-Clubsport wheel.
But until then, it's looking sweeeeeet. Really polishes up the interior, imo.
While I waited for the electrical system to discharge before disconnecting the airbag, I got underneath to adjust the bound settings on my KWs. I set them up to the baseline that KW suggests, which ended up being ~80% hard. It felt great dynamics-wise, but certain road features were feeling just a bit too sharp. So I toned them down to ~50% hard. Took a quick drive around and I think that may have done the trick. I'll know for sure after I drive around some more familiar routes later this week. For now, I've left the rebound settings as-is; they're roughly ~70% hard up front and ~50% hard in the rear.
brat_burner
Autocross Champion
Nice, where did you source the airbag/price?
torga
Autocross Champion
Took kind of a risk with eBay. I found a seller with a good reputation and a history of selling new, OEM airbags. I spent a few hours finding every photo I could of this airbag and playing "find the difference" to make sure everything matched up. It was around $220 after tax. Much easier to swallow than $820+ from the dealer.
KollinWithaK
Autocross Champion
Looks great.
uglybastard
Autocross Champion
price seems appropriate based on a local seller i have dealt with. nice, man!
torga
Autocross Champion
Got to change my oil yesterday -- 5W40 Leichtlauf and a Hengst filter -- so I did some housekeeping and record keeping. Checked for leaks and wet spots and such.
The turbo outlet to IC adapter is leaking a bit, was pretty moist at the connection. For now, I ordered a new o-ring and retaining clip, but I really don't like that I have to use that setup. I don't trust the connection and feel like that's the weakest link between my turbo and the throttle body. If the new seal and clip don't take care of this for a while, I'm gonna hunt for someone who's decent at aluminum welding so that they can just weld the turbo outlet adapter to the outlet pipe. That'll take care of the connection once and for all.
In slightly worse news, I've got a slow coolant leak. Dunno if it's coming from the water pump itself, or if one of the rad hose connections are leaking, but it's definitely coming from that area. I didn't have enough time to get more into this when I had the car up yesterday, so I'll circle back to it. The leak is very slow (for now).
In better news, replacing the upper timing cover back in Dec was definitely the right move. It was causing a leak down the side of the block, which then got caught by the oil pan and got taken all around the pan perimeter. So I actually wasn't sure whether the leak was also the oil pan when I decided to replace the timing cover. Timing cover had to be replaced either way as it was definitely sweating/leaking from the top.
The oil pan perimeter was bone dry yesterday, so I'm all good there.
The turbo outlet to IC adapter is leaking a bit, was pretty moist at the connection. For now, I ordered a new o-ring and retaining clip, but I really don't like that I have to use that setup. I don't trust the connection and feel like that's the weakest link between my turbo and the throttle body. If the new seal and clip don't take care of this for a while, I'm gonna hunt for someone who's decent at aluminum welding so that they can just weld the turbo outlet adapter to the outlet pipe. That'll take care of the connection once and for all.
In slightly worse news, I've got a slow coolant leak. Dunno if it's coming from the water pump itself, or if one of the rad hose connections are leaking, but it's definitely coming from that area. I didn't have enough time to get more into this when I had the car up yesterday, so I'll circle back to it. The leak is very slow (for now).
In better news, replacing the upper timing cover back in Dec was definitely the right move. It was causing a leak down the side of the block, which then got caught by the oil pan and got taken all around the pan perimeter. So I actually wasn't sure whether the leak was also the oil pan when I decided to replace the timing cover. Timing cover had to be replaced either way as it was definitely sweating/leaking from the top.
The oil pan perimeter was bone dry yesterday, so I'm all good there.
Looks great. Agree that it looks very OEM+.