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Quick Racingline Subframe Alignment Kit Review

Rrrrrmatey

Go Kart Champion
Car(s)
Mk 7.5 Golf R
Just had the Racingline MQB Subframe Alignment Kit installed (Part # VWR150000). As a relatively new kit, I wasn’t able to find much on it, but at a lower price than the Tyrol deadest Kit, I thought I’d give it a shot. Giving this quick review for anyone else considering it.

Haven’t had the chance to drive on it much yet and had some other things done (to include upper/lower Dogbone and EC front chassis/strut brace), so difficult to attribute too much to it driving-wise. Between those things though, the car seems to have gone from slight understeer to almost neutral. It also feels much more solid overall.

NGP Racing did the install and commented on the quality of the kit and how much it helped center the car. Sounds like they haven’t done many of these - install was charged at 2 hours and the kit was $112. Below are before & after alignment reports -

Edit: Incorrectly listed labor as 1.25 hours before.

Edit 2: Removed alignment results to avoid confusion.
 
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Autobahn

Autocross Champion
Location
Huntington Beach, CA
Car(s)
'18 Golf R
That’s a good price and well worth it. Translates to a good steering feel.

I was an early adopter of Spoon Collars for my MKV R32 before Tyrol starting making their kit
 

Svet gutsulyak

New member
Location
Illinois
Car(s)
2016 Volkswagen Gti
Just had the Racingline MQB Subframe Alignment Kit installed (Part # VWR150000). As a relatively new kit, I wasn’t able to find much on it, but at a lower price than the Tyrol deadest Kit, I thought I’d give it a shot. Giving this quick review for anyone else considering it.

Haven’t had the chance to drive on it much yet and had some other things done (to include upper/lower Dogbone and EC front chassis/strut brace), so difficult to attribute too much to it driving-wise. Between those things though, the car seems to have gone from slight understeer to almost neutral. It also feels much more solid overall.

NGP Racing did the install and commented on the quality of the kit and how much it helped center the car. Sounds like they haven’t done many of these - install was charged at 2 hours and the kit was $112. Below are before & after alignment reports -

Edit: Incorrectly listed labor as 1.25 hours before.

Before:

View attachment 179228



After:

View attachment 179229
Hi thank you for sharing this you mentioned the car was pulling to right before a alignment and installing the new parts, after the racing line product was installed does it still pull or did it fix the issue thank you
 

Rrrrrmatey

Go Kart Champion
Car(s)
Mk 7.5 Golf R
Hi thank you for sharing this you mentioned the car was pulling to right before a alignment and installing the new parts, after the racing line product was installed does it still pull or did it fix the issue thank you

I *think* so. The car doesn’t feel like it’s pulling right anymore, but I also haven’t had an alignment in awhile (so no actual measurements).

I’ll post results from my next alignment to see if the thrust angle has stayed at 0 or if it’s started to wander to the right again.
 

bfury5

Autocross Champion
Location
CT
I *think* so. The car doesn’t feel like it’s pulling right anymore, but I also haven’t had an alignment in awhile (so no actual measurements).

I’ll post results from my next alignment to see if the thrust angle has stayed at 0 or if it’s started to wander to the right again.
Your "before" alignment shows a good difference in left to right toe, which could explain the pull to the right.

Other than that, your before and after alignments look pretty much identical. Camber degreased .05deg on the left side and .01deg on the right side, you likely wouldn't feel that.
 

Raguvian

Autocross Champion
Location
Bay Area, CA
Car(s)
2019 GSW 4MO 6MT
Are these just the collars? The Tyrolsport version has their own subframe brackets as well, hence the higher cost. Do the brackets actually do anything, or are the collars good enough? The price difference is pretty large.
 

Rrrrrmatey

Go Kart Champion
Car(s)
Mk 7.5 Golf R
Are these just the collars? The Tyrolsport version has their own subframe brackets as well, hence the higher cost. Do the brackets actually do anything, or are the collars good enough? The price difference is pretty large.

This is just the aluminum collars...no idea on the impact of the lack of brackets, but the cost difference combined with the noticeable change in feel of the car definitely made me happy with the decision (more than sufficient for how I use the car).

Your "before" alignment shows a good difference in left to right toe, which could explain the pull to the right.

Other than that, your before and after alignments look pretty much identical. Camber degreased .05deg on the left side and .01deg on the right side, you likely wouldn't feel that.

I thought he was referring to just the before alignment (which was done after a significant impact to the driver’s side front wheel), but maybe I’m misunderstanding...the car was pulling right at that time and my assumption has always been it was more a function of the wonky thrust angle instead of just the toe or no? I’m definitely not super knowledgeable on alignments.

The after was when the kit was installed...thinking more about it, would the alignment specs reflected in that report even be influenced significantly by a more uniform subframe alignment?
 

bfury5

Autocross Champion
Location
CT
I thought he was referring to just the before alignment (which was done after a significant impact to the driver’s side front wheel), but maybe I’m misunderstanding...the car was pulling right at that time and my assumption has always been it was more a function of the wonky thrust angle instead of just the toe or no? I’m definitely not super knowledgeable on alignments.

