Our struts arrived from QA1 today. I’ve been concerned with the fitment since there’s so little space on the Mk4 for struts; especially in the back. I’m not installing these permanently now, but I did want to test fit them in case I needed to order any parts from QA1.
The shock body has adjustment knobs for low and high-speed rebound force.
The remote reservoir has adjustment knobs for low and high-speed compression force. All four knobs have 18 settings for force. The remote reservoir also has a Schrader valve for adjusting nitrogen pressure. This should give us nearly infinite adjustability in our suspension.
I test fit one of the rear units on the car. I positioned the shock with the body down and the adjustment knobs to the inside to make it easy to reach them.
I’m not sure yet where we’ll mount the remote reservoirs. One option is to fabricate a bracket behind the rear diff mounting structure and install them there. In this position, it should be fairly straightforward to adjust the knobs, but I won’t know for sure until the tank is mounted.
The engineer at QA1 wanted me to use the upper strut mounting point in the rear, but there’s no way that will work with these stock eyelets; I’ll check with QA1 to see if there are other options. Even in the lower hole, I need to bias the strut forward on the car to keep the spring seat from contacting the bracket.Using one of the long spacers in the kit (about 1.085″) was just about perfect for positioning the strut so that the spring seat is centered in the bracket.
Unfortunately, the spring does contact the chassis member the upper bracket is welded to.
The fronts went on much easier. The engineer at QA1 wants me to use the lower holes in the front and there were no clearance issues with doing so.
With the suspension at full extension, the knobs just touch the bracket on the lower control arm. I may relieve this slightly, but they shouldn’t ever touch when the suspension is carrying weight.
I’m not sure yet where the front remote reservoir will be mounted. One possibility is to mount it to the chassis member just inboard of the struts. With the length of hose that connects the strut to the remote reservoir, I could even mount these in the engine compartment somewhere.
