Hi all Am thinkin of doing some handling mods to my mk2 16V. Although i think i know what my plan is for shocks and springs, i am a little more confused as to the virtues of ARB's Could anyone please tell me: 1. Whether it is worth getting them for front and back, or just back 2. How easy/difficult they are to fit (fitting charge would be appreciated if any1 knows). What tools etc. 3. A link to a website that sells em, and that you would reccommend (brand etc). 4. Just how much faster can you take a bend Many thanks Andy
Your GTI already has ARBs! The question is whether you make them bigger/stiffer or not. ARBs basically stop the car rolling in a turn, without needing incredibly stiff suspension. But they reduce side to side suspension independance (so if you hit a pot hole with one wheel, the opposite one gets deflected too). Stiffer rear ARBS give more oversteer, stiffer front ARBs give more understeer. Cheers, Drew.
Eibach ARB's can be bought for 200. The back one is easy to fit... the front needs the sub frame dropping a little. MidVW fitted mine for 40 If you got a set of Eibach Bars + a Boge/Eibach suspension setup you would be laughing through every bend. Obviously if you had extra cash coilovers are worth every penny..
ARB's are the best investment i ever made for the car, the car is so much more fun to drive Craig 91 16v
As has been said, ARBs do reduce weight transfer from side to side during cornering, allowing the inside tyre to share more of the outer tyre's work. However, I understand there are times when weight transfer is useful such as in wet conditions where the transfer of weight to the outer tyre 'pushes' it through the water to key into the surface. Still really keen to fit a set of Eibach ARBs to my car .. one day. A
Well, googled what i considered to be sensible search terms and found quite little in regard to uk stockists of eibach ARBS. Awesome GTI was the exception, but they did not have any in stock. Where did you all get yours from? Oh, and also, i thought there were different diameter versions available, yet all the (mainly US) suppliers i found simply stated the car make and model? Cheers Andy Edited by: andykaz
Of course you can. Unless you are running quite high poundage springs then ARBs may be of benefit. Of course, if you have no roll or have no desire to curb it then don't bother.
To be honest my mk2 on Koni coilovers doesn`t seem to roll THAT much on standard arbs (may have to check some of Gary`s vids!). It all depends on what you have to spend, I bought a shedload before I was happy! Koni t/a`s and eibach springs come a close second to my Coilovers. It would be interesting to hear anyone who`s done the arb`s after coilovers, to see how much difference there is..
Its not just about roll. ARB's make the car turn in quicker as well (especially with uprated rear), so you can corner a lot faster.
I fitted ARB's after coilovers... Massive amounts of difference! Shock absorbers are meant to deal with keeping your tyres in contact with the road and controlling the pitching of the car. Winding your shockers up as hard as they go isn't the best thing to do, but will reduce body roll. ARB's control the sideways movment of the car.. the roll. When you fit some ARB's you can then set the suspension to do it's job...
ARB's have no effect on weight transfer at all, you get weight transfer on Go Karts with no springs at all.
Exactly, so if a kart or car had soft springs it would lean a lot and keep both wheels on the same axle for longer than an axle which was very stiff and lifted the inside wheel. If at a given speed car a with no arbs has both wheels on the road then the weight is still spread over both wheels but if car b lifts a wheel up then the proportion of weight is different. Similarly, there's a guy I hear of who races Alfas. He runs no arbs whatsoever but does run what seems to be extraordinary poundage springs (don't recall the spring rates). Edited by: edc1
The most important thing about limiting body roll has nothing to do with weight transfer. What hurts the overall level of grip is the excessive camber change when cornering. By limiting camber change you can achieve a better tyre contact patch while cornering. The McPherson strut is designed to go into negative camber under compression but even with that built in it will still go into positive camber during high enough cornering loads.
IMO ARBs are a must if you plan on doing some track days/hard road use... you can enter corners at a much higher speed and because they keep the car flatter you can get on the power earlier without spinning one wheel all the time. also huge amounts of control if you go into a slide.. alot more controllable than standard IMO. i had coilovers then added ARBs! well worth it!
So What if you had a standard GTi, with standard ARB and added cheap "coilovers". Would this see an improvement in anti wobble and handling ?
