HPA [Red] dog bone donut - Made it work!

[Martin]

A few weeks ago I installed the HPA dog bone mount, the red/soft one
You still get *mild* cabin reverberations below 2000rpm - especially if the air con is working hard
It's the least intrusive reverberations out of 3 products I've tried to date - but they still get on your nerves
At idle with the air con on you tend to change into neutral to get relief from the reverberations

This product is close to perfect, I was wondering what could be done to take the edge off the reverberations
I thought I could try cutting bits out of the donut - similar to the stock unit
So that's exactly what I did today (had nothing to loose really)

I used a multi tool to cut a small section out of the front and rear of the donut - here is the end result:


And the result?
No more reverberations at idle
No more reverberations under mild load from low rpm
Some very mild reverberations in reverse

So my car is now back to being nice to drive but still has the benefits of these aftermarket upgrades
The engine seems to transmit torque to the wheels better - it's noticeable

Happy!

[zei20t]

looks good! but I bet you tear the bush after some time. it dampens mostly back and forward motion, which you have essentially modified a solid one and made a stock one from it

[Martin]

No chance of that happening at all - you haven't seen the stock one, right?
The HPA rubber is stiffer & tougher than the stock unit
I still have MUCH more contact area than stock

I cut the front and rear sections because that's where the reverberations would be coming from
The natural rocking motion of the engine, forward/backward

Here is the stock VAG (Skoda) dog bone donut
It has no forward/backward bracing at all
It's only connected at two points, 8pm and 4pm
(The 12 oclock point may connect with the outer ring under heavy load)

[Mysticality]

I have the hardest one from DubAddiction in mine. It was horrendous for vibrations, but then one of the arms broke yet it stayed in place, so got most of the benefits but with a little wheel hop still present.

Then I put some rubber bits (sliced up tyre tubes actually :p) into the big flat spot in the stock mount and everything is good again!... No vibes, either. (except in reverse, but no biggy because manual)