Rear ARB now fitted to an A2

mytA2

mytA2

A2OC Donor
I have fitted a rear ARB on my A2. It was obtained from Awesome and they list it for Mk5 Polo and Fabia. It is made by Whitelines costs £117 (BARGAIN) and its adjustable, soft/medium/hard. I am running it on the soft setting and even on that it makes a big difference. I never really felt my A2 had any problems getting round corners but last year on a visit to the ring the front tires were getting really hot and slippy. This year it was more balanced. It now feels like the front end is being towed round the corners. There is less wheel spin driving out of the slower corners and a little less body roll.

You will see I have re-shaped the supplied U-bolts. They probably would have done the job with no problems but I wanted maximum clearance around the axle as the car is slightly lowered.

Fitting the ARB was straight forward but me being fussy about the U-bolts the job took me around 2hrs.

Check out the pictures below
 
Hi Malcom you finaly found the time to take some photos i see. Looks good and not how i had thought it would have fitted, is the lower damper bolt longer aswell?.

Do you still have the codes for the parts and what do you get in with the ARB etc.....


Cheers Phil
 
nice job even better with pictures. nice feature of it being adjustable,nice job of re-bending the u-bolts.
cheers for sharing with us Mike
 
If he goes on the track again this year it will be good to see how it goes against the others (or how far he gets in front) as he was well in front last year, or was that because Wooly and Humps decided to go cut the grass lol and let him get away

Phil
 
Hi guys thanks for the positive feed back.

Your right Phil the lower shock bolts are replaced with longer ones. Everything you need comes supplied in the kit.

I have just checked Awesome Gti's web site, there are no part numbers listed. It is however the only one they list for MK5 9N Polo.

Regards Malcolm
 
Nice review there Malcolm,

Glad to see it has made a good notable improvement!

I've asked our web development guy to include this part in the A2 Section of our website :)

Many thanks, AL.
 
How much is this ARB kit AL? Is there any discount available on one?

I must admit to reading in great length on the Skoda Fabia and Seat Ibiza forums about them and they get really good reviews. I am sorely tempted to get one to try. Totally reversible/removeable if it's not to one's liking too.

Cheers,
 
I need a little help here Malcolm, that beam looks like 1/4 or less of the cross-section size of the rear axle. I can't imagine it adding much torsional stiffness comparing to the existing axle beam, which is quite a meaty piece of ARB in itself! In fact, I can't imagine the existing rear axle twists at all (during normal driving anyway).

May be you can give me a demo at the next VAG night! :)
 
I must admit I have been having problems understanding how it works, but according to a fair few reports from users, it does.

I came to the conclusion that the rear axle must twist a fair bit and maybe it is actually designed in twist to create a pseudo semi-independant rear suspension set up. The ARB simply joins both rear trailing arms and reduces that twisting. That's all I could think of.

Cheers,
 
Lee S said:
I came to the conclusion that the rear axle must twist a fair bit and maybe it is actually designed in twist to create a pseudo semi-independant rear suspension set up.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's exactlty how an "axle beam" rear suspension works.
 
I would highly recomend this mod for the tdi as you have a heavy cast iron lump at the front.

By reducing the twist of the rear axle you effectivly transfer a little more torsonal load to the rear suspension. This then stightly reduces the torsonal loads going through the front suspension. Hence the front tires have a more even levels of grip and more turn in grip.

The fitting of the ARB does not require any alteration of the car or rear axle, so is totally reversable.

Humps, I thought you had enough of my driving last time;-)))) still have your nail marks in the grab handle ;-)) can't do any vag nights at the ace for some time, working in Wales. How about ADI? PM me.

Regards Malcolm
 
Lee S said:
How much is this ARB kit AL? Is there any discount available on one?

I must admit to reading in great length on the Skoda Fabia and Seat Ibiza forums about them and they get really good reviews. I am sorely tempted to get one to try. Totally reversible/removeable if it's not to one's liking too.

Cheers,
Click to expand...

Hi Lee,

The retail price on these is £149.50 + VAT.
We're currently selling them at £117.50 + VAT (£145.48 inc VAT, Delivered to your door).

I've just added them to the Audi A2 Section of our website now, so they can be seen Here

:)
 
Whiteline do excellent arbs I fitted one to my S2 transformed the handling and being adjustable was excellent too allowed you to set it up to personal preferance. good way of dialling out some understeer for sure. Interesting mod.
 
So, the six million dollar question...
Do I ask Awsome to fit one of these when they have my car in on saturday for a week of cambelt/Koni/Weitec TLC?
 
Supply them with enough Yorkshire tea and cakes (Ooof, Ken - you shouldn't have two pieces, you'll spoil your dinner), the price could come down!

Cheers,

Mike
 
Mike, tried that approach already with Sarah! She is too professional to be swayed by offers of tea and buttery cake.
However, if it works on pricing of cruise control then let me know ;-)
 
If you can get me a meeting with John, then you're on! Worlds biggest Shuttleworth fan here!

However, the discounts will be small!

Cheers,

Mike
 
Now, Mike. You know that to speak to the man you have to go through his agent, Ken.
Only he can say yay or nay to an audience with the man himself. Have to say though, I think his rates might have gone up for personal appearances.

I can get you a signed box of tea?


[goes off to practice Shuttleworth signature]
 
I'll end up boring you with endless Ken & John-isms when you come for the cruise fitting, just so you know!

Johns friend Graham has signed quite a few of my cds and dvds, and when he knew I worked on Coronation Street, asked me to send his regards to Betty Turpin (All she says is 'Yes Luvvie?').

I'll stop now before the thread goes completely off topic!

Cheers,

Mike
 
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