Whiteline Anti Lift Kit fitted - Freakin' Awesome!!!

[bluefrog]

with the rate that we've been putting km's on the R it wouldn't surprise me if they only lasted that long

but I mean if this mod results in generally safer cornering then I'd rather pay for rubber a little earlier.

.

(edit) .. actually wouldn't camber be the one to create uneven tyre wear? I can't see how castor would do it.

[woofy]

Yeah I dunno, but everytime someone has put a whiteline mod like that one a car in the last 6 yrs on other forums, that is usually the post that follows later on.

My personal forum favourite is "I've lowered the car XXX amount and put these XXX sized wheels on that look fully sick" and then about a month later, "my tyres are scrubbing and I keep hitting things like speed bumps, there is oil coming from somewhere, have I cracked my sump?"

[brad]

caster doesn't wear tyres.

Changing the caster will change the camber (a little bit) & the toe (slightly more). So if you fit an ALK then you should get a decent wheel alignment done. There probably isn't a lot you can do with the camber - there might be a quarter degree available via slop in the suspenion but the toe is easily adjustable.

[bluefrog]

I just spoke with my local installation workshop (Volkspower) cause I couldn't find mention of an alignment on the invoice - they told me that it shouldn't change wheel geometry and an alignment wasn't needed. *confused*

[brad]

Ring/email Whiteline & ask them what they think.

[bluefrog]

Thanks brad, very good suggestion .. and you were correct in the first instance

Whiteline tech support got back to me within the hour. Their advice was that my toe will be affected and will need to be reset, so yep, I do infact need a wheel alignment.

[brad]

Thanks brad, very good suggestion .. and you were correct in the first instance

Wheel alignments were my bread&butter from about 1981-1986 and the basics haven't changed.
Rather than write a sermon, I figured it would be easier to get it straight from the horses mouth.

Might I suggest Ralf at TrueTrac?

[bluefrog]

Are they as good as their website makes them out to be ??

[brad]

Are they as good as their website makes them out to be ??

I've helped run another forum for the past 5 years & have a great group of mates from Vic/Mel as a result. There's a hard core group that are "committed" drivers & only have/buy the best. They all go to Ralf at Tru(e)trac (ie: they buy a new car & see Ralf within a month of purchase for suspension upgrades, corner weighting, alignments, etc). Their recomendation is good enough for me.

edit: They also all go to Damien at Final Inspection. I believe he's one of the best in Mel as well isn't he? What Damien is to detailing, Ralf is to Wheel Alignment

[bluefrog]

Sounds exactly like what I've spent a fair amount of time searching for (tho I've been searching Melb eastern suburbs but North Melb will do if I can get that level of expertise/service.

As soon as I get the new wheels put on the Octy in November I'm heading straight there

.. as for the R's alignment I'll just get it done a bit closer at Hawthorn.

Thanks for the recommendation Brad.

[woofy]

Gee I remember when Damian just started out, his rep has travelled to that many forums huh...

[rouge71]

Newbie from Europe here  I have used Whiteline parts on my previous car before and wasn’t impressed. Swaybars rusted within a couple of months and weren’t bent accurately so they were under tension when my car was sitting flat.
I bought the Anti Lift Kit as well. Although it looks like it’s made in China, I thought it was too expensive, when the same or better result can be had from caster correction bushes and some spacers.

‘Anti Lift’ is a bit misleading as well. The back of the control arm is positioned slightly down, reducing the ‘anti geometry’. This means that the car will lift more under acceleration and dive more under braking.

I have always liked Australian parts for my cars. My 4x4 is full of them. But when I asked Whiteline where their parts are made, they did not want to answer. Although it is an Australian company, I don’t think their products are.

I would like to fit some Australian parts to my Gti, but it won’t be Whiteline, especially as I read on German forums that they have fitment and quality problems on Golfs, despite having TUV approval!?

[dArK5HaD0w]

Newbie from Europe here  I have used Whiteline parts on my previous car before and wasn’t impressed. Swaybars rusted within a couple of months and weren’t bent accurately so they were under tension when my car was sitting flat.
I bought the Anti Lift Kit as well. Although it looks like it’s made in China, I thought it was too expensive, when the same or better result can be had from caster correction bushes and some spacers.

‘Anti Lift’ is a bit misleading as well. The back of the control arm is positioned slightly down, reducing the ‘anti geometry’. This means that the car will lift more under acceleration and dive more under braking.

I have always liked Australian parts for my cars. My 4x4 is full of them. But when I asked Whiteline where their parts are made, they did not want to answer. Although it is an Australian company, I don’t think their products are.

I would like to fit some Australian parts to my Gti, but it won’t be Whiteline, especially as I read on German forums that they have fitment and quality problems on Golfs, despite having TUV approval!?

its a shame u've had bad experiences with whiteline products.

i on the otherhand have had a good run with rear swaybar and front struct brace that i had on my previous car (holden/opel astra).
fitment and quality were really good.
had them on for many years with no sign of stress, rust or any faults.

i haven't had an anti-lift kit - maybe this is different.

i also know whiteline aren't the quickest on the block when it comes to updating their product range for new makes/models. so getting the right whiteline part for the right car is paramount.

[rouge71]

I suppose you don't have the winters we have here, with snow and salt on the roads. But that wasn't the only problem with the swaybars. When a car is sitting on its wheels on a flat surface, the swaybar should line up with the droplinks. If it doesn't, it means that there is incorrect tension. Basically, it increases the spring rate on one corner and reduces it on the other side. In my case, both the front and rear swabars needed a lot of forcing to fit the droplinks. I think the swaybar ends were different in height by about 1.5 cm unlike the standard ones that came off the car.
A friend with the same car, but running a different make of swaybars, lined up perfectly, just like the standard ones.

As for the Anti lift kit, here in Europe it is around €200. I have now fitted caster correction bushes on both sides to get almost a degree extra caster. This is great for grip and a less active ESP. If I wanted to reduce the anti geometry, like the anti lift kit, I would make some alloy spacers to fit between the alloy bush housing and the subframe, to get the control arm horizontal across its inner pivot points.

Less than half the cost and arguably better and adjustable for 'anti lift' by changing spacer thickness.

Leaves me thinking what swaybars to get? What swaybars are the Australian racing Golfs/Leons/Octavias running?

[Whiteline]

Hi,

Just to let you know that when we first started our sway bar range we mainly sold in Australia and had no corrosion or rust issues.
As we branched world wide we did start to see some issues a few years later with the snow area that use salt on the roads.

Since then we have now changed our coatings to suite and instead of just the raw powdercoat we now zinc coat the bar and then powdercoat plus a clear coat made especially to solve this.

This coating has been used for about 2 -2 1/2 years now and is also on the end plates of the strut braces and adjustable arms and we have tested them in these conditions with great success.

We also had to do this to get our TUV certificte to sell approved parts in the German market .

Also I am not sure when you had would have tried our sway bars but they had to go through some of the hardest tests to get the TUV approval and they were approved as easy to fit so maybe you just had a one off bar that was not %100.

If we wre contacted at the time we may have replaced the bar if it was not fitting correct or due to the corrosion .

The price you quoted on the Antilift kit is only from one re-seller and as we have many in each country now if you shop around you will see that prices can be cheaper from certain dealers .

Click this link and enter your area it will list many dealers to compare pricing
Whiteline worldwide dealer locator for performance suspension