3-29-16
76,356 Miles
So I bought a house and moved back in June of 2015. I had been caught up with lots of house related projects (mostly garage improvements

) and rarely drove the car. It seemed as I was always taking my truck places to pick things up for the house and such. Having a dedicated garage bay to park the car in and work on it is such a dream compared to my old Costco Carport setup.
Anyways, I had been in the house for a few months and I decided to tackle the my next stage of refreshing/upgrading things on the car.
REAR END REFRESH WORK
- Seat Leon Cupra R Rear Beam Bushings (Part# 1ML 501 541)
- Trailing Arm Hardware Kit (Part# 1J0598000) (2 ct.)
- Polyurethane Rear Coil Spring Isolators - Pair (ECS Part# ES#900)
- ECS 6-Speed Clutch Bleeder Block (ECS Part# ES#2608027)
- EBCYellow Stuff Performance Rear Brake Pads (Part# DP4680R)
- Revised/Upgraded Rear Shock Mount (Part# 1J0513353D) (2 ct.)
- Rear Wheel Bearing Kit (Part# 1J0598477) (2 ct.)
- Rear Stub Axle (Part# 1J0501117B) (2 ct.)
- M10x32 Hex Bolts for Sub Axle (Part# N90758902) (8 ct.)
- Rear Shock Hardware Kit (Part# 1J0598501) (2 ct.)
- Brake Line Brackets (Part# 5Q0611797B) (8 ct.)
- Parking Brake Arm Springs (Left Part# 7H0615295A & Right Part# 7H0615296)
-I decided to remove the rear beam to make things easier. The old bushings were kind of a pain to get out.
-I followed the orientation direction per the Bently Manual
-Marking the orientation for the new bushings
-I bought this tool off Amazon. Helped making the new bushing install a little easier.
-New Bushing going in.
-New Bushings installed. While I had the beam out of the car I removed the swaybar, brakes, hubs, bearings, etc. in order to clean everything up real good and replace with new parts.
-Beam back in the car with new mounting hardware.
-Rear Sway Bar back in with bushings cleaned and re-greased with Powerflex Copper Grease.
- New Stub Axles, Wheel Bearings, and Revised/Upgraded Shock Mounts, Poly Spring Isolators, and new Hardware.
-I followed all the procedures and torque specs for tightening everything down per the Bentley Manual.
- New brake line clips installed.
-The old ones were a little brittle and at $1.34 a piece it wasn't worth messing with the old ones.
-Old plastic OEM Bleeder Block out. I figured this was the appropriate time to replace this part since I would be bleeding the system anyways.
-New Billet ECS Bleeder Block going in.
-Bench Bleeding the rear calipers per the Bentley Manual.
-Rear brakes installed with new EBC Yellow Stuff Brake Pads and Parking Brake Return Springs. The springs were cheap and I figured it couldn't hurt to add them.
- Finally, I bled the clutch and the brakes using my power bleeder
-I bought this Schwaben Brake Bleeder Kit (ECS Part# ES#2765516) and pushed almost 2L of new fluid through the entire hydraulic system. If you don't have a power bleeder, get one. It turns an annoying two person job into a relatively pleasant one person job.
{Side Note: The cap that came with the bleeder didnt seal very well against the master cylinder. I added a large O-ring to the cap and now it works great.}
Driver Side Axle Replacement
So while under the car I noticed that my outer driver side axle boot had come loose. Upon further inspection I found that one of the balls in the CV cage had jumped, but was still caught in the boot. Rather than mess with buying a replacement CV and what not (I needed the car back up ASAP) I bought a quality GKN axle replacement. I know OEM is supposed to be the end all be all of axles, but I've read great things about GKN's and figured I would take a chance. I saved my OEM so if this GKN fails me I will put a new OEM outer CV on it and swap it back into the car. Seeing as my car is not low I'm guessing I shouldn't have an issue
- [*]GKN Left Front Axle Shaft (Part# 1J0407271LA)
[*]OEM Drive Axle Hub Bolt (Part# 4A0407643A)
[*]Axle Bolt Backing Plates (Part# 1K0407357D) (3 ct.)
[*]Axle Tripple Square Bolts (Part# N90991102) (6 ct.)
-New Hardware
-GKN axle set in place prior to hardware being installed and torqued down.
- Getting Alignment Checked
-I make it a point to get the alignment done anytime I touch any suspension components.
The car feels even more planted in corners now. I haven't noticed any increased NVH, but I now have a much better feeling of what the car is doing. The car feels so neutral and balanced in corners now. It is so easy now to make the car slide or track through corners. With just the change of throttle you can induce or or less oversteer, but it's completely recoverable and smooth. Before adding the rear beam bushings the car was less predictable. I'm glad I went through all the trouble to upgrade the rear beam bushings and refresh all the wear parts while I was at it.