I am wondering how much labour is likely to cost for fitting a new front arb. The arb is quite badly corroded and the bushes are proper shagged, I could just do the bushes but would rather fit a bigger bar to compliment the 22mm neuspeed bar i have at the rear. Is there anything else i should be looking at doing while the subframe is down?

If I remember rightly mine cost me £135 parts and labour at my local village garage a couple of years ago, I think it was maybe a couple of hours labour.

The car needs to be up on hoists and the rear part of the subframe has to come down.

While you're doing it you could possibly look at doing a dogbone engine mount and TT steering rack if you wanted to do those.

AFAIK the only larger bar you can fit at the front is the 23mm R32 one in which case the handling would be back to what it was like before you fitted the 22mm rear one. Either leave the front standard or replace the 22mm rear one with a 25 or 28mm one.

Edited 4 July, 201016 yr by chicken_eyebrow

well a lot of the subframe bolts are one use stretch style so i did evrything whilst i had my subframe off. It seemed pointless to do half now half later.

I actually bought a tt subframe and refurbed it (it included the lower brace already fitted ) then i did tt cast wishbones, and all related bushes including castor adjusters, 23mm front arb, tt steering rack with polybush, front dogbone insert (had already done the rear dogbone bush) and all new nuts and bolts.

I did this all off the car then dropped my old setup and fitted the new refurbed setup in its place saving time.

Neuspeed bars are 25mm or 28mm iirc, are you sure its not a whiteline one?

The r32 front bar was about 60ish from AVS, the polybushes (superpro) were about 12ish from Pir racing.

hth

Thanks for the replies guys, Thats good news on the labour, I was expecting a massive bill but if its only the rear end of the subframe that needs dropping a bit instead of the whole thing off then i guess thats why. My rear arb is definately a neuspeed one I measured it at 25mm (i was going of my rubbish memory when i said 22mm). I know if I fitt a bigger one at the front it'll bring back a little under steer tendency but that would be ok as with the current set up the back lets go well before the front. According to awesome, neuspeed do a 22 and a 25 front bar http://www.awesome-gti.co.uk/section.php?xSec=300&xPage=1 but the stock r 32 one would be cheaper I guess. the Dogbone bush is the one thing i was thinking, the rest of the stuff you've done Sweedish sounds good but its a step too far for me:)

Here's what mine looks like at the moment, is that shim part of the bushing or the bar? I didnt see replacements on avs.

next dumb question: the attached pic is from the fitting instructions from a 25mm nuespeed bar, and shows the drop links connected to the wishbone, while my wishbones do have that mounting point, my standard arb is connected to my struts. is there any problems connecting the nuespeed way? how does the r32 one fit? ( my car is stock height)

still trying to source an r32 bar, may have to try my local vw stealer.