Gti Suspension On Xs Body

[mbroers 0]

Hi all,

 

I purchased my 205 MI16 in Germany a couple of months ago. The car from the usual niggles seemed to be fine. The engine is a joy. The ride however is ultra stiff and I attributed this to the lowered suspension (KW coilovers at the front) plus low profile tyres (195/45/15 on SL343s). On the higher but softer and narrower winter tyres I used to scrape the wheelarches at the rear, but I attributed this to the 20 mm spacers that were on the rear.

Then I pushed the car a bit in the tight stuff, like I used to do ten years ago on my last GTI, and the rear just snapped and sent me into a spin.

So after much reading around in the forum and inspection of the rear bits on the car, I found out that, to avoid the rear tyres from touching the wheelarches the previous owner shimmed the bumbstops. I know I should be showing pictures here to make this clearer. The bump stops are extended by about 20 mm, so less wheel travel. The bump stops themselves look like they have had the points shaved off. This might just be erosion. I have the impression that the car is actually riding on the bump stops in most corners, which would explain the breakaway tendency at the rear.

 

What do you think? Does this make any sense, and more importantly, what can I do to get decent handling short of reshelling the car.

 

mbroers

[jimistdt 1]

How much has the car been lowered by compared to standard?

 

I would say a combination of all the above factors does not produce a car that will handle well at all.

 

Jimi

[mbroers 0]

I am not sure how much it has been lowered. On standard size tyres, the top of the tyres is close to level with the bottom of the wheelarch. Raising the car is not what I am troubled with though. I wonder if returning to a ride height close to standard will solve the problem. As I have found out by searching the forum the XS wheelarches have a different shape. There are Rallye extension on them, by the way. The problem is that I fear I might be running out of wheel travel too soon, whatever I do.

[RossD 44]

The combination of the car being lowered and the shimmed bumpstops are probably causing the oversteer - The suspension bottoms out on the bumpstops, and round the rear end goes!

 

Raising the rear end to standard will only do good thing to the handling. In fact you'll probably find things like the initial turn-in better due to the roll centre being higher at the rear than previously.

[mbroers 0]

I thought so. I'll start by raising the front and adjust the back to suit. Once I have the TBs out I will get a clearer picture.

Has anybody else here ever come across shimmed bump stops?

[RossD 44]

Nope, sounds like a complete bodge..... Why you'd want to reduce the available suspension travel AND lower the car is beyond me!

[mbroers 0]

Nope, sounds like a complete bodge..... Why you'd want to reduce the available suspension travel AND lower the car is beyond me!

 

Yep, sounds like that. I can imagine why this person did so though. It looks nice, to a poser anyway.

 

I'll see how I can improve on the situation and report back in a month or so. The job involves resetting the TBs after all.

[jerseypug 1]

i presume the bump stops were extended to stop the wheels hitting the arches, are they gti 15 inch wheels? when i put the gti wheels on my xs i had to cut out the arch to stop the wheel hitting them. i dont know how to post pictures but if you pm me your e mail i can send you some

[mbroers 0]

i presume the bump stops were extended to stop the wheels hitting the arches, are they gti 15 inch wheels? when i put the gti wheels on my xs i had to cut out the arch to stop the wheel hitting them. i dont know how to post pictures but if you pm me your e mail i can send you some

 

I presume so too. I suppose the choice of 195/45/15 tyres is down to the same reasons. That's another half inch gained before the wheels would hit the wheelarch. The car came with lovely SL434s, the 6.75' width ones.

Anyway I'd love to see how you went about cutting the arch.

 

PM on its way.