Hi guys, Im after some advice.

I have a new spring and damper setup ready to go on the car as well as an R32 front and (hopefully next week) a custom Jabba rear anti roll bar. My question is how easy is it to do the ARB swap? Im seriously contemplating doing the job myself to save some £££. Im comfrtable with doing the dampers and springs but the ARB's are the unknown quantity for me as Ive never previously done these on any car myself.

Car is a 2002 Octy 4x4 hatch.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Lee

Ross told me once they were a day's work for a competant DIY mechanic working on the driveway.

I'd imagine that as you'll be taking the dampers and springs off anyway it'll be quite easy.

I assume you'll change the ARB drop links too?

A whole day is what I guessed. Drop links and powerflex bushes ready to go also. Droplinks are from the matching R32 arb so I hope thats right!?

Does the Octavia have a subframe at the front that has to be dropped?

Cheers for the reply.

Lee

Yes it does, you also need to loosen the steering rack IIRC.

Not a 5 minute job.

Not sure - perhaps you should post in "ask a tech" and get a difinitive answer.

How did you get the Jabba rear ARB? I thought Jabba weren't selling these without a certain number of buyers. I really want one so please let me know.

I rang them up a few weeks back asking about fitting a variable boost control to the remap they had already done to my car. I asked about the rear arb and they said they could do one, can't remember exactly how much but never mentioned a group buy and said they could do it all within 2 weeks...

Yes it does' date=' you also need to loosen the steering rack IIRC.

Not a 5 minute job.[/quote']

You do remember correctly.

I rang them up a few weeks back asking about fitting a variable boost control to the remap they had already done to my car. I asked about the rear arb and they said they could do one, can't remember exactly how much but never mentioned a group buy and said they could do it all within 2 weeks...

i know a new owner at work looking for a 4x4 uprated rear ARB,loving the car but says its a bit wollowy

Are you fitting adjustable upper tie rods on the rear, if you are lowering the car which I guess you are you will find the rear camber a tadge excessive, I took mine down to around RS height & it was way out when they tried to set the Geometry afterwards. The ones designed fpr the TT fit, The only people selling them when I bought mine were Forge at silly money, Jabba I believe also offer them now for somewhat less than I paid.

I get my car set up by Powerstation in Cheltenham although that might be a bit far for you but def worth it if you can make the trip. You will need to get it done somewhere & I have found the average tyre company dont have a clue how to set up a std car, let alone one thats modified.

Powerstations reputation for setting up cars is IMO deserved. They have a wealth of experience with both road cars & race cars, on both my Subaru before & on the Octy they really sorted the cars out, tell them how you want the car to handle but also how much tyre wear you can tolerate & what type of roads you are mainly driving on. If you set the car up for twisties/track you can add more camber & toe to get the optimum handling but it means tyre wear on Motorways will be greater.

If you do use them take the car loaded as you would mostly drive it as weight has a bearing on the set up as does driver weight, last time they set my car before the cannonball they did it with us sat in the car on the ramp to try & get it spot on

Hi Stuart,

I am looking at the rear adjustable tie rods but as you say £300 plus vat from Forge does initially seem like a lot of cash! I didnt know anywhere else did them so I will give Nick at Jabba a ring today (also need to chase my rear arb with them) so thats all good - thanks for the heads up.

Car is now booked into Power Engineering for all the suspension related work to be done on the 25th March - cant wait.

Lee

EDIT - just spotted some comments above regarding the jabba custom rear arb - they are waiting for them to come in; today hopefully! They didnt get five customers together for the gb but went ahead and bought a few anyhow.

Big thanks to Nick at Jabba! Rear adjustable tie rods -

Big thanks to Nick at Jabba! Rear adjustable tie rods -

lol Stuart - more like a crate after all the past advice!