The after was when the kit was installed...thinking more about it, would the alignment specs reflected in that report even be influenced significantly by a more uniform subframe alignment?
Thrust angle is a factor of your front axle and rear axle toe, and shows how the car will "push" based on the difference between them.

The subframe alignment kit "centers" the subframe. If (and that's a big if) everything is straight, the biggest thing it will do is equalize camber left to right. In theory it will shift toe, but toe in the front is adjustable and the collars aren't needed to straighten toe. Speaking from experience, I've never had toe or camber fall out of spec from the subframe shifting.
 

jmblur

Autocross Champion
Location
Massachusetts
Car(s)
2017 Golf R
Necroing this thread a bit - considering getting a set of these just to make my life easier for realigning the subframe after dropping it. Not so worried about holding the subframe in place after assembly because it doesn't seem like the steel one slips much. Don't see the Tyrolsport set as necessary despite it being a nice piece of kit.

The VW guide calls out use of pins for alignment (T10486/1 x 4), which are about about 1/3-1/2 the cost of these collars, but I'm a sucker for not having to have more specialized tools sitting around the shop.

Am I going overkill on this, or decent idea?
 

EricsVdub

Go Kart Champion
Location
Chicago 'burbs
Car(s)
2019 GTI SE Exp pkg
I vote decent idea, since I bought the kit as well...
 

victorofhavoc

Autocross Champion
Location
Kansas City
Necroing this thread a bit - considering getting a set of these just to make my life easier for realigning the subframe after dropping it. Not so worried about holding the subframe in place after assembly because it doesn't seem like the steel one slips much. Don't see the Tyrolsport set as necessary despite it being a nice piece of kit.

The VW guide calls out use of pins for alignment (T10486/1 x 4), which are about about 1/3-1/2 the cost of these collars, but I'm a sucker for not having to have more specialized tools sitting around the shop.

Am I going overkill on this, or decent idea?
How does a shimmed hole become easier to realign? It's like aiming at a smaller target. If you're thinking it will save you from an alignment because of a tighter fit, I wouldn't bet on it; likely you'd still need an alignment.

Under heavy braking and with a 200tw or better tire the subframe will definitely slip. We're talking track conditions only with full pedal to the floor kind of braking. Without some sort of collars mine would always shift left and then pull SLIGHTLY right. 99.9% of people wouldn't notice this pull. I bought some cheap brass collars from a local ace hardware, and then manually sized them for a tight fit. This helped and has worked fine for a couple years now. Alignment still goes to crap quickly because the adjustment for toe is very large and sloppy on these cars. I mess with toe about every two track events.
 

jmblur

Autocross Champion
Location
Massachusetts
Car(s)
2017 Golf R
How does a shimmed hole become easier to realign? It's like aiming at a smaller target. If you're thinking it will save you from an alignment because of a tighter fit, I wouldn't bet on it; likely you'd still need an alignment.

Under heavy braking and with a 200tw or better tire the subframe will definitely slip. We're talking track conditions only with full pedal to the floor kind of braking. Without some sort of collars mine would always shift left and then pull SLIGHTLY right. 99.9% of people wouldn't notice this pull. I bought some cheap brass collars from a local ace hardware, and then manually sized them for a tight fit. This helped and has worked fine for a couple years now. Alignment still goes to crap quickly because the adjustment for toe is very large and sloppy on these cars. I mess with toe about every two track events.

I don't do much track but definitely do autocross, and throwing some 200tw tires on this spring. All of these (and the factory alignment pins) work the same way, in that they remove the slop in mounting. It can definitely result in an overconstrained condition which isn't awesome, but with brass or aluminum I'm not so worried about that - the collars will deform as necessary.

I'm still going to get an alignment regardless, just hoping it means I only need toe adjusted not subframe shifting to even out camber.
 

bfury5

Autocross Champion
Location
CT
I don't do much track but definitely do autocross, and throwing some 200tw tires on this spring. All of these (and the factory alignment pins) work the same way, in that they remove the slop in mounting. It can definitely result in an overconstrained condition which isn't awesome, but with brass or aluminum I'm not so worried about that - the collars will deform as necessary.

I'm still going to get an alignment regardless, just hoping it means I only need toe adjusted not subframe shifting to even out camber.
For autox only, I didn't see my alignment shift at all last summer and I had 6 alignments over 12ish events.
 

odessa.filez

Autocross Newbie
Location
Roswell, GA
Car(s)
2016 GSW 1.8tsi auto
I don't understand the benefit in the OP's case. His front camber asymmetry was originally 17', and dropped to 14'. Not much really. In my experience, you wouldn't notice the change.

He also had a bigger camber discrepancy in the rear, which can be corrected independently without the deadset kit.

What am I missing here?
 
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