I have my rear tires tucked under my fenders and I will rub w/ a full load of people if the weight of the passengers in the rear is not even. That is if the bigger passengers all sit on one side of the car. Other than that. I dont rub AND im not running tires that have rounded side walls. Im pretty sure that if I had tires w/ rounded side walls, I wouldnt rub at all....

Good luck Ruck. Frank, thanks for the input.

 

Frank - do you consider the Michelin Pilot series of tyres to have "fat" sidewalls? Some do have a rounder shoulder than others - Unfortunately Falkens & Toyos are not common on this market - see the odd set - Goodyear, Dunlop, Bridgestone, Continental, Michelin, Pirelli, Yokohama, Kumho, Firestone are the commonly available brands with Michelin winning every JD Powers satisfaction survey by a considerable margin. I have my own reasons for buying Michelin - No1 - I'm sensitive to tyre noise & so is the W203, my car came with Continental Sport Contact 2s the worst handling noisiest crap I've ever experienced - Exalto PE2s fixed that - No2 - availability should I damage one.

 

depends on which model. PS1 doesn't have a big sidewall as i can recall. PS2 goes straight up and square edge compare to Eagle F1 GS-D3 which has round sidewall. The PS2 is one of the quietest tire in max performance group. GS-D3 is pretty quiet as well. check out tirerack for noise rating etc info.

 

Thanks - yes the Tirerack is a useful resource

 

Before joining these forums I was a car newbie without any sort of knowledge or experience with cars, but I just completed the most difficult task to date: My brother and I replaced the original clutch on my brother's 97 2.0 VW Golf with about 110,xxx miles. It was especially satisfying because I have been hesitant to work on engines and transmissions on our cars, so to get a chance to work on my brother's VW was awesome. Having done brakes and suspension on a previous MKIII, Im pretty sure I could replace MOST on a MKIII Golf.

It took about two straight 10 days ( not including the reading / researching I did about clutches in general ) , but the shops he took it to were quoting him at about a third to half the price of what his car was worth.... Towing the car home + buyin the clutch kit (with the pressure plate) cost about 350 bux.

Notes 97 VW Golf cluth replacement:

I talked to a retired VW tech and he said he usually does the task in 1.5 hours, but the place he worked at required him to charge 6. (ridiculous, huh?) He lent me a few breaker bars and special tool to remove the bolts of the front axles. He was an invaluable resource of information and suggestions that made this difficult task somewhat easier. Having the repair manual was also very helpful.

The hardest part of replacing the clutch was just removing it and reinstalling it. The engine does NOT have to be completely removed.

Rough Steps:

Unplug the battery and ground cable that runs from the battery to the top of the transmission.

Remove the clutch cable. It is useful to use a jack to push up the end of the arm that holds the clutch cable, this way the bracket + rubber bushing that holds the clutch cable in place can be easily remove w/o so much tension on the cable itself.

Remove the shifter linkages.

Unplug all of the wires attached to the transmission.

Unbolt the front axles from the transmission. Unbolt the one big horizontal bolt holding the A arm in place on the driver side suspension and angle the driver side axle into the driver side wheel well. ( you need to turn the steering wheel to the left )

At this point the only thing that is keeping the transmission onto the motor/car are the bolts attached to the engine and two motor mounts.

Removing the transmission itself:

There are two thin little plates around the transmission (one on the bottom and one in the back near the headers) that should be removed and set aside. Once you remove these plates, you can see the fly wheel!

Place a support jack under the engine and another under the transmission.

The people who designed the front motor mount decided to torture all VW golf 2.0 owners by making the bolts run though the starter, then the transmission, then the engine, and then finally to the front motor mount. In order to remove the transmission and loosen the front motor mount, you have to remove the starter. (be sure to have a jack + proper supports under engine.

Remove the motor mount attached to the transmission completely.

At this point, w/ the front motor mount loose and the motor mount on the transmission loose, all that is holding up the engine/trans up are the two jacks and a few bolts between the trans/engine. Remove the remaining bolts and wiggle / angle transmission towards the front, driver side of the car. It should just fall out.

Here is where things get weird. The transmission bell has no hardware showing between it and the engine except for a lil pin coming out of the middle of it. Apparently, many earlier VWs have the fly wheels, pressure plates, and clutches attached to the engine. (yea, wtfs right? there goes all my researching clutches)

On the engine side, you can see a big fly wheel that encases everything. There are just some bolts that hold the fly wheel, clutch, and pressure plate onto the engine. You might have to use a 12 sided socket and a breaker bar to hold the crank pulley's bolt to remove these bolts holding the hardware in place.

