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> GTI Suspension Refresh, Stage 3: Trying It Out
dukenukem
post Oct 26 2012, 07:58 AM
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I would tend to agree
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350Z
post Nov 5 2012, 10:48 AM
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QUOTE(clarkma5 @ Oct 25 2012, 09:46 PM) *
Most VW guys say to change it every 20,000 miles, though that seems a little obsessive to me. Maybe every 40,000. In any case, it was a $14 part and a ten minute job involving jacking up the back of the car (just for space to get under there) and two flathead screwdrivers. Would recommend it!

Well I changed it and it is better but not perfect. I'm thinking new coil packs next.
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clarkma5
post Nov 5 2012, 01:25 PM
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My fuel pump change was a big help, spark plugs, air filter, and oil change helped that much more. Coils would be the next thing.
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clarkma5
post Nov 5 2012, 02:04 PM
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BTW, status update. Last round of parts ordered (basically rear axle beam bushings & bolts, SS lines & fluid) and got the weekend before thanksgiving firmly scheduled to do this with my friend! Looking forward to it!
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shandyman5
post Nov 6 2012, 12:10 AM
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Duke in tank fuel filters don't get replaced. Subaru doesn't even have a replacement part number for it seperate from the pump I believe. We used to get Subaru owners all the time wanting to change their fuel filter, and the in tank ones have no service interval or change method.
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clarkma5
post Nov 6 2012, 07:38 AM
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Hmm that's odd shandy. My brother's '02 WRX conked out at about the 60,000 mile mark and the prescription was severely clogged up fuel injectors and a new fuel filter was part of the repairs.
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shandyman5
post Nov 6 2012, 12:31 PM
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Let me Clarify.... I believe from the blob-eye model on. Your brother's should have the fuel filter right next to the driver-side front strut tower which is a replaceable part, and apart of the service interval.
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clarkma5
post Nov 6 2012, 02:30 PM
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Ah yes well that makes sense then!
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dukenukem
post Nov 6 2012, 03:47 PM
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QUOTE(shandyman5 @ Nov 6 2012, 02:10 AM) *
Duke in tank fuel filters don't get replaced. Subaru doesn't even have a replacement part number for it seperate from the pump I believe. We used to get Subaru owners all the time wanting to change their fuel filter, and the in tank ones have no service interval or change method.


http://www.iwsti.com/forums/how-install/16...eplacement.html

Fuel filter assembly

Part Number for 04-06 STi's is 42072FE020 *Verified by Shakes*
Part Number for '07 STi's is 42072FE030 *Provided by Cygnus Performance*
Part Number for 08+ STi's is 42072AG140 *Provided by sti2relaxxin*

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Ozi
post Nov 14 2012, 08:41 AM
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Hey Clark,

I had the same exact setup on 02 GTI minus the ECS tuning package. It was a huge difference. You will love it.
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clarkma5
post Nov 14 2012, 11:50 AM
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w00t I'm very excited for the end result. Slightly nervous about getting all the work done in a weekend (ya know how those little snags eat up so much time) but I've got a very competent friend with good tools and I've researched this backward and forward and am pretty comfortable with suspension stuff myself so I'm hopeful it'll go pretty smoothly.

Looking into getting the front spring/strut assembly pre-built in advance, I'm lead to believe I should have all the parts I need to do it just need to make sure. Would save some time this weekend.
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clarkma5
post Nov 18 2012, 08:26 PM
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Alright, woo, that was a long ass time in the making but it's finally done! And I totally didn't take ANY pictures of it lol (too busy getting my hands greasy)

Allotted two days to get all the work done and basically did all the work in about 10 hours, outside of taking it to get it professionally aligned. Impressions? The SS lines didn't quite take as much travel out of the first part of the brake pedal as I was hoping for though the modulation once the pedal gets into the meat of its range is much more firm and reassuring (a second flush may be helpful, we'll see) and if I had Koni Sports instead of STR.Ts I would be temped to try a single click of additional compression damping (found a section of road that was the right frequency of bumps to make it feel like the rebound was doing all the work, though I couldn't feel it elsewhere so really not much of an issue) but overall it's brilliant.

The ride quality is significantly better (I'm sure that's mostly due to the new shocks, the old ones were tired, no doubt) but the thing that I'm really loving is the way the car takes a set into a corner now. There's this downhill tightening right-hander on the road that runs from my house into town and on the old suspension there was this palpable sensation of the car diving as you got on the brakes, and then as you started turning the looseness in the tired bushings took the first of the lateral roll, the springs took the second part of the lateral roll until the sway bars took the loading, and then the third part of the lateral deflection came from the tire sidewalls, making the entire entry to the corner feel like a 4-part process. Now thanks to the additional spring stiffness, the dive and squat is drastically reduced, the bushings are all new and don't palpably deflect, and the lateral roll stiffness is now high enough that the car doesn't have to get into its sway bars to corner nicely. The result is that that rather complex corner has been reduced from a 4 step entry process to a 1 step, where the tires are now really the only thing that needs to be appreciably accounted for. It is wonderful.

Visually, I'm surprised how much rear ride height the new springs took out of the rear. MkIVs come from the factory with a lot of rake, most of which is now gone but without looking like its got a load in its pants à la the Shine Real Street spring (the other legitimate option for MkIVs that preserves the front suspension geometry like my H&R OE Sports do). By measurement, the car still has a little bit of rake (26.75" from ground to top of the wheel arch in the front, 27.125" in the rear. 11.25" from ground to bottom of the front of the door and 11.5" to the bottom of the rear door) and while I might prefer the front sits a tiny tiny bit lower, the stance improvement is really nice. It looks more appropriately settled on its wheels without looking lowered or changed, which in the end is exactly what I was hoping for: a subtly better stance that you couldn't really differentiate from a stock car without having them side by side.

