understeer!!!

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mikeyp

New Member
thanks again for the input guys!

yeah a bit more oversteer is what i'm after. i'd rather have to catch oversteer than to hope the front end will go where i want it to.
i can get my tracking done for free as i have a mate with a garage who is happy to do little things like that for me.

so far this is what i think i should be aiming for... (before testing of course)
raise ride height by 10mm front and 15mm rear
set my front camber to around -1 but also play with this to judge effects of change.
get the car tracked to 0deg toe and see how that goes
change my tyre pressures to 36f 32r

well even if that setup isn't right, at least i now know where the areas of adjustment are and i can play with the setup till it works for me.
right off to search for the caster mod.
 
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mikeyp

New Member
that caster mod seems like a great idea, i'm going to have a go at that while i'm doing the other work on my car next week. i found another mod refered to as the "coarse camber mod" but i can't find any details on it, just people saying to search for it and that it can help with camber adjustment after the castor mod.
any idea what is involved?
 
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mikeyp

New Member
wow super simple. i won't rush into doing that mod untill i know what camber i can set once i have done the castor mod.
thanks again, your a mine of useful info when it comes to suspension :lol:
 
campbellju

campbellju

Moderators
Staff member
mikeyp said:
untill i know what camber i can set once i have done the castor mod.
Click to expand...
Nothing, the disadvantage of the caster mod is camber has to be set at the bottom rather the top so you need to do this mod at the same time. This isn't that bad though as changing camber at the bottom minimises the KPI (King pin inclination) change. Too much KPI and caster gives a numb feel to your steering.
 
M

mikeyp

New Member
campbellju said:
Nothing, the disadvantage of the caster mod is camber has to be set at the bottom rather the top so you need to do this mod at the same time. This isn't that bad though as changing camber at the bottom minimises the KPI (King pin inclination) change. Too much KPI and caster gives a numb feel to your steering.
Click to expand...
ah interesting..
is the slotted hole a problem over rough roads? will it shift if you hit a pot hole etc?
 
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mikeyp

New Member
right so while i've been taking my car apart to fix the engine, i've been looking at the suspension up close and comparing things side to side.
i think the front left swing arm has been changed recently as it's cleaner than i would expect and cleaner than the other side and i noticed that that hub had quite a lot of positive camber on it.

the antiroll bar is slighltly offset to the right too with it being closer to the chassis leg on the left side than the right. also the bend just before the chassis mounts is offset to the right on both mounts.
i've measured the chassis and side to side (the bits that do compare) they are the same. the mounts and all metalwork looks fine and has not been worked on and it not misshapen.

so i think that the swing arm is the wrong part! i'm going to measure it and see if it's the same dimentions as the opposite one and report back.
are the GTI swing arms different to the GTIR? maybe the last owner put one of them on cos it was cheaper and bolted up to the mounts?

back in 5 with some measurements...
 
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mikeyp

New Member
hmm. seems they both measure the same lengeth but then i started to look at the angles. seems the tip (where the ball join is mounted) on the left swing arm is bent up by about 6mm. so i think this could well be the cause of my problems, or at least it can't be helping.

great, another part to add to the list. well good at least i know what's wrong now and a new swing arm isn't going to cost the earth. shame i can't swap it out now and test it going to be at least a week till the test drive.
 
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