To make sure you have the right pressure plate + clutch, make sure that there is at least 4mm, but no more than 5mm of space between pressure plate and the flywheel, otherwise your clutch will be weird. Place allan wrenches between the two during a test fitting to determine if you are within the proper tolerances. While the flywheel is off the car, you might as well have someone resurface it for you. Also, when puttin the clutch back in, be sure to use the little plastic holder - it makes sure everything is lined up.

Reassemble everything in reverse order!

 

Current mileage 95,6xx.

I ran through two bottles of techon concentrate plus and it has actually helped my idle.

Stuff coming to me in the mail:

KMAC Camber arms in processing/shipping from K1 Motor sports.

C32 front calipers!

That means C32 front rotors, Goodridge SS brake lines, Akebono pads will also be on their way shortly after I receive the calipers. I will probably order the SS lines and pads from TireRack unless someone has a better set of SS brake lines to suggest.

After all that: Im going back to Fireestone and getting an alignment. The reason Im going back to Firestone is because of their lifetime alignment deal. 140 bux gets you as many alignments as you want. Just bring the car back in and they will do it for ya again

 

Ah yes, that feeling of anticipation. We know it well.

They’ve proven time and again to be excellent modifications. Let us know how you like ‘em.

 

Okay, I just received my package from K1motorsports and instead of receiving camber arms, I received "LOWER/INNER control arm bushes (camber) & existing rear TOE bushes (for additional adjustment)" from KMAC.

I was under the impression that I would be receiving a set of camber arms and some bushings, but if this kit will also do the trick, that is fine by me.

Questions for the knowledgeable:

How long would it take to install this w/o having the proper press? and how long would it take to install them w/ a proper press. Additionally, how much can these things actually adjust your camber by? If these cant adjust my camber by a good amount, I might have to return them and hunt for a set of camber arms.

Thanks!

 

Tru, I don't know whether this is of help because I don't know what the K1 bushings or bearings as MB call them look like. I can tell you what is available on our market and is the norm here for providing such adjustments.

The bushings available here are not continuously variable depending on mount but rather are designed like the standard castor bushes where they provide you with 3 different bolt positions to make adjustments. Please note that like the castor bushes you require to buy special bolts to achieve this. The standard fit MB bolts don't allow you to do this (even on the standard castor bushes you need to buy special bolts to use this feature. MB don't fit them standard)

The bolts are awfully expensive on this market - like US$ 80 each - so I hope they have supplied you with bolts if your bushes work like ours.

You don't say how much adjustment you are looking for - presume you are looking for greater negative camber - good luck

See pic of standard caster bush to display adjustment principle with special bolts - please excuse me if you know all this already - I'm trying to help as you have helped me

 

I currently have the KMAC rear camber/toe kit. There are 4 bushes in it, two for the inner/lower control arm (to adjust camber) while the other two are for the toe. I was HOPING to just get my hands on a set of adjustable camber arms because I thought it would be easier to install, but Ive got this bushing kit now and have the option to return it. Honestly, I think some of my rear bushings could be replace now right now, but I wanna hear/see the advantages/disadvantages of using this kit vs camber arms.

As for my camber, I didnt ask for the exact numbers, but when I checked my tire wear, I could tell that I was losing a significant chunk of my inner tire much faster than the outter parts. Additionally, when I went to get an alignment the techs told me I was "on the lower bounds of the acceptable camber" for my car.... So whatever that value is, thats where im w/o a full load passengers. With a full load, the rear of my car goes down another inch and a half where I cant even squeeze my fingers between the rear tires and the rear wheel wells.

 

Understood. Sorry I got the wrong end of the stick - thought you were talking about the front end. Guess why - I was reading in too much of a hurry & missed your rear toe bush comment - hope other readers can help

 

Noise from the rear came back: So I took off my rear sway bar and it was gone - this helped me determine that it must be a bushing noise because spraying the bushings w/ lubricant can make the noises go away temporarily, but the spray is insufficient when get wet and only will work for a short period of time. Solution: remove the bushings and apply LOTS synthetic polyurethane grease that is water resistant and will not cause the polyurethane bushings to swell or degrade! No more noises in the back (FINALLY) and I've had the grease on for a couple weeks now. Yay

Pads + Brake lines from Tire rack should be arriving tomorrow.

Rotors arrived today at Mercedes garage for 110 each + tax (no shipping yay).