So yeah, I might've been able to eke out just that extra smidgen of preferred damping setup and ride height with significantly more expensive components but for the price of these upgrades I feel I got incredible value and I have no doubt in my mind that this is a superior setup to OEM. Very happy smile.gif

The work went quite smoothly. My biggest concerns were removing and pressing bushings which went pretty well (freezing bushings overnight, heatgun and grease on the parts that they were getting pressed into, and just using a vice for everything all worked) and the inner tie rod removal, which was EASY (internet made it sound impossible). The hardest part was really bleeding the brakes for me, but only because I'd never done it before and I started by not being careful enough getting all the air out of my pressure bleeder which meant I vapor-locked the master cylinder to start with and had no idea what was going on. Air impact gun was the best tool to have around for the whole thing smile.gif
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clarkma5
post Nov 18 2012, 08:42 PM
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I do find it interesting that the sense of reduced rake in the car is noticeable from the driver's seat. I reclined the driver's seat a few degrees from my old position because it feels like the car's center of rotation has moved backward, so by setting my torso a touch farther back in the car I have kept my center of gravity on top of the car's center of rotation. In other words, the handling feels less "on the nose", which is consistent with the amazing increase in braking performance before the ABS kicks in (feels like the rear is a little more involved in braking as well as turning, but in a neutral way so it just STOPS better and grips better)
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clarkma5
post Dec 1 2012, 06:27 PM
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Alright so threads are always better with pictures. Tomorrow I'm doing the Northwest Toys for Tots car show at Pacific Raceways so I wanted my car clean! That meant dealing with my increasingly yellow headlights and I went ahead and put the summer tires back on to see how they look with the springs.

Pre-lowering shot for comparison:



Dirty and with winter wheels on it, I tried to recreate the side-on shot from before so you could see the relative lowering. The rear definitely dropped more than the front did but this picture makes it look a little lower in the rear than it normally sits:



Ewww headlights need a little TLC:



Headlights after hitting them with the Mequiar's headlight restoration kit. Not perfect but a lot better, we'll see how long the sealant prevents the next round of yellowing. I may be tempted to go with the blackout 20th AE headlights in the future:



So here it is, cleaned and on its summer wheels. It really doesn't look lowered but it sits better, particularly in the back. I would've gotten a better shot but it had gotten dark and started raining :/

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clarkma5
post Dec 3 2012, 07:50 AM
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Did 5 laps of lead-follow at Pacific Raceways with roommate and friends ('08 Civic Coupe, Mustang 5.0, and a 350Z, all their first time on track and the seed has been planted muahahaha). Passenger in the Z took a video and you can see me 2 cars up the train. Passenger in the Mustang has an '03 GTI VR6 and wants to do something similar to what I've done; said my car doesn't roll around at all smile.gif

https://www.dropbox.com/s/x3n1en52kw4blwu/IMG_0504.MOV
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fiber optic
post Dec 3 2012, 08:50 AM
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That 5.0 Mustang was not the kind I was expecting. That track looks like fun but that weather did not.
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shandyman5
post Dec 3 2012, 12:14 PM
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Rough weather indeed! Congrats on getting your friends into OT however, it is a drug.

Car needs moar lower! tongue.gif
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dukenukem
post Dec 3 2012, 01:27 PM
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Trackdays in the wet are always fun. smile.gif
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clarkma5
post Dec 3 2012, 08:01 PM
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QUOTE(fiber optic @ Dec 3 2012, 08:50 AM) *
That 5.0 Mustang was not the kind I was expecting. That track looks like fun but that weather did not.


Heh I guess I should've specified tongue.gif Is it weird that I would say "Mustang 5.0" for a 2011+ and I would say "5.0 Mustang" for a Fox Body?

The track is fun, they were shy on parking so they filled up the final big turn with cars which made us do that weird little jog at the end of the video to cut through the drag strip and back to the main straight. Pretty much all of the track is either walls right up to the edge of the pavement or it's berms/dropoffs where the elevation change is happening. I'm really kinda shocked at the idea of taking it at 10/10ths...no margin for error!

QUOTE(shandyman5 @ Dec 3 2012, 12:14 PM) *
Rough weather indeed! Congrats on getting your friends into OT however, it is a drug.

Car needs moar lower! tongue.gif


Our session got the worst of the rain. It basically started raining as they were rolling us out and then eased off when we finished.

Didn't do springs for looks, and stock ride height maintains the front geometry for the best road holding (you can go lower with camber plates 'n stuff, but I think my oil pan skims 4 or 5 inches above the road as it is)

QUOTE(dukenukem @ Dec 3 2012, 01:27 PM) *
Trackdays in the wet are always fun. smile.gif


This was definitely the wettest track session I'd ever done in terms of rivers and standing water. The leader kept the pace to a low roar, though considering the cars in front of me were an E90 M3 leading two GT-Rs and an Evo X MR, we still hit 100 on the main straight and were going at it pretty decently in the corners smile.gif
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clarkma5
post Apr 2 2013, 06:30 PM
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Summer tires back on, kinda realized that I've only had the suspension with winters! Sadly didn't get pics when I cleaned it the next day sad.gif

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