Low Polos and Bump Stops

[noone]

Wondering if anyone has had any issues with or modified their bump stops when riding low.

I've not paid any attention to them until Spraycanmansam brought it up in his build thread, but looks like my rears are almost riding on the bump stops.

Interested in after-market solutions or cutting them down (as long as it does not affect how they sit / their effectiveness)

[h100vw]

vw bumpstops | eBay

Bumpstops were all the rage when I was a kid. Definitely need them as the shock going solid if compressed all the way isn't good. Found out the hard way........

[noone]

Any idea how solid they are all the way through Gav?

If you cut the top off I'm guessing there would be less to hold them up, if you cut the bottom off, you remove the dust cover clippy bit.

So aftermarket ones or cut the middle, top or bottom?

[s4mmie]

Good stuff, I was going to start a separate thread on this.

I want to cut mine long enough to keep the shock from bottoming out (mainly!) and short enough to get maximum shock travel at my current height. The bumpstop is basically acting as my shock absorber at the moment, not ideal.
After looking at it, the best way I can see it to cut out the middle knob and glue the two pieces back together. The glue only really has to hold it up there so it should be fine if it's a good quality glue, I was thinking maybe something like what upholsterers use to glue foam together...?

[noone]

From your photo, the part number is 6Q0512131C (may be useful)
Seems this one also suits: 6Q0512131B

Ive come across these but not sure how they'd work (cant find much info on them): Supersport bump stops

[h100vw]

In my experience only the top 20mm grips the piston in the shock. So if you cut any more off, it won't stay up on it's own. If you cut the bottom obviously the dust shield has nothing to fit on.

Cutting 20-30mm out of the middle would be the go. You could glue and I would make sure that stays good with a couple of cable ties.

Or get poly ones and ditch the dust shields.

They don't do much here like they would in the UK.

Gavin

[noone]

Had a look up close at my rear bump stops today.

On the driver side it had started to tear, pretty sure once the rear springs sagged, the passenger side rubber was in better condition. The dust cover was not moving with the bump stop as it didn't freely fit over the top of the KW strut.

I removed about 35mm of the middle of both bump stops, cut it off whilst still mounted (sharp knife, pretty easy to access).

This is the removed section from the right shock


I think when the KW's were fresh it was not so bad / noticable, but its been noticibly rough in the last year, had blamed the swaybars and other components for the rough ride. The car seemed to pitch too much.

to Sam (Spaycanmansam), thanks for pointing this out, its great to spend $0 and 1/2 an hour on the Polo and have a noticable improvement. If you find yourself in Sydney, I owe you a beer.

[pologti18t]

This used to be an issue with MX5s that were lowered. The bumpstop creates the effect of extra spring rate (variable rate?) at the end of compression. When they lowered the mx5s without modifying the bumpstops it caused a rapid increase in apparent spring rate as the bumpstop came into effect much earlier. Caused the back end to bounce about on big bumps etc. Very uncomfortable.
They did what you guys did. Cut out the middle portion and reglue. Even that didn't fix it completely.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMhK381UO80

[noone]

Yeah my rear now rubs over speed-bumps and such. Not really an issue, I have probably an extra 40 kg and a full tank of petrol now.

So much smoother, really liking the extra tuck. Worried I'm not going to clear the ramp at work, used to scrape with a passenger, now I think I'll have to look at where it touches and if there is possible damage to be concerned with. If I have to, I might put the adjusters back in (prob bring me back up to my previous height)...

[s4mmie]

Good stuff!

Now I know I definitely have to get to onto it.
I plan on cutting out the same amount and gluing them back together; it's good to know it makes a nice improvement!
I wouldn't have given it a second thought unless Eddy mentioned it, gotta love this forum!

[noone]

So now the rears are sorted, onto the fronts.

Anyone replaced or cut down the front stops?

[s4mmie]

I think it's a different story with the rears as we use the original bumpstops, but for the fronts I would hope that they would have pre-assembled bump-stops that are the correct height to work within their lowering range?