Well as above car is back on the road.
Got a Seat technician to press in the bushes to the swing arms (with a massive pole and a big assed vice, not way I could have done this at home) and these were fitted with new bolts to the sub frame. the rear subframe bushes were not chnaged this time but will be changed soon. These are £35 a piece so a little bit too much just now to change.
The track rod ends were removed, these were very difficult to do but with a bit of heat and determination they were measured, marked removed and new ones fitted in place. It was very difficult to tell if the hubs were pointed bead ahead so the rod ends were fitted in the same place as before and tightened inplace.
I didn't get all that I wanted to change done because I was in a bit of a hurry to get the car back on the road for a track day at Knockhill with Scottish VAG. During the refit it was becoming more aparent that the track day wasn't going to happen for various reasons. So I dropped that idea.
The subframe was shown up to the car, in the ELSAWIN
guide there is a dolly frame and rear subframe mount guides, these would have made the job so much easier.
so without these pieces this was a PITA to do. With the dolly frame the mount would be lifted square and the guides would do the alignment bit. But without these and only my trolleyjack and my unwilling dad as
help it was difficult. The worst bit was the steering rack TBH. As I had fitted a 23mm ARB this wasn't leaving as much space for the rack so had to remove the drivers side of the ARB to get the rack fitted inplace. I really didn't want to have to do this cause fitting the ARB bushes and clamps is a total PITA. But the subframe was bolted up, the rack was bolted and so was the ARB, eventually!!
With all of this back together the DBM was fitted. Using ELSAWIN as reference there was not torque settings for the bolts from this to the gear box. decided to use 17 ft-lbs with 90 degree further rotation to stretch fit the bolts. when doing this there was a dodgy cracking sound which I initially thought was the DBM. this later proved to be me stripping the threads in the forward mounting point. these are getting helicoiled on Wednesday.
With the track rod ends done it was time to fit the 2 piece discs.
This kit requires a calliper spacer, as these bolts had never been out before, they were a bit tight. Thankfully the Seat/Brembo designers decided that this needed to be a 10mm Allen key headed cap screw, anything smaller and I think it would have broken. With the calliper off the mounts it was obvious that I have a slight leak on one of the 4 pots, ELSAWIN has the stripping
guide to this so yet another job on the list.
The discs fitted very well and this job was a breeze.
Next the wheels were fitted then the alignment started to show, it was very toe out on the drivers side. The place that I ws getting the alignment done was 60 miles away so it would have to be a gentle trip to there.
Well all in all this was a bit of a difficult job to do but very worth while.
The car feels so much better in the corners but due to the DBM issue I've been very careful so far. The brakes felt great from the offset but due to the DBM and winter tyres the full bed in schedule will have to wait a bit. I had hoped that the knock I was getting would have gone with the bits I have fitted but it aint.
I still have to change the outer CV joints anyway so these and the ball joints will be the next big thing. Hopefully this should cure the knock.