Scuttle shake

How bad should this be on a cabriolet? I've had mine since March and found it pretty noticeable at first but now seems normal. My dad drove the car last night and nearly baled out half way to my house because he thought the front end was coming off! On country roads around where I live the front end and steering wheel are definitely doing something different from the back end - is there any way to measure this or check it? As far as I know the car has never been smashed and there's no corrosion I can see around the bulkhead. The old man has got me worried!

Hard to say without driving it really. What I will say however is that all Cabbys suffer from scuttle shake, it doesn't matter what they are. Admittedly some are worse than others but considering its age the Golf isn't too bad.

You will notice it most when the chassis is unsettled on diagonally opposing wheels but this doesn't happen very often and in my opinion isn't too startling.

Oh, and if you have strut braces fitted it can tend to amplify the situation.

Tian

Tian said

Oh, and if you have strut braces fitted it can tend to amplify the situation.

Tian

 ops: Christ, I thought strut braces reduced shake! Doh!

I've been getting a bit annoyed by the shake so have been running round the car trying to isolate little rattles which has helped slightly.

I was thinking about polybushing my entire front end but maybe this isn't such a good idea if I want to reduce the shake?

Cheers
Mat

It's lateral or twist that causes the scuttle shake. This is impossible to avoid in a Cabby as it's the lateral rigidity in the roof that helps with rigidity.

The flex has to go somewhere so if you strengthen the struts there's more transmitted to the aft area. It's not that much worse I've got one and don't have any issues with it at all.

Lashing things down and removing rattles with help reduce the effects though as I've been over my car with a fine toothed comb and it's much better!

Tian :wink:

I see!