Strut tower cut-off for camber adjustment

[EVILAUDI]

One final noteworthy discovery .... after removing my suspension and inspecting the Vorshlag plates I immediately discovered a design flaw that would have made for a really crappy day. The caster adjuster mounts to the aluminum plate that is extremely thin and has very little mass to allow for the adjustment of the moving parts. It's basically an light weight aluminum ring about 1/4" thick. As a result both of my camber plates were bowed upward to the point that camber adjustment was no longer possible and both side showed signs of fatigue. Stress cracks in aluminum are a very serious safety concern. If I had continued to run them I'm betting they would have ended up failing on me at some point next season. That would have sent the entire shock up into the tower and possibly into the hood. Imaging that happening when hitting a rumble strip at triple digit speeds. They might be $500 paper weights today but I really dodged a bullet by getting them off my car.

 

[Crild]

Ohlins stated it's always been 5mm and never anything other than that. They had multiple year cars report the same issue with bottoming out if they went away from the set preset value. In Europe tho they get 15mm and they have no clue why or what is different. They claim that's why they don't really post the spec sheets on the NA website and only way to know this is to talk to them directly

 

[EVILAUDI]

Well that advertisement is out of the North America brochure and I spoke directly to Ohlins USA as I had these shocks custom valved. If they had simply provided a low profile camber plate with the shocks I'm betting the majority of their complaints wouldn't have happened. At this point it doesn't really matter to me.

This thread is still relevant to me because the JRI shocks will still require me to modify my shock towers. At this point the cleanest example and probably the best approach is to copy what Cliff had done. He should give the boys at Griffin a pat on the back for being ahead of the curve and attentive enough to understand what needed to be done. Sometimes it pays to pay to have work done. I'm betting they had been through the school of hard knocks and learned a thing or two from it.

I will likely be duplicating their solution:

 

[Crild]

Well that advertisement is out of the North America brochure and I spoke directly to Ohlins USA as I had these shocks custom valved. If they had simply provided a low profile camber plate with the shocks I'm betting the majority of their complaints wouldn't have happened. At this point it doesn't really matter to me.

This thread is still relevant to me because the JRI shocks will still require me to modify my shock towers. At this point the cleanest example and probably the best approach is to copy what Cliff had done. He should give the boys at Griffin a pat on the back for being ahead of the curve and attentive enough to understand what needed to be done. Sometimes it pays to pay to have work done. I'm betting they had been through the school of hard knocks and learned a thing or two from it.

I will likely be duplicating their solution:

You and cliff should talk around that blood sacrifice he did to make those coilovers drop him .5"+. Or at least talk to griffen, they are super helpful (I talked to them regarding the ohlins before).

The fact you're blowing thru parts like this is crazy. Must have a bunch of $$ burning a hole in the pocket.

I'm excited to see this thing on track if you ever decide to track it.

Keep in mind that by cutting your towers out like that that could likely be enough to be considered frame damage by the dealer or others and could cause a branded title or notes of frame damage on your Carfax.

 

[Cliff]

This thread is still relevant to me because the JRI shocks will still require me to modify my shock towers. At this point the cleanest example and probably the best approach is to copy what Cliff had done. He should give the boys at Griffin a pat on the back for being ahead of the curve and attentive enough to understand what needed to be done. Sometimes it pays to pay to have work done. I'm betting they had been through the school of hard knocks and learned a thing or two from it.

They have been in business in the San Francisco area for more than 40 years which is a testament to their expertise and commitment to the maintenance and enhancement of VW and Audi cars. My main driver in selecting them is that I also had a Wavetrac diff installed as part of this project and they have a lot of experience installing those (mine was their first Mk7 R install and it was not problem free).

 

[EVILAUDI]

The fact you're blowing thru parts like this is crazy. Must have a bunch of $$ burning a hole in the pocket.
Keep in mind that by cutting your towers out like that that could likely be enough to be considered frame damage by the dealer or others and could cause a branded title or notes of frame damage on your Carfax.

I'm not blowing through any money really. Being a long time customer and fan of Ohlins they offered to refund me. The shocks and springs are being packaged up and sent back this week. The JRI suspension is really an "at cost" deal to provide R&D services. Even though retail is like $5500 I'll have less into them than I have into the Ohlins. The damaged vorshlag plates are really the only expense because they can't be resold. The only other out of pocket expense will be a couple hundred bucks on alignments for suspension changes until they are dialed in.

The comment about the frame damage is interesting. I don't think my car will ever go back to a dealer. But I may have to find a way to make my modifications be more subdued.

They have been in business in the San Francisco area for more than 40 years which is a testament to their expertise and commitment to the maintenance and enhancement of VW and Audi cars. My main driver in selecting them is that I also had a Wavetrac diff installed as part of this project and they have a lot of experience installing those (mine was their first Mk7 R install and it was not problem free).

Bravo to you for having to balls to tear into a perfectly good transmission! I'm not there yet ha ha. I'm friends with the One Lap of America TTRS and RS3 team guys and they just installed one in their TTRS. I like having someone else be the guinea on those big ticket high risk projects. Funny note they will be sponsored by Ohlins this year and running chopped up DFVs.