Got my hands on some PSS9s and should be gettin' a tracking number w/in the next few hours!

Hoping K1MS finishes up w/ the camber arms and sends them out soon

My Tein Basics are now for sale for 425 shipped obo in the classifieds section if anyone is interested.

Brakes this weekend and hopefully suspension + alignment work in the following weeks!

 

nice. lots of stuff you're doing lately

 

Wow you catching up to me with all the mods you got going on there! lol but good work do your thing man!

 

Deal on the Pss9's fell through cuz he found out one of his rear dampers was leaking so my teins will stay on and are no longer for sale. Sadness - Ronny called to tell me what he found right after I was shipping out the suspension to him too!

Regardless of what I do to my car... I doubt ill catch up w/ either one of ya (frank/wavey) anytime soon.

Anyone hear from Tom at K1Motorsport lately? I havent been able to get ahold of him about the camber arms OR the refund on the kmac camber/toe kit.

 

AIM Tom at "K1 Motorsport"

 

Thanks frank. Of course he emails me right as im going to message him. Still waitin on parts for camber arms - my rear tires are gettin killed while i wait for these camber arms. Anyone have suggestions as to other camber arms I could get my hands on quicker? TIA

 

So, I just installed the c32 front rotors + calipers + akebono pads + ss brake lines tonight. I drove it around the block taking it easy and everything was great, but I am a bit concerned w/ the clearance between the wheel spokes and calipers. The space between them is maybe the thickness of a high quality business card. Anyone know if this is normal/safe?

Will complete my brake job by throwing on the rear ss brake lines tomorrow evening. Pictures to come soon!

 

should be fine. Blake had less space then that when he had the BBS RGR and sport caliper. fixed caliper should not move at all. take some pics

 

nice man! I can't wait to see pics.

the clearance is fine. I have about the same clearance between my brakes and the SSR GT3's and I've been running them for quite some time already.

 

I woulda posted pictures of the brakes, but I ran into a bigger issue. I dunno if I feel lucky to be in one piece or what.

After I installed the ss brake line on my rear passenger side, I went over to the rear driver side to remove the wheel. I found, one lug to be completely missing. One lug that was soo lose that when i removed it, it broke in half and fell off when I removed the wheel. While another lug bolt was BARELY held together. The lug that seemed to be missing had completely broken in half and only part of the threads remained while the upper part w/ the seat was completely gone.

Meaning. My wheel was honestly held on by TWO lug bolts.

WTF. I have not removed this wheel in a long, long time which means one of two things: Someone loosened my lugs (tried to steal my VERY STOCK LOOKING wheels) or the lugs flat out broke. I have NEVER seen a lug bolt that broke unless it was thoroughly rusted onto the wheel hub and over torqued during removal.

I got my lugs from RADUSA direct (I believe they are a sponsor or once were). Not sure how I should proceed - already left a voice mail w/ phil at radusadirect.

Current mood: Happy to be alive, but disappointed w/ my car up on jack stands.

 

glad you (and the car) are in one piece. hard to say what happened to the lugs. since these cars have bolts rather than nuts- i'd say it would certainly put a lot of stress on the other bolts if one were to break or fall off. stolen wheels- glad that isn't something i really have to worry about where i'm at.

 

Those are 3 of the 5 bolts that were "holding" my wheel on the hub. Yea, half of one is completely missing!

I talked w Phil from radusadirect today and he was awesome about getting back to me asap - he called me this morning after I left him a voice mail last night. Additionally, he is sending out a new set of 5 lugs with my crazy thread + length + diameter to fit my wheels / hubs. Phil is also planning to order a batch of locks with the same specs because apparently alot of people could use them. SO, I should be on the road in the next few days and I'm hoping to have a set of wheel locks on the car soon.

Additionally, as a precaution I've ordered IMS parts from Mercedes Garage and those should be arriving within the next couple of weeks. Total was under 270, but I hear its a bit laborious to install. Involving dropping/cutting portions of the headliner to run a wire from the front dome to the rear dome light area and of course some star diag work. My writeup to come shortly after. Anyone have some pics of IMS DIYs?

Aside from locks, are there any other smart means of deterring potential wheel thieves?

 

Drop that car a little more so they can't get a jack under it That might actually be what happened here- they got the bolts loose, then discovered they couldn't get their jack under it. I have to pull up on a boards that I lay out on my garage floor in order to get my floor jack under the car

 

woah! glad that you're safe man. that is nuts! (no pun intended.)