Poly suspension bushes

[Gti Gerbil]

So far i have fitted a new staaring rack and arms, new coilovers, new top mounts, new ball joints, new roll bar bushes and drop links.

Still i dont feel the car turns in right, had it set up at elite in rainham, their mechanic said there was nothing wrong with it, just needed setting up. But still i think the front understeers too much.

The guy from elite suggested fitting poly bushes on the front wishbones.

Anyone else dont this and if so was it difficult ?

[rob.043]

What car is it?

poly bushes will help sharpen the experience. Are you on good tyres?

Or is the problem only on a diesel covered roundabout?

[Gti Gerbil]

Its a mk3 golf gti (i can almost hear the sighs already) 8V

Its on 17's with 215/40/17 tyres, same medium priced brand all round
JOM coilovers
JOM front and rear strut braces


And today it got a new "habit" of cutting out for maybe a quarter of a second every now and then, when it does this the rev counter needle drops straight to 0 even with the car in gear and the engine turning then it just cuts back in as if nothing has happened.

[Wayne]

I would forget poly bushes and switch back to 16" wheels.

[DOA]

The bushes wont stop understeer though they will make the front end a wee bit sharper and more consistent. As for the understeer problem, thats rather more complicated and a lot more difficult to diagnose without knowing where it understeers, what your driving style is like etc etc  .

[tech1889]

uprated ARB.. use some decent coilovers.. good quality tyres like toyo t1r's

[i_am_me]

ive put poly bushes on my mk2 and it did improve the steering,didn't stop the under steer but made it feel more crisp and firm.and felt like it improved the accelerating and braking stability because of the reduced movement.
bushes were easy to fit on the mk2(think mk3`s are nearly the same)i used a hole boring drill bit to remove most of the rubber on the bigger bushes then hack-sawed out the metal cage that surrounds the bushes.
then used a couple of different sized sockets and a bench vice to push out the smaller bushes.andused a socket and the bench vice to press the new ones in.

[Gti Gerbil]

ty i am me, was more the method of how to do the job and any aggro involved.

going to do the bushes and uprate the arb this month

my driving style is quite smooth (no erratic motions) whilst pushing, I tend to brake right into the apex then on the gas coming out. trying to acheive a little oversteer on the trailing throttle coming in and a stable pull out of the corner under gas.

[DOA]

A front ARB should only make it understeer more.......

If the understeer is happening at turn in and your man says the geometry is fine/has set the geometry up fully then its most likely the round black things, crappy coilovers that are too stiff/underdamped or your driving style.

You say the tyres are "medium priced brand all round". Does this mean they are some brand you have never heard of before as these tend to be complete rubbish when compared to proper tyres and it might be as simple as putting two proper tyres on the front end.

You could try adding a touch of toe out at the front end and a bit more negative camber which should help turn in a tad but this can make a car wander quite a bit over the kind of roads I like to play on and will do very little of any use if the tyres are crap anyway.

A final point is your driving style. Do you use heel and toe at all? It helps massively on my mk2 to let me load the front end up fully whilst not pissing the front tyres off with banging down through the gears, as does blipping the throttle on downshifts when I dont really need the brakes and also left foot braking if you know you are not going to need a lower gear to pull you out of the corner and just need a dab of brakes.

I would still look into the tyres first though  .

[danny_p]

cheep coilover fail,   there desinged to be cheep and let you lower it lots not go round corners,  get some bilstine b6 or b8 struts and decent springs,  decent round black things and a bit more negative camber.

then experiment with steering and pedal inputs  they will turn in.

if you want to make it more kart like attack the rear beam with camber adjustment plates but put them in upside down to loose the negative camber off the rear if you like a loose tail