Against s4 Avant.... We're talking about appearance anyway, not performance.

ITSALLABOUTWAGONSNOW

Sorry to the OP

 

Yeah, that's probably a better car overall anyway.
V is cool shit though...

 

Been a while since the last update, just been thrashing the car to and from work.. ..Sucks that I have no exciting kill stories, there was a S3 that tried to dance but disappeared way to easy..

​​​Managed to gather some parts over the last month or so & finally had some free time to get most installed this weekend. This round of mods consist of:

- 2nd set of V wheels so that I can run a squared (9.5") setup all around.
- 15mm bolt on spacers all around
- BC coilovers
- Mag ride delete kit
- 265/35/19 blizzaks x 4

The V community pretty much shuns anyone that even considers removing the mag ride setup & even worse if they mention BC coilovers, KW or bust it seems. I bit the bullet on the BC's since I've only heard good things about them & the icing on the cake was that my buddy has been riding slammed for over 5 years (winter/summer) without a single issue, plus it rode really well.

The second set of V wheels was just out of the blue, popped up locally for $300, hard to pass that up. One front wheel was bent so it was a perfect opportunity to run sedan rears all around. Sedan rears need spacers to clear the front spindle so I made the call to go 15mm all around. Most guys run 11mm front with 15mm on the rear but I think 15mm is the perfect touch.

Here's some pics of the goods..





The last pic is the mag ride delete kit that a member of the V community builds. A lot cheaper than the KW module & works flawlessly.

Got everything installed today except I couldn't squeeze in the rear coils.. ..Hopefully finish her off tomorrow.

Here's a sneak pic for now...

 

Don't forget to fuck with the spring cradles to set your camber pretty straight to save tires, especially rears.
I will say that after very few miles the bolt on spacers in the rear were super fucking hard to get off...like, almost stripped nuts taking them off. Sent them to Jason with that warning and low and behold he is having that issue now.
Something about the weight and burnouts maybe?...

 

I'll have to look into the spring cradle thing.

Some quick 4am gas station pics. Car looks so much more aggressive..

 

Looks sexy as fuck.

 

Looking good..

 

That thing looks awesome. Will be following to see how you like those coilovers. I had them for over 75k miles on my IS-F with no issues. For some reason though I can't convince myself to get rid of the magride.

Like J says I am having a terrible issue with my spacers. I didn't use any anti-seize when I put them on and after a thrashing at the dragon where my brakes were smoking I can't get them off now. Already stripped one nut. Probably going to have to get a torch involved to get them off now. Just be careful with them.

 

Wasn't planning to ditch the mag ride at first but my rears were semi toast when I bought the car & now they're just gone, pretty sure the fronts weren't far off either. The main reason for ditching it was the life expectancy of the struts, too many stories of premature failure once they've been replaced. Definitely didn't want that drama.

As for the spacers, I'm not planning to take them off till I need to do the brakes which shouldn't be for a bit.. :wish ..good to know though..

What did you guys torque the spacers to? I torqued the spacer to the car at 140 ft/lbs & the wheels to the spacer at 110 ft/lbs.

 

105ftlbs on both for me and still had the issue

 

Is there a remedy for this or just antiseize the nuts?

 

what brand spacers did you go with?
car looks amazing man, much more aggressive with the coils and spacers

 

Thanks man.

The brand is Customadeonly. There's more then a few companies I could have gone with but these are legit as it gets & they're made specifically for the V. Also helps that I sniped them for a great price..

 

I want to say H&R 15MM...
I dropped to no name 6MM slip ons and never had an issue after that.

 

H&R or Eibach are the Spacers I got from J.

I have run spacers on both my TSX and ISF for years and never had a single issue before these spacers. So it is possible it was just a bad batch or something but I have 5 different size bolt on for my TSX and ran 2 different kinds on the ISF for over 100k miles and never once did I have one I couldn't easily remove before this.

 

What dampening settings do you run on your BC's for your ISF? I know they're 2 different cars/setups, just trying to gauge a general idea.

Finished up the rears last night finally and they're set to 8 clicks from hard out of the box, definitely need to be softened.

 

I am probably the odd man out. I will sacrafice comfort for handling. I ran mine 1/4 of the way from the hardest setting. I forget how many clicks total they are. I had 14k/12k spring rates on mine that I had custom ordered. What do the V ones come with?

