Club G40 Forum
Technical => Chassis & Braking => Topic started by: Alex on April 16, 2008, 01:49:50 am
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Other than coilovers I mean.
The problem is, mine and many other Mk3 Polos seem to lean onto their offside rear wheel.
This makes the car sit an inch or so lower on that side. Even standard ones do it.
Mine's been lowered for years, and I've tried all sorts (including swapping the shocks over, and buying new springs) but to no avail.
Now what I think is happening is that the driver, engine and fuel tank are all on that side. Bad design, yes, but I can't believe that they left the showroom like that.
I've also had the car checked out, it's a straight shell and has only had one small rear end ding in its life.
Which means it isn't damage, something is wearing out, and then causing the car to lean.
But what?
Rear beam bushes?
Has anyone sorted this? It's pissing me off. I'm going to wind up buying coilovers to sort it, and to be honest that's just masking the problem.
Any ideas?
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[quote pid=899 author=Alex date=1208306990]Other than coilovers I mean.
The problem is, mine and many other Mk3 Polos seem to lean onto their offside rear wheel.
[/quote]
It's the same on my G40. When I first got the car the offisde rear spring had been set 1 notch lower than the nearside, so I evened them out and now the car sits lower on the nearside. I'm gonna have to compensate and put it back how it was.
You probably won't need colies, just some aftermarket suspension that has ajustable hight rear's (most do for the polo). That way you can do what I'll be doing and set them at diffent hights. I'm using KW suspension and the steps are about 15mm appart.
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Thing is, that's just covering it up, something must be wearing out and causing the dreaded lean.
But what is it?
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[quote pid=914 author=Alex date=1208350835]Thing is, that's just covering it up, something must be wearing out and causing the dreaded lean.
But what is it?[/quote]
Only thing to do is measure the spring lengths. I suspect that the off-side has been perminantly compressed due to my fat ass. I'll check next time I've got the rear wheels off. Either that or the top mounts are different in some way?...
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Its something that has interested me also. But my vento used to do it too! Now i have coiles on that, it still seems to lean a little bit, even adjusting out the suspension the difference didn't seem to sort it.
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[quote pid=899 author=Alex date=1208306990]
Now what I think is happening is that the driver, engine and fuel tank are all on that side. Bad design, yes, but I can't believe that they left the showroom like that.
[/quote]
When you think about it your only talking about 500 cars (if were just limiting this to G40's) where everything is on the right side of the car, on all the others the driver is on the left.
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mine doesnt do it, but i have noticed it on other polos.
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[quote pid=924 author=NeilG40 date=1208365247][quote pid=899 author=Alex date=1208306990]
Now what I think is happening is that the driver, engine and fuel tank are all on that side. Bad design, yes, but I can't believe that they left the showroom like that.
[/quote]
When you think about it your only talking about 500 cars (if were just limiting this to G40's) where everything is on the right side of the car, on all the others the driver is on the left.[/quote]
I remember talking to 'Duck' (those who remember him he's still got his crazy 1341Eaton), and he said that the original G40 left hand drive models had perfect wieght distrabution, and only on the right hand drive models this occurs.
Come on Duck share your knowledge...... ^_^
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[quote pid=928 author=G-spot date=1208377431]
I remember talking to 'Duck' (those who remember him he's still got his crazy 1341Eaton), and he said that the original G40 left hand drive models had perfect wieght distrabution, and only on the right hand drive models this occurs.
Come on Duck share your knowledge...... ^_^[/quote]
He got it finished then, I always found his posts on the pitstop forum really interesting with what he'd got planned.
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Mine leaned when it was a GT, and there's a Fox down the road from my parents house which does it too. So it's a Polo thing, not a G40 thing. I just don't think they'd have been allowed to leave the factory like that. There MUST be something which wears out, and it's likely to be down to the weight of everything on the right hand side.
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the rear beams to bend you know sam's had 2 bent ones... could be that
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does anybody have figures for the length of a mk3 polo rear axel. I will measure the 2 spare ones I have at home to see.
