Len405 - mk3 16v

[Len]

Just been and picked em up from Billy. Mmmm look gorgeous!
How can you drool over a set of springs and shocks!

[Len]

Well I kinda chickened out yesterday! Decided to leave fitting the coilovers until next weekend.
There is a good reason, the car is in the paintshop for a bit of work and therefore I cant drive it to bed them in! And I really want to bed them in before I get the geometry checked.

I did do something yesterday - cleaned the K & N.
Boy was that dirty! Used the K & N cleaning kit and followed the instructions, hope it was fully dry!

[Len]

Well I had the remap done today!
car feels 10 times better, much greater and faster response.
Sounds louder too, which I cant quite work out why!

No figures to report so whens the next RR day!

[Len]

Well I chickened out and didnt fit the coilovers at the weekend.
Decided it was a bit dicey due to holiday. If I had run into problems etc. and I wouldnt be able to drive it around to settle in and not get the geometyr sorted. So small postponement for now.

[Len]

Was meant to do coilies last weekend but illness got the better of me!

So its Easter and will do them 2moro, Good Friday.

[Len]

Well the front is done!

Just such hard work!

Oh I have heard several people say you dont need spring compressors! OH YES you do!
Not for taking them out, but for stripping the original struts for the bits you need.

I thought I was being clever to get the ride height! I put the wheel back on, just a couple of nuts hand tightened and then with a jack under the bottom wishbone lifted up the wheel until the car just moved off the axle stand. Did this on the first side to a height I thought was about right, took a few measurements and set the other side the same.
Didnt work out when I actually dropped the car on the floor though!!!!
So its a bit low at the front atm!
Doing the rear tomorrow so will wait and see if that raises the front a tad, as atm its very nose down!

[Len]

Darn! Been trying to get some photos out of my phone! This new one dont wanna play! Bugger!
Will take some pics before I start tomorrow.

[Len]

Did the rears on Saturday. Loads of niggly problems, like as the struts are shorter on the nearside you have a problem with the bottom bolt fouling the exhaust back box! So if like me you chose to do up the offside first, the bottom bolt on the nearside wouldnt go in!
So I had to undo the top mount on the offside so the beam would drop down to allow me to fit the nearside bottom bolt!

Grrrrrrrr!

Plus things like the instructions saying to strip the old struts to fit the bumpstops and cover, but when you try to fit these onto the coilovers you find they wont go inside the springs! Bah!

So just a load of wasted time and effort! But if I was doing it again............


Oh I figured out why my little ruse didnt work on setting the ride height on the front! The anti-roll bar!
If I had jacked up both lower wishbones at the same time then it would have, but singly the anti-roll bar acted in its normal way.

[Len]

Reset the height yesterday morning. Took me about an hour doing the front first then the back to match.

Got a bit of a problem on the front in that its slightly different height side to side, but am going to wait until I have the geometry realigned on saturday before I check it again and make any final adjustments.

Car feels great to drive now! No more body roll.
Waiting for a dry day to check the roadholding!

[Len]

Getting tracking etc. done in the morning and will then do a final measure check to ensure car is level.

In meantime here are a few pics!