Sean's Shadow Blue GTI

smanierre said:

The struts themselves adjust a good amount. I'll try to remember to take measurements this weekend to see how much it moves from bottom to top

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I found this ultra no-frills video on preload adjustment from ISC. Exact numbers may be different for YCW, but the process should be the same.

Got my Powerflex Black ALK, Powerflex black front LCA bushings, passat control arms, and KMD Tuning subframe brace installed. Two of the bolts snapped off in the drivers subframe cradle when removing them so I had to wait for a new one to come in. After that the installation was pretty straight forwards, was just a pain to get the front LCA bushings in with one of the sides being metal. Once I get it started though I was able to use a jack and a hammer to get it into position. Traction feels better so far, although it's been raining here the past few days so I don't know how it compares to dry yet. The true test will be the spring when I get a new set of Indy's and get my suspension all dialed in (camber & corner balance). I'll try to get pics of all the parts sometime soon, but was soaking wet at midnight and had no motivation to do anything but sleep.

How's the subframe brace? You mentioned it a few days ago and I looked it up, having never heard of the brand. I saw that they offer a front and rear and I like the idea of low-key braces. I don't want a Unibrace or a TyrolSport brace taking up practical room in my hatch.

If you hadn't had to wait on a new subframe cradle, how long do you think this job took? Also, what did you do to get the front position bushings off the Passat arms? I have a set myself that I have yet to strip and clean for this job.

torga said:

How's the subframe brace? You mentioned it a few days ago and I looked it up, having never heard of the brand. I saw that they offer a front and rear and I like the idea of low-key braces. I don't want a Unibrace or a TyrolSport brace taking up practical room in my hatch.

If you hadn't had to wait on a new subframe cradle, how long do you think this job took? Also, what did you do to get the front position bushings off the Passat arms? I have a set myself that I have yet to strip and clean for this job.

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The install is really easy if you're already doing the control arms, it adds no time at all. No idea how much of a difference it made yet since it was wet last night and I didn't wanna try any hard cornering. I mostly got it because it was cheap and someone said they felt a good difference from it, I think it may have been Jay. I would say 30/side for getting off the old LCAs, and then 1 hour/side for putting the new ones on so 3 hours total. Probably less than that but it was a bit tricky getting those in, and just making sure all the bolts were torqued correctly. I took the LCAs to a shop and just had them remove the old bushings and put on the new ones for me, didn't feel like doing it myself.

smanierre said:

The install is really easy if you're already doing the control arms, it adds no time at all. No idea how much of a difference it made yet since it was wet last night and I didn't wanna try any hard cornering. I mostly got it because it was cheap and someone said they felt a good difference from it, I think it may have been Jay. I would say 30/side for getting off the old LCAs, and then 1 hour/side for putting the new ones on so 3 hours total. Probably less than that but it was a bit tricky getting those in, and just making sure all the bolts were torqued correctly. I took the LCAs to a shop and just had them remove the old bushings and put on the new ones for me, didn't feel like doing it myself.

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That's fair, I might have someone remove them for me and I'll put them on myself. I had to burn/drill out two massive bushings for my Celica's LCAs and that was a massive PITA - I don't wanna do that again.
I'm already doing the TT-RS bushings myself. I'm buying just the bushing, so I'll have to press out the stock one and press in the TT-RS bushing myself. That should be fun.

Ordered a new ECU from someone on facebook as a last ditch effort to fix my O2 sensor issues. Turns out that was the trick. Before I had P0140 and P0141 which is no sensor activity and heater circuit issue. I'm fairly positive the issue came from wiring up the sensor incorrectly and sending 12v to the ECU when it's only expecting ~5. I still have to get rid of the P0420 code for low cat efficiency but i'm working on that and will post an update if/when i get it sorted.

Pic of car just because

did you wind up rolling your fenders? curious if you would have had to roll if you were on stock height with the 255/35-18 & 18x8.5+45

kyoo said:

did you wind up rolling your fenders? curious if you would have had to roll if you were on stock height with the 255/35-18 & 18x8.5+45

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I did. My passenger one got pretty messed up and was rubbing a lot until I rolled them. If going with a setup like this I would definitely recommend rolling them.

smanierre said:

I did. My passenger one got pretty messed up and was rubbing a lot until I rolled them. If going with a setup like this I would definitely recommend rolling them.

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thanks, that's helpful. even with stock suspension where the car would ride higher? i'll def add some camber to mitigate as well

kyoo said:

thanks, that's helpful. even with stock suspension where the car would ride higher? i'll def add some camber to mitigate as well

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Not to jack the thread, but you can use this calculator to compare tire/wheel sizes. So if you enter what you have now and what you want to switch to, it'll show you comparisons between the two. This'll help show you if you'll ride higher, have a wider track, etc.

^^^ That and also willtheyfit.com is a good one that i've used that also shows distance to/from the strut

^^^ That and also wheel-size.com because they have tons of info and their graphic is excellent.

Someone near me was selling a roof rack that I scooped up. Definitely like the way it looks on the car and now I can move around our kayaks. I gotta get the peeling paint above my windshield taken care of since it's starting to rust. I may just sand it a bit, hit it with a touch up pen then get the whole roof wrapped black since that's on the list eventually. Also one of my winter tires went flat hence the different wheel in the back. Going to be getting new summer tires soon and once I get those gonna toss on the BBK hopefully.

Did a little spring cleaning yesterday. Still gotta buy the new rubber for them but once I get that they'll be mostly good to go. I did notice that one of them has what looks like a bend on the back side, would that be worth getting fixed before having the tires mounted? I didn't notice any weird wear on that tire. Also took the restrictor out of my O2 spacer and reinstalled that. On the stock tune and no code with the o2 sensor readiness set. Just gotta wait for the evap system to show ready and i'll take it down to get emissions done. Only 3 years late ?.

Mostly finished everything up today. I couldn't push back the parking brake caliper piston enough so right now I just have the caliper mounted with no pads in there. I'm just parking it in gear and avoiding parking on inclines. The geniuses at auto zone gave me a caliper tool that was missing pieces so I could only push back the caliper with my huge muscles instead of using science or some shit. I got a replacement kit though so i'll do that whenever I feel like jacking the car up again. On the first brake, one of the bleeding nipples was clogged so I had to take a tooth pick to punch it out then blow through it, brake fluid takes like shit btw. After that the bleeding went smoothly, did my clutch too just because. The pedal is definitely softer than before and I did my best to bed the brakes but it was hard with not many straight aways and a lot of traffic. Basically getting to 60 on every small straight on back roads and slamming the brakes before I went into a tree. Once they get a bit more broken in i'll decide if I need a master cylinder upgrade to improve the feel. And now for pics, the 10mm and 6mm spacers front and rear really make it look thiccccc, along with the 255 tires, I love it. I'll try and get some pictures head on in the next few days to really show off the meat.