Although if we can get a list of length then we will be able to see if they are bent or not
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I've wondered if that might be the problem, how easily do they bend? And can they be bent back (obviously with some extra reinforcement)?
Most importantly though, how easy is it to check? It's not obviously bent anywhere. Where do they bend?
It's due new suspension soon (I fitted the Spax stuff currently on the car in September 2001!) so I'll check the rear beam then and probably fit new bushes while I'm at it. It does my bloody head in having the car leaning, but to the best of my knowledge it has always done it. :(
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the only way to really work things out is using a fixed reference from some point on the axel.
Just calculate the midpoint of the to of the axel and then measure to the edge of the 'arms'.
Although for this to work you would be assuming to top horizontal part is not the bent
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Or just set the suspension as it should be then check the corner weights. I don't have access to any anymore (I don't think the current team I work for occasionally has any anyway) but I'm sure some ex G40 cup owners would know! Or ask someone like Beavis, if he still replies to people.?
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My mechanic back in Cardiff builds his own rally cars - I reckon he'd be able to do it. Might be worth taking it back there on the weekend and leaving it with him for a week.
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This is very intersting, i have just taken my rear axel off. I had a good look over it for fatigue points and stress signs but couldn't find any. I also placed the axel on my perfectly flat workbench and found it to be sitting true to the bench. Only thing i have yet to check is that the angles of the 'arms' are true to each other and the cross member section of the beam. I'll put them up once i have checked them..
As mentioned above, i think the best way of getting to the bottom of the lean issue it to get a standard car (that has never been in an accident) fit some new fully adjustable coils on it, set them to the exact same setting both front and rear and side to side then corner weight it with some digi pans? Using the results from the pans you would then be able to change components etc to see if any of them had an influencing factor...
I would love to know what it really was causing this, maybe its purely a RHD weight distribution problem!?
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Mine has always done this too, one of my suspects is the rubber top mount for the spring.
Mine is fully stripped down for a rebuild at the minute and I've two new rubber mounts to go in, will be interesting to see if it makes any difference. Actually all the suspension will be new bar the back axle.
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I'm due new suspension for mine, I'll probably replace these too. Every little helps I guess.
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Rear suspension alignment on all mk2-3 Polos seems to be a common problem.
My mk2 doesn't particularly suffer from the leaning that Alex is talking about but the rear beam is way out laterally. ???
Mine being a breadvan has the ususal rear tyre/arch limitations but when lowered 60mm and with 5 1/2"x13" ET38 GT steels and 165/65 tyres fitted, the offside tyre is only about 10mm at its nearest point from the (unmodified) arch return lip. The nearside has more like 20mm+!
I'm gonna remove the axle mounting brackets and slot the mounting holes so I can centralise the axle.
So, back to the leaning issue. The fuel tank sits very low and virtually central across the car (only the filler neck is on one side) so I can't see this being a problem - and this is more than counteracted by the weight of the exhaust back box anyway. Years ago, many cars had the fuel tank mounted high up against the rear wing in the boot area, and they didn't all lean over!
Yeah the engine is offset in the bay (though its not as if it were terribly so), as is the battery/pedal box/servo/steering column. This is all quite heavy stuff, but the gearbox, expansion and washer bottles, rad/fan motor and majority of the wiring loom etc. do at least go some way in balancing things up!
Remember, all the above weight is in the part of the car least effected - the heaviest part - the front. I don't see how this would/could effect the back suspension to the degree it does, particularly when people are still having problems after they have replaced the suspension?
I'm sticking with poor body alignment as the most likely problem. The afformentioned beam mounting brackets can make the car appear lop sided too, check your tyre to arch clearance each side.
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you;ll find the axle mounts already have some movement if you unbolt them actually....
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you;ll find the axle mounts already have some movement if you unbolt them actually....
Ah right, thanks Pete I wasn't aware of that. 8)