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dirk1978's 02 blue Lupo GTi


dirk1978
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15 hours ago, Y2ACP said:

Looks great,hope your not going too low with the coilovers.

Definitely not. Not a fan of overly low cars. It just needed some new suspension anyway and there's not a lot of point putting standard stuff on when the GTI is a bit too high by today's standards and the rear even looks a bit silly sometimes. I think the Vogtland kit I'm putting on is 20-50mm front and 30-60mm rear so I'll probably go with 30 and 30 and see how it looks.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Started fitting the coilies today.

The rear suspension was ridiculously easy. The rear beam is very pliable. I can see why a rear ARB would help.

I just whipped the rear wheels off, undid the top strut mounts in the boot and allowed the whole subframe to drop a lot but kept it from hitting the ground by using the jack.

I put the new springs in with the bottom adjustor set to what I would expect to be the highest position.

The fronts would have been easy but the lack of a 7mm allen key and 21mm socket I can get a spanner around scuppered me. I got the struts out using the impact driver but it's no good to get the top bush off too. I'm also waiting for the top bushes to arrive which should have been last week.

The rear is already looking better though.

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1 hour ago, Blue Loop said:

Give those calipers a lick of paint while you're there!

Separate project :) I've got some spares which I'm stripping down to get painted properly and then will swap over. I need to source the fronts to do the same with those.

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Today:

I used my impact driver to get the top nut off but it wouldn't reach far enough down to get the nut off which holds the strut mount bush on the top. So I ordered 2 tools for same day Amazon delivery: good adjustable spanner for the 21mm top of a plug socket and a 7mm Allen key to brace the strut middle.

I couldn't get enough on the allen key because it had to go in lengthways so I was stuck again. Then I realised my impact driver could fit on top of the plug socket and both top nuts were off in seconds.

The idiots at Mapco only sent 1 top mount so I've ordered 2 from ecp for delivery tomorrow. 

Looking at the springs, the contact point with the spring hat was very corroded. Definitely needed changing. The bushes were best changed too.

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Got the fronts on and tried to get the car to a height I like. I always wanted a slight drop to make it look a bit more in keeping with what other cars look like these days. The height of the standard GTI can look silly sometimes. 

There's a huge amount of adjustment in the camber so until I can get it aligned I've just pulled the top out to the end. That's where it was on the OE struts anyway.

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The clips for the ABS cable wouldn't go into the lugs on the new struts so I cable tied one of the bungs to a lug.

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This was with the rear on the (I think) highest setting and the front just guessed at. I've since taken about 5mm off the rear. I'll have to see how it settles.

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It feels utterly amazing compared to before though. It's at least as comfortable as the original springs and has no harshness at all. I can glide over my local speed bump at the same speed as before and it feels like a modern car. Don't know if the Vogtland are really good or if the originals were really bad.

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  • 1 month later...
8 hours ago, Skajme said:

Looks good! I feel like the rear needs to come down slightly though!

I keep wondering this but this driveway is slightly sloped so when the handbrake is on the rear lifts slightly and when on level ground the rear arches still look higher than the front but the sills look parallel. One thing I don't want is any reverse rake and at the moment the handling feels absolutely perfect so even if it is slightly raked I'm happier that way. I dunno, I might take 10mm off the back and see what happens.

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