My first big track event will be at Blackhawk Farms Raceway in May. Hoping to set another track record there. I currently hold the XM class standing start record with my EVO and now I'm targeting the YM record which I believe to within reach.

 

[jmason]

I had a Wavetrac installed by a shop also. It too wasn't drama-free. There was some machining of the bell housing needed for clearance. (I don't know the details.) There doesn't seem to be any issues due to the mod. It's definitely helpful on the track--no more burning up the inside front tire. Just need to disable VAQ (is that the right term?) as it and the LSD won't play together nicely.

 

[donefor]

I had a Wavetrac installed by a shop also. It too wasn't drama-free. There was some machining of the bell housing needed for clearance. (I don't know the details.) There doesn't seem to be any issues due to the mod. It's definitely helpful on the track--no more burning up the inside front tire. Just need to disable VAQ (is that the right term?) as it and the LSD won't play together nicely.

Interesting, my Wavetrac install also required a little metal be removed from one of the webs near the centerbore in the bell housing.

 

[GTIfan99]

I had a Wavetrac installed by a shop also. It too wasn't drama-free. There was some machining of the bell housing needed for clearance. (I don't know the details.) There doesn't seem to be any issues due to the mod. It's definitely helpful on the track--no more burning up the inside front tire. Just need to disable VAQ (is that the right term?) as it and the LSD won't play together nicely.

If you have a non-PP GTI, you're wanting to disable XDS. VAQ is a haldex diff that VW uses like an LSD. If you installed a Wavetrac LSD in a car with VAQ, which I don't know if it's possible, but yeah, they probably wouldn't work well together. lol.

 

[flipflp]

The comment about the frame damage is interesting. I don't think my car will ever go back to a dealer. But I may have to find a way to make my modifications be more subdued.

Someone had posted rubber sheetmetal or firewall plugs to cap the new larger shock tower holes. If you paint the lip of the new hole and toss one of those in it's definitely not obvious unless the top of your shock rod sits above the plug.

 

[burgerkong]

Someone had posted rubber sheetmetal or firewall plugs to cap the new larger shock tower holes. If you paint the lip of the new hole and toss one of those in it's definitely not obvious unless the top of your shock rod sits above the plug.

That was exactly the reason why I chose 2" haha, to make it look factory using the plugs LOL.

 

[jmason]

If you have a non-PP GTI, you're wanting to disable XDS. VAQ is a haldex diff that VW uses like an LSD. If you installed a Wavetrac LSD in a car with VAQ, which I don't know if it's possible, but yeah, they probably wouldn't work well together. lol.

I have a non-PP GTI, so I disable XDS. I need to learn my acronyms and terminology!

 

[Cliff]

The comment about the frame damage is interesting. I don't think my car will ever go back to a dealer. But I may have to find a way to make my modifications be more subdued.

Bravo to you for having to balls to tear into a perfectly good transmission! I'm not there yet ha ha. I'm friends with the One Lap of America TTRS and RS3 team guys and they just installed one in their TTRS. I like having someone else be the guinea on those big ticket high risk projects. Funny note they will be sponsored by Ohlins this year and running chopped up DFVs.

My first big track event will be at Blackhawk Farms Raceway in May. Hoping to set another track record there. I currently hold the XM class standing start record with my EVO and now I'm targeting the YM record which I believe to within reach.

If you are time trialing, any damage you do to the car is likely to be related to that. An insurance company isn't going to touch track damage with a 10-foot pole, and will try to argue that any street damage is a consequence of your track use. An independent body shop is more likely to be a cost effective alternative to a dealer so I don't know that a dealer's opinion matters much. A friend of mine smacked the T6 apex marker at Laguna Seca hard, knocking his left strut tower loose along with ancillary damage. He had the body damage repaired by an independent body shop for $4-$5k.

Wavetrac doesn't have a product for the 8V chassis yet so you're spared from making that decision at this time. But, you know you want one. Both of those Mk2 KW Clubsport guys I am seeing this weekend have installed Wavetrac diffs in their cars. One friend, who is a very talented mechanic, did it himself. My other friend (with the repaired strut tower) also used Griffin.

 

[EVILAUDI]

There is a wavetrac in the wild for the car and it seems to be 100% drop in other than drilling out the stock diff rivets. For those running it, it doesn't raise hell with XDS or TC at all. Some say it actually helps prevet the interference from them.

 

[Cliff]

There is a wavetrac in the wild for the car and it seems to be 100% drop in other than drilling out the stock diff rivets. For those running it, it doesn't raise hell with XDS or TC at all. Some say it actually helps prevet the interference from them.

I have not used VCDS to modify XDS or TC on my car at all and I have not felt any unexpected intrusions by those systems since installing the diff. I am running TC partially off now while prior to the Ohlins/Wavetrac install I left it fully enabled. I think the more aggressive damping of the Ohlins versus the stock dampers is what made that change necessary.