Here’s a short recap explaining my hiatus for the last six months, and what’s going on with the car.
Late September last year was RS3 Bushing-Gate. A bunch of stuff went wrong expectedly and cost me a bunch of downtime with the car, and forced me to put my stock lower control arms back on as a temporary solution.
The car feels like a rubber chicken on bath salts ever since. It’s fine going straight down the road, but changing directions and applying all the EQT torque make it behave with zero predictability, to the point even passengers don’t know what’s going on. You can literally feel the control arms kicking and shifting, and the toe angle changing dynamically under torque loads.
I eventually concluded my LCA bushing research by purchasing a set of 034 Motorsports aluminum control arms with density line bushings, but due to a bunch of other stuff that happened last year, I never got around to installing them.
I’ve just been limping the car along up to this point, regularly missing how sharp and precise it felt last year before the Whiteline LCA bushing failure (June 2023).
More car parts than time…
We’re currently at a point where I have a pretty awesome selection of parts sitting in boxes on the shelf in the parts room, begging me to make time to work on the GTI…but I constantly get pulled a dozen other directions for customer cars and projects, and dad stuff.
Let me know if any of you can relate to this, so I know I’m not alone.
Track season has begun!
First real track day of the season in my area was 3/13. I really wanted it to happen for me, but I chose to sit it out since the car was not yet ready.
I ended up going down to the track with my kiddos and having an amazing time just spectating and hanging with friends. Way cheaper and less stressful.
But this means I need to make a strong showing at the April track event.
Anything close to a 1:32 CW lap is a really good pace at Harris Hill Raceway in a street driven door slammer on summer tires:
I clocked a 1:33.7 last year on Michelin PS4S street tires with a gimp control arm bushing that I did not know it was failing, so my prospects this year looking pretty good.
New goal for 2024 is 1:30. The car has it in it: better tires, better front end/suspension components, and better driving will get me there. Each of those three things is easily worth a second.
S**ty control arms lead to tire annihilation…
Last week I was doing some maintenance on the car and attempting to knock out some of the suspension pieces that need to go on.
This is when I noticed my brand new Michelin PS4S tires had worn down to the wear bars, uniformly across the tread, in just 4000 miles. That is how much crazy front end activity was going on from these control arms.
And if we’re being honest, the toe angle was probably out of spec and ignored for too long. My mistake, and I’m paying for it now.
Frustration leads to research, progress, and purchases:
I have a pretty sweet deal with Michelin, where they warranty the tires out for me based on mileage, but even this was going to be hard to prove or justify.
Went ahead and ordered up a fresh pair of Michelin‘s to replace the ones I cooked, and went to work at finding the perfect set of track wheels and 200 TW track tires.
I’ll do a nice little write up on all of that somewhere separate.
Here is what is currently waiting install:
-034 Motorsports Audi S3 dynamic+ lowering springs. Intentionally purchased for their higher spring rates and direct fitment. 310/400 F&R rates
-034 aluminum control arms with adjustable camber slotting. I’m going to be a test mule for the community on these, since I’ve still not seen very many people running them. FCP Euro had an amazing sale going on last year when I bought them, so it will be worth it to experiment.
-TyMate TPMS kit; shows you live pressure readings and temperature for each tire. Really wish our cars could come with this from the factory. If it works, it will be transformative at managing Tire temps and pressures during fast driving.
-custom deadset kit I put together using ARP Hardware and aluminum collars. I have to unbolt my front subframe when I do my control arms anyway, so this should strengthen the entire front end substantially.
-Beautiful Unitronic intercooler that’s been sitting in a box for almost a year now waiting on me. Definitely need it, just not looking forward to the install.
-stock turbo inlet pipe is going back on to remedy the smoking conditions under hard braking and right hand turns we are experiencing on track at HHR in the MQB cars.
…This is where the cars turn into a smoke machine and fog the hell out of all the other patrons on track behind you. The SCCA track officials absolutely love it when this happens. They black flag you and call you to discuss it…
Big thank you to
@DerHase for doing all the testing on this issue to pinpoint the aftermarket TIP as the culprit. I’m not smart or patient enough to have come to that conclusion on my own.
I looked long and hard this month at trackpad options, but due to my insanely small budget, and my home track doesn’t really see speeds above 100–105 mph, I’m going to try and make do on the Hawk HPS 5.0 pads for the moment.
Our track sessions are only 15 minutes long, and there aren’t any huge straightaways, so it’s a very forgiving configuration for a GTI, or an AWD MQB car.
Thank you to anyone who has made it this far with the reading. My hope and my goal is to reward you this year with some good lap times, photos, and videos.
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