Supaloy Lower Control Arms installed.
History:
Car has 36,000 miles on it.
13,000 at stock height.
Lowered on Eibach ProKit Springs. Also used ECS HD spring mounts and new bearings and bolts.
After 10 month Right bearing very noisy.
Had German Autohaus in Chattanooga replace mounts and bearings. Mounts used 034 Motorsports and SKF bearing. Now about 4 months later front developed a noisy rattle over most all bumps and rough surfaces. At first it was thought to be front sway bar bushings. I purchased set from Eibach. I installed rear and had VW Dealer install front as alignment needed. I ask them to have Mechanic test drive first so he could help identify issue. In Drive, by himself he noticed a lesser sound instead of the louder sound so proceeded with front sway bar change. After I drove and quickly realized the sway bar was not the issues. Took Mechanic for drive and after putting back on lift, he found the rear bushing in front control arms were bad. You could see marks from the arms hitting. Wanted to go with ECS new arms with red bushings. Not available until June 21st. ECS is known to slip dates also. So I ordered Supaloy arms thru ECS. Shipped to me in 2 days.
Installed on Friday. I picked car up today.
The GTI will never ride like a Passat style sedan, as it is built for sport driving. So with that said here are my feelings and observations.
The recent hitting of control arms is gone.
The front control arms are now quite and go unnoticed now, which is what they should do. The arms are solid and feel like they do better at transferring road imperfections to the front springs and shocks so the imperfections can be absorbed. Even when stock the front suspension always felt like the metal and rubber parts of the suspension were trying to help absorb impacts and not transferring them to the springs. Therefore the springs felt of less use and stiff. Now the arms are solid and the springs are now doing their job. Ride is very good. surprisingly the NVH did not increase. I was also surprised that the difference in NVH in each DCC driving mode is less. Before it felt like it jumped 50% with each step up to Sport. Now each increases maybe 10% -15%.
A big test was when back home I pulled into Burger King which is located by our small mall. The road to it is terrible and often avoided by me especially with recent control arm noise. I was halfway thru parking lot when I remembered where I was at. Was surprised how much better the ride was. After leaving, also noticed I was still in Sport mode from a narrow twisty ride home from Chattanooga. So for sport mode it was riding well.
Bottom Line:
They are good and solid. Will see how long they last.
There are lower cost options like pressing new bushings in and buying arms from ECS Tuning with bushings install. (if you can wait). I would make this change for sure if lowered. If stock wait till warranty is up and then change if they do not tear before 36,000. I would strongly suggest upgrading the LC Arms when installing lowering springs. Best time to do.
Are Supaloy worth $800?
Maybe not but my GTI is also my project toy.
They weigh 44% less so will also help suspension feel.
For me it was worth it. I suggest others do this or at least upgrade the bushings in the LC Arms.
If questions please ask.
Some driving home shots. With all our rain we have more waterfalls.
There is a larger one nearby. Just stopped for one. Wanted to drive. [emoji3]
What was installed. Example pic on car.
https://youtu.be/4Lh3MeJRRF8
https://youtu.be/FwBmVK-0Sf8
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