BRS 2015 review: Brief version (wheel bearings were not kind)
Posted by Josh Wimpey
Josh Wimpey Mod Moderator Location: VA Join Date: 12/27/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 649 Rally Car: Sneak the Golf |
Thursday Sept 17. Find worn left front wheel bearing during loading process and frantically try to find replacement. Rally community comes through and delivers two spares to the event Friday afternoon.
Friday Sept 18. Arrive just south of Ontario Canada for rally and install new upright/hub/wheel bearing assembly and re-align car. Test drive reveals that replacement parts also fixed the darting steering and soft initial brake pedal as the wobbling bearing was kicking the brake pads back into the caliper. Bonus! Saturday Sept 19. Attempt to drive car in a swift but (mostly) controlled manner. Learn that you are actually going really fast. Eventually go a bit too fast in the dark & rain and end up cleaning a ditch. This leads to a broken axle at the stub. The stub holds the wheel bearing together. Yes, the same wheel bearing you just replaced. But this time it really comes apart and car is undriveable… Stand in the cold rain and the very dark woods with dedicated spectators for 2 hours waiting for the trailer to come. We even managed to get it onto the trailer somehow without a come-along. Sunday Sept 20. Decide to head home rather than thrash all night and morning with no service crew as we had to drive home immediately after the rally anyway and planned to drive shifts through the night. This was a good plan as about 7 hours into my drive, the trailer had a braked-axle bearing failure that quickly turned into a brake fire. Even with a Good Samaritan’s assistance, it took nearly 3 hours to get back going. Spent a lot of time with a small hammer, a cold-chisel, and a hacksaw blade wrapped in tape getting the axle stub ready to accept the replacement bearings…. In the dark. By myself. Again… Besides the curse of 3 damaged wheel bearings we learned a few other important things: 1) The TDI is competitive. We set the fastest stage time (tied with Gary Donoghue in his Evo9) on the very first stage and set a bunch of fast times on the remaining stages as well. 2) The TDI is easy to drive. We had worried that the torque would cause issues with putting down power in a controlled manner on gravel. The car makes approximately 160hp and 300 lb-ft with the torque available from 1800rpm to 4500rpm. Wheel-spin could prove a challenge but was not an issue. I am sure it would be awful on snow and ice but on hard packed dirt, gravel and sand, each with and without heavy rain, it proved to be no problem at all. 3) It is hard to tell how fast you are going in the TDI. Unlike the 7300rpm gas motor, the TDI does not give you the visceral experience of screaming speed. It makes nearly the same chugging noises and pulling feelings at 2500rpm as it does at 5000rpm but you are going twice as fast. And the car feels about the same too. So, in 4th gear, you can be running anywhere between about 52mph (at 2500 rpm) and 104mph (5000 rpm) and not feel much difference. I have been calibrated to the gas motor so I never have to think about this but found myself approaching corners quite a lot faster than I had expected in the TDI. I will probably acclimate quickly and sub-consciously to this. 4) There is still a mystery source of water intrusion (beyond the water coming in the roof vent seen in the video). Multiple garden-hose and pressure washer tests of the firewall and outside of the car have failed to turn up a substantial leak. Water still fills the floors during even modest rain events… 5) Don’t clean ditches. You will break stuff. 6) Charge camera battery & adjust settings before event... Only got one stage of footage. Park expose interview www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHsSj24x5X4&feature=youtu.be Stage 1 (the stage referenced in point #1 above) www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4GB_YuYvRA ____________________________________________________________- One. Class -- 2WD www.quantumrallysport.com http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Quantum-Rally-Sport/281129179600?ref=nf Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/21/2015 04:52PM by Josh Wimpey. |
Rob Professional Moderator Location: LI, NY Join Date: 09/25/2010 Age: Settling Down Posts: 629 Rally Car: None, anymore. |
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Josh Wimpey Mod Moderator Location: VA Join Date: 12/27/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 649 Rally Car: Sneak the Golf |
Kevin Turner Ultra Moderator Location: Newark, DE Join Date: 01/27/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 364 Rally Car: 2wd Impreza... dude you should do an sti swap |
Josh Wimpey Mod Moderator Location: VA Join Date: 12/27/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 649 Rally Car: Sneak the Golf |
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Josh Wimpey Mod Moderator Location: VA Join Date: 12/27/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 649 Rally Car: Sneak the Golf |
Wilson von Kessler Mod Moderator Location: Lookout Mountain, GA Join Date: 02/28/2006 Age: Possibly Wise Posts: 1,127 Rally Car: Colts are in Finland; now '87 325i, '89 325i |
Josh Wimpey Mod Moderator Location: VA Join Date: 12/27/2006 Age: Midlife Crisis Posts: 649 Rally Car: Sneak the Golf |
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