Wishbones and ARB issues... Help please!

[Curt]

Hi all,

Wondering if someone may be able to shed some light on this.

I had my car Revo'd yesterday (blimey, what a difference), but on the way there my O/S driveshaft started rubbing on the ARB... The car is quite low on coilies and I know this to be an issue, but it has been fine this low for nearly a month... So I don't know why it would just start. The tuning place had a look, and said the the wishbone bushes had perished and that was causing it.

So this morning I changed both side wishbones and wound the coilovers up 1/4 of an inch, it's a lot better but I still get rubbing on left hand bends (more so with power on) and over bumps. What would cause this to happen when it's been fine for a while? Even with a full car I had NONE before.

One other thing, after changing only the wishbones, my steering wheel is now pointing left while going straight... What could have changed from just the wishbones? I'm confused...

Car is a '98 A3 1.8T.

Sorry about the essay, just really need to get these sorted.

Also, in case Damien at DPM sees this... Do you no longer stock the Whiteline front ARB?

Cheers,
Curt.

 

[reptor245]

Not sure why it would suddenly start rubbing after a Revo.... DPM are the best place to get the whiteline ARB altho many places out there stock them. Just do a google search.
http://www.balancemotorsport.co.uk/sitepage/Whiteline.html
When i changed my bottom wishbones i had the same problem with the steering wheel. A laser four wheel alignment couldnt cure the Steering Wheel been off so ended up buying a spline tool and took the wheel off and realigned it myself..happys days.

 

[Curt]

That's the thing, it was on the way to get it mapped, so nothing had changed! Cheers for the link... did find that but was wondering if DPM would be getting them back in.

How strange... can't work out why. So I probably just need to centre the wheel then... Guessing I need that tool then, where did you get one from?

Cheers dude.

Edit: Just found your thread... M12.

 

[reptor245]

Yeah its called a M12 spline socket. I bought mine from my local motor factors but you can buy them on line here
http://www.impresstools.com/Product...at=Bits and Pozi Bits&site=Google-shopping-UK

http://www.google.co.uk/products?hl...esult_group&ct=title&resnum=3&ved=0CDsQrQQwAg

Just a word of advice tho, Make sure you disconet the battery when you take off the air bag on the wheel. Well i did just incase

 

[Curt]

Cheers dude, I'll pick one up in the week if I haven't got one somewhere...

Does anyone have any ideas why the steering wheel is off after changing the wishbones?

 

[reptor245]

No worries

I think because the steering is so precise then the small movement or knock on the wheels / suspension can alter the tracking.
Everytime you change a wishbone, trackrod, ARB, Bushes or the main suspension parts then the tracking goes out. On older cars you can alter the camber but not on the A3.
Easiest way i found was to move the steering wheel.

 

[Curt]

Okay cheers.

Jacked it up again today, and found some bad news... It's no longer touching the ARB, but it's the actual chassis leg or whatever behind the shaft that it's touching! So, how, and why would it just start doing it?!

 

[reptor245]

Can you take some pictures to show the part you mean?

 

[Curt]

Yeah I'll get some tomorrow, can't right now. I was all ready to order the Whiteline arb to solve this too, good job I didn't as that's not the issue anymore... ******.