pushing the front end

[Pimped up vario]

Hi everybody, Finally got my cordoba vario tdi back on the road, hole in gear box, and am slowly but surely getting it modified/tuned a bit. I had a host of silly things to sort out before a started any pleasure giving work. I will post some pictures of the car after this weekends show and shine meet at castlewellan this weekend with a list of work that has taken place and work that doesn't need to be done my wife tells me but I think does. In the meantime could anyone help me with a handling query. The cars handling seems to be trending the same from standard to modified. This statement is true for the front end, the back end now seems less prone to trying to come around on me. Modifactions to the suspension are standard front arb and standard rear trailing arm with i believe no arb in a 99 vario. Spax vsx 35 mm drop kit which is supposed to be for my car, numbers on springs match the numbers on the listings for my car and is only installed about four months now and the back end is near touching the ground already. The company sent me out a set for a 1.4 ibiza before that which sagged straight away then snapped in two places at eh rear end. powerflex bushes whole front end and rear end. New dealer parts top mount rubbers for the suspension turrets front and rear and new strut bearings, washers and spring cones. crap tyres, then goodyear eagle f1 dsg3 all round with wrong springs then toyo proxy t1r front and goodyears on the rear with current springs. The problem or trend that i feel from the front end is that it understeers in the most preculuar way and as the front end is basically a mk2/3golf chassis and looks remarkably like the subframe and wishbone arms from a mk1 leon I find this a bit disturbing. It is most previlent in the wet and can only be discribed as the front wheels tucking, the steering goes light, the front end goes straight on and the wheelspin, it does feel like it is trying to torque steer a bit. This is with trying to turn sharply into a corner then powering through but as soon as you try to power down the whels spin and front end tractsion is lost. Fast flowing neutral throttle corners seem to yield higher grip levels. The toe in and camber as been set to standard settings. It wasn't checked or set for prior suspension setups.

All gurunessing appreciated.

 

[m0rk]

Very hard to read!

Pressure and camber sensitive. If the camber is set correctly at standard 0.5 then it needs adjusting

 

[toddygti]

Indeed a hard read mate but I'd say your camber is out if you getting that 'tucking' feeling into corners.

 

[Pimped up vario]

Apologises for the 4:30am rant. I suppose the heart of my post was can you get a 6k5 chassis to handle? I have read the previous threads on handling regarding mk3 ibizas and ibiza cupras about arbs but could not determine if someone succeeded in fitting and resolving their issues. The spax vsx kit definitely needs changed, I get wheel hop now along side wheelspin. I would like to know what arb set up for the front and rear to put in at the same time and what sort of difference it will make.

Ps camera is broke and I don't have a fancy iphone. I will get photos up. Thanks.

 

[Seatmann]

Mine did, I fitted gas shocks all round and 40mm drop springs from lesjofor. I used uniroyal rainsort 2's as well. The camber is a total bampot on them though, you need to try and get the fronts equal with a slight camber. I had to find some level ground then mess about with a small spirit level lol but I got it fairly good in the end. Never had under or over steer.
If your back end is really low you haven't got a 35mm drop, even 40 mine still sat fairly high, in fact it sat higher with a 40mm drop than it did on the old original springs I took off.

 

[Pimped up vario]

That's good to hear you can get them to handle. My suspension will probably need changed by next year so eiabachs and bilstein all round I think. Just would like to know what front and rear arb set up works the best.

 

[Seatmann]

Tbh honest I ended up taking the front arb off and it made no difference at all lol. I think it would need to reasonably heavy to be of much use with decent springs and shocks.

 

[Pimped up vario]

Maybe the arb was weak. Mine is considerably corroded, surface pitting and a slight reduction in places of the cross-sectional area. Eiabach do an unrated, higher spring tension level i presume, arb which fits the ibiza cupra and my cordoba. This would prevent body roll but what way will it affect handling?

 

[Seatmann]

Tbh I'm not convinced you have the right springs, the way you talk about the back end suggests they're far to weak and sloppy. maybe that's the problem with your car. I found after fitting the gas shocks first that the car really behaved a lot better then with the springs too it totally transformed it. You can still get some body roll but that's ok, it's not a race car after all and needs to be driveable on regular roads. But yeh I'm not sure your springs and shocks are all that good. They're tricky to find for the vario though, I remember that much lol.

 

[Pimped up vario]

I would have to agree with you. I get wheel hop in the rain which suggests poor damping rate to spring tension. The ride feels very crashy and bouncey along back roads and the back end is at least an inch closer to the ground than the front. When I got the alignment and tracking done the castor angle which is not adjustable was within specified manufacturers tolerances before adjustments and after adjustments one side was outside specs which also makes me scratch my head. I had a look at the car there now on level ground with no one in it and the o/s wheel appears to be slightly further back in the arch compared to n/s. Wouldn't mind getting chassis checked for trueness. A suspension specialist in northern ireland maybe.

 

[Pimped up vario]

I found a place near me that can check the chassis datum point against manufacturers specs. So I'm going to get it checked out in the next week or so t o see if it is straight before I start throwing arbs and suspension components at the car. not literially at it although I do feel that way at times.