Slightly delayed update due to weddings, BBQs and riding bikes, but spent a few days last week working on my friend Matt's Golf. Excuse things hopping about a bit, but it's been a mental few days since this was all done and I seem to be missing a few photos. There were periods of nasty rain which stopped play, so in the end this lot was around 1.5 days work spread over almost 3 days, but given the messages I've had from Matt since he left it's been more than worth it.
After buying the car a few months ago, he was rear ended fairly badly and the car was written off due to the cost of repair. After some discussion, he received a decent payout and bought the car back for an absolute steal. Pair of second hand bumpers and a tailgate and the car sailed through an MOT and was back on the road again.
With things being back in a decent state, it was time to throw on some handling upgrades - these had all been planned to get done a little further down the line, but this seemed as good a time as any to get them done and the spare change from the insurance company covered the cost nicely, resulting in an essentially "free" setup. There's room for improvement with a couple of components down the line, notably coilovers for track use, but the kit we've fitted all gives good value for money to allow for a tidy setup with decidedly reasonable cost.
Once things have been brought up to a similar level power wise we can think about getting the car on track and get a better set of coils to suit. We've also got a set of newly refurbished LCR Brembos to go on the car, though need to track down some new pins, order some lines and find a free afternoon to get them sorted.
Anyway:
Mid morning - Autoglass called in to sort out a cracked windscreen on one Golf and it was time to get started on Matt's as well.
He'd turned up with a few parts to fit and a couple of days to spare and I'd promised to
help him fit it all plus show him how everything went together and
how to operate a spanner or two.
Started with the rear end, so to speak. Spring compressors on, springs out, dampers off with no snags. Only tricky bit was getting the top mounts off due to a lack of drop spanners at home - soon sorted that with a bit of thinking and some questionable tool usage.*
I don't think I've ever seen Brownie do any work on his own car before, usually opting to hand it over to a garage to get work done. Part of the reason he picked up the Mk4 was so he had a car he could learn to work on himself (a little like I'd done with the LCR) so I figured I'd get photographic proof in case it never happened again. Fortunately he proved that he's keen to get involved a little more on this one and did a damn good job of things after figuring out what everything is/does. rARB fitted along with rear coilover springs and struts.
A touch later, Craig arrived in his A3 to complete the 1.8t Trifecta. He's been having some boost leak issues so we had a quick look and gave everything a healthy squirt of fairy liquid to try and track them down, but couldn't find the culprit. Think I'll knock up a smoke/pressure tester at some point soon as I'd like to give my car a check over too really.
He lent a hand with Matt's car, which helped speed things along a touch as I could work on one side whilst Craig talked Matt through the other. Front hubs and struts off and a few other bits removed/loosened up. Had a few issues with tools for top mount bolts as so many people do (again, lack of drop spanners) so did things properly and took a grinder to a socket to make a pair of flats. Nice and easy.
At this point it was getting a little late, so we called it a night and had pizza and beers. Didn't end too well for Matt and come around 0300 he became a draft excluder.
Next morning, I headed out early to get started on the remaining front end stuff as we'd not made so much progress as I'd have liked the previous day.*
First up was to disconnect the steering rack so I could drop it with the subframe. The plan was to throw in an LCR quick rack along with the hubs etc to tighten things up a little. Unfortunately this didn't quite work out, but more on that in a bit.
With that sorted, I disconnected the remaining few bits up front and dropped the subframe.
With some trim out the way, I got underneath to pull out what Brownie had described as as a "weird noise for 30 seconds after a cold start" - aka leaky SAI pump. Not hard to see the issue here! N249 also bypassed; Engine bay looks a lot cleaner as a result, though I don't seem to have a photo to show this.
By the time Matt surfaced feeling vaguely human after the night before, it was almost time for lunch so we hopped in the car and popped to town to grab some munch. Some douche in a Focus had tried to claim several of the limited parking spaces on the high street so we boxed them in while we went for food
Back home, Matt had picked up an LCR steering rack to fit whilst the subframe was out and we were working in the area. Unfortunately, the seller had been an utter mong and only included half the bloody thing. We had a good look at the old/new racks to see if there was any way to move the required parts across, but it just wasn't going to happen. Annoying, but not the end of the world. Frustratingly one of the track rod ends on the old rack had been damaged duing removal so needed replacing and the new ones he'd bought for the LCR rack didn't fit (larger thread) so that was one part for the GSF list. Bit of a pain, but we'll hunt down another LCR rack down the line and get it on there - no rush to drop the subframe again any time too soon though.
When rebushing wishbones, most people remove old bushes using a press or proper tools and if they don't have those available will resort to drilling out the rubber and sawing out the race. I used the latter technique on my own wishbones last year, but this time around I took a different approach. Hub puller around the wishbone material, core pushed out with relative ease. That said, I have no vice so had to employ a couple of family members to stand on the wishbone to stop it moving! Front end is now all polybushed excluding the small dogbone bush and every nut and bolt replaced as you'd expect.
Subframe with old rack assembled with new fARB (a 23mm H&R offering, which should provide a nice balanced feel with the 25mm rear)
A little later, with a distinct lack of photos, front coilovers and Silver Project top mounts were on the car too along with the LCR hubs (with new bearings, centres and ABS sensors). That said, it was raining a lot and that led to a handful of breaks sheltering inside, so by the time we were done it was pretty dark. We called it a night at this point.
More food and drinks followed and I was pleasantly surprised to be beaten to the car by Matt the following morning who was fitting the set of aero wipers I'd got him for a bargain price on eBay.
Bonus shot of my forged engine STILL sat on a stand in the garage waiting to go into my LCR - slow progress still, though adapter plate is being water cut at present and DP flanges have been lasered - once I get my hands on those I can get the rest sorted (DP, intake etc) and hopefully things will move on a little more.
Checked over the previous night's work now that I could see it properly, all looking good to go. SP adjustable top mounts set to their most central position (stock) but fitted to give adjustability down the line when the car gets the odd run out on track.
Got the balljoints all connected up so that the hub were held nicely in place, then got the brakes on so we could give the hub nuts a good nip up.
Droplinks bolted up, all coming together nicely.
Steering rack reconnected, and all the fluid that I'd ditched whilst taking out the old rack replaced. Annoyingly had I known in advance I could have left the original rack in place from the start and not had to put in new fluid, but certainly no harm in putting fresh in there and bleeding it all through.
Got the track rod ends connected to the hubs and set up the alignment as best I could on a completely non-level surface with no tools etc. Surprisingly when Matt took the car to have it all done properly the following day caster and camber were almost bang on the figures we were after with just a little adjustment to toe as we expected (we'd guessed a small amount of toe out where we'd left it, and there was less than half a degree when checked so pretty happy given we didn't do any more than eyeball it)
Car back on wheels, suspension not yet settled down, of course, though it seems our guesswork was pretty close for front/rear ride height (~5mm lower at the rear at present) and side to side matches perfectly.
After a drive round the block to make sure there were no nasty knocks bangs or rattles, we went for a bit of a drive up on to Dartmoor. Had an ice cream over at Cadover Bridge, which was nice.
Back to mine to load up all his poo again after a few days of working on the car, drinking and dodging the all-too-frequent rain showers.
One very happy Brownie!
He's since driven back from Plymouth to Hampshire and the car's feeling good from all reports. Obviously a fair old change from the old, worn, stock setup but we've set it all to be fairly forgiving to start. There's scope to firm things up further down the line, and room for coilover upgrades down the line but for now it's all about getting to know the car a little before pushing things on a bit more.