 

The V comes with 10k/12k.

I'm the same with performance > comfort but the rears just seem a bit much. Could also be to much preload.

Thinking of dropping the rears to 15 clicks and leave the front at 22 clicks from soft.

 

Yeah, I attribute it to the weight and the squatting when accelerating...gotta be something. Same with the wheels developing cracks...so weird.
Only the rears were seized for me.

 

CH - didn't you also change one of the shocks on the vagon when you first got it?

 

More pics! The V looks so much more aggressive with a drop and spacers.

Is the RL coming out for winter duty?

 

I replaced both rear magnetic ride shocks...
in hindsight, a canceler and coils would have been tits...

 

That was the initial plan but some hero wrote off my gf's car so she inherited the RL & the V got some Blizzaks.

Here's some quick driveway pics, been wet for a few days so better pics will have to wait..

 

It's insane how much of a difference the drop makes.

Stock wheels are

Beautiful car!

 

Literally fell in love with the car all over again, giggle just staring at it..

The wheels really stand out with the spacers. I loved my original silver wheels but the wheels I picked up are polished & they won me over real fast.. ...Was gonna paint them since they're mismatched but now I'm torn..

 

I regretted giving up on polished...
the powder ones were nice, but polished just really popped.

 

I need to find another pair of polished rears, polishing mine would be a mission..

 

How's the ride now compared to the mag ride??

I love the way the drop looks on your V.. I would like a slight drop but I just don't have the guts to do it with the roads around here..

 

Roads around here are a consistent nightmare, that and construction is never ending..

With stiffness turned up, it definitely rough but handles ridiculously good but with it softened up it absorbs imperfections pretty well. Still playing around with the setting & need to dial in the ride height all around.

As for comparing to the mag ride, stock definitely absorbed better but was also rough at the same time, didn't help that my rears were on their last legs when I bought the car.

 

Same here, never ending road work.. Yeah that's true, if the rears were toast then it's difficult to compare.

 

the Eibachs were moderate enough to not cause a problem...you won't bottom out, likely...and it was supple as hell.

 

A nice drop to a 1 finger gap all around really changes this car for the better. Adding the spacers made me realize just like you that new wheels are not a huge priority once they were flush.

 

the V on Blizzaks are a beast... i had them on the Vagon last season and even though i didn't get caught in any major snow, they helped grip with the cold weather...

once my A/S that came with the car wear out, i'm going to put on dedicated summer tires...

 

I'm surprised how well the LM-32's have gripped so far but I'm not complaining. I had great success a few years back with Blizzaks on my old 3.5 CL-S, torque/Blizzaks is a match made in heaven..

Except for a set of coupe 19x10 rears, I have no need for new wheels. These are just solid, factory forged FTW.

The current ride height is 0.5ish finger gap all around & it's perfect, no rubbing at all.

 

Coupe Rears are aggressive...you won't be able to do fat rubber on those and from what I recall, the rear fenders are not exactly rollable...STRONG seam
Before your alignment, fuck with those cradles and dial your camber back, you'll thank me because in this car, the rears go FAST even perfectly aligned.

 

Yeah you are honestly better off having a set of front wheels widened from a sedan/wagon than going coupe rears. Pretty sure coupe rears are more aggressive than running a 15mm spacer in the rear like I have.

 

I think it's equivalent to...+40 vs +55
but that's based on my memory
I think they are wider? or naw? I think so too...
I remember people not being able to run 295 or 305 so that was out for me.

 

They are 10in rears instead of 9.5 I believe.

 

Yea they are 10" vs 9.5" on the sedan.

There's mixed reviews from what I've seen but there's more than a few ppl that are running them with no issue, stock height tho...

With the 15mm spacers in the rear right now there's some clearance still for the wheel to be pushed out a bit for sure. Definitely wouldn't be able to run a 295 or 305 but I'm fine with that, a 285 would be a minimal stretch on a 10" & worse comes to worse I'd have to adjust the height. We'll see if I can snag even one cheap for testing purposes.

Love the look though, this V has coupe rears & I believe a 295 or even 305 which rubs when driven aggressively but......

 

Finally a day without rain..







....next up, resealing that damn passenger headlight