Bad Handeling Question

[stumpyjag 6]

Hi,

 

I have recently rebuilt my rear beam for my completly standard 1.9 gti. I have let it settle for a few months but the handeling is still not what it should be as the car feels nervous at speed. I have noticed that the back seems low (is this due to the age of the torsion bars) compared to the front and was wondering if this is upsetting the balance of the car. I reset the beam to the standard length using a dummy shock and the beam now seems to work well.

 

My question is should the car be level from front to back. If so do I rectify this by measuring the height of the car from the ground to the sills front to back and then simply raise the back of the car until it is more like the front.

 

Any advise would be very welcome.

[Anthony 1,002]

Normally the rear should be a smidgen higher than the front - something like 10mm or so if measured between the sill/jacking point and the ground.

 

Remember that the shape of the rear arches usually makes the car look slightly lower at the back than it really is.

[stumpyjag 6]

Anthony, once again thank you for your help. I hope the beer token was ok?

 

When driving the car the back does feel low compared to the front and sometimes even with only one person in the back when you hit a bump it hits the bump stops.

 

Am i right in thinking that this is just due to amount of 'sag' that is now in the torsion bars because of their age and i can rectify this by raising the ride height until it is 10mm higher than the front?

 

Thanks once again for your help.

[welshpug 1,646]

check that they are gti torsion bars, and that you have decent rear dampers, my 205 never felt that good till I put a set of good used peugeot original dampers on.

[Anthony 1,002]

As per Mei's comment above, I've check the dampers - a standard height beam really shouldn't be banging off the bumpstops.

 

Pattern dampers are often nothing short of complete rubbish, in some cases bordering on dangerous IMO.

 

If you've built the beam to 322mm between shock centers and have standard springs on the front, it should be fine height wise already. I've never personally noticed standard torsion bars sagging or going soft - the ride height will drop a few millimeters as it settles after first building it, but that should be it.

 

And yes, beer was grand ta

[stumpyjag 6]

I did think about the dampers when i re built the beam as I know how critical they are. I thought that I had bought the OE replacements from Bilstein. I have had a quick look under the car tonight and I think the part number on them is BNE-1932 but its difficult to see with them on the car. Does this sound correct?

[welshpug 1,646]

Those are the ZX/Xsara ones IIRC, so should be fine

[stumpyjag 6]

You have made me think they could be the problem though as the car does seem to sink at the back end when cornering hard or under acceleration. Then on an uneven road it pings all over the place , nothing like what it used to handel. I have seen that these dampers are 20% harder than the standard ones if I havent touched the front could that be the problem. If i order some standard replacements from Peugeot will I just get the same Bilsteins.

[stumpyjag 6]

I have now measured the ride height from front to back and it does appear to be about the same. I have also measured the rear as per the haynes manual and that checks out to. So I really dont know where to go from here. I have bought a set of Toyo's Proxys to put on to see if that helps. Apart from that the only things left to change are the front struts.

 

Any advice or experience with this would be greatfully received.

 

Thanks

[j_turnell 134 3 Cars]

I'd check over the whole car, twitchy on uneven surfaces can often mean too much toe-out but if you've not touched the front then maybe an ovaled upright is causing problems. Might be worth getting your wheel alignment looked at to see if that shows any issues.

Edited May 8, 2011 by j_turnell

[stumpyjag 6]

Would a straight forward wheel alignment check at a tyre company be Ok or should I be looking at something a bit more profesional.

 

Thanks