The rear ARB is straightforward to fit, basically a U shaped bar that is tied to the rear beam and mounts at the ends of the rear struts. The H&R beam is a meaty 28mm that should stiffen things up, but is also adjustable with three settings, soft, medium and hard, I guess? The car was still on the stands after fitting the front bar yesterday and the first thing that I did was clean all the sh*t of the rear bar and spray some release oil on the rear strut mounts bolts and nuts. You may notice that further on I have moved the stands from the beam to the body to allow movement in beam for ease of removing and fitting the strut bolts. I then fitted the alloy links to the rear struts, I supported bottom of the each beam end with a jack to allow me to lower or heighten to let me align the beam and strut holes for removing and fitting the bolts. Straightforward, but worth noting that the longer bolts can be a bit of a struggle on the lefthand side to get in between the rear silencer and the strut mounting. Also the end of the link that the beam bolts to has a rubber bush with a tiny hole compared to the shanked bolt that fits it, but with a bit of silicone grease it pushed through with finger pressure. As I was working alone, (again), I decided to attach the bar to the both link in the middle setting, with the link in a vertical position and held the beam in place with a tywrap, that way it found its natural position on the beam. It was then just a case of fitting the bushes, which are split, the steel bush mounts and the mounting straps. The bushes have to be 580mm centre to centre on the rear beam but there a two dents in the rear beam at exactly 580mm to it made alignment a doddle In the picture below you can see the existing ARB. That's both ARB fitted.....
Nice guide mate. I did mine about three weeks ago using the H&R ARB's, although I haven't driven the car yet!!! The rear one was pretty straight forward but boy did I struggle with the front . Never again! How does it handle now?
To make it easier to get to the lower shock mounts, undo the top mounts from inside the boot and the shock will drop down, makes it much easier. I use a piece of tube over the top of the shock to guide it back into the turret when I jack the axle up to refit it, to stop the top adjuster getting damaged on teh Koni's.
Unfortunately I've not driven it yet as I was repacing a hub and the tie rod ends at the same time and need to get the alignment and camber done. I did the front the day bar before and posted some pictures http://www.clubgti.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?t=130503 I found that if you get the "angle" of the bush and bar right they push in fairly easily, the pics may make it clearer. Maybe for the next time you have to do it?
Im assuming that it would be a similar fit for a mk3 gti? How much does an arb kit like this cost approx?
I bought mine from europe performance, here is a link to the Mk3 H&R ARB kits page, http://tinyurl.com/2cqwy9 There are a variety of kits, I called just to ensure I was ordering what I actually wanted and they were pretty helpful The total cost for the the 25mm front and 28mm rear that I bought was 289, including VAT and delivery. Hope this helps.
