I like my MK7 GTI a lot but two things in particular kept taking away from the experience. The first was the rather annoying drivetrain rattle at idle after switching to the single mass flywheel as part of the South Bend Stage 2 clutch upgrade. This was a necessary upgrade to hold the torque but it made the car seem like it was broken when I was sitting at idle until I pushed the clutch in. The second was the lack of smoothness as you went up the rev range. At 3-4K rpm, I'd get annoying rattles inside the car, like the center console, from the vibration. At full boost and high RPM, I really didn't like how the vibrations felt at all so I rarely get on it because it felt like I was going to break something.
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| Fluidampr Harmonic Balancer |
I read that the fix for this was to install a harmonic balancer but it sounded just like hype to me so I held it off. Boy was I wrong! I finally got a Fluidampr harmonic balancer and had it installed by Drive Auto Works today along with a new OEM crank bolt. DAW had previously installed my entire IS38 upgrade so it made sense for me to come back there and the difference is night and day.
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| Fluidampr getting installed - 10-15-2021 |
The engine is butter smooth at any RPM. The rattle from the SMF is gone. There no in-cabin rattles anymore from 3-4K RPM. Most importantly, at full boost, it just feels so amazing. I can't believe I waited this long to do this. This is definitely not hype and I should've done this along with my turbo upgrade years ago. I went from liking this car a lot to loving it all over again. I no longer cringe from the vibration every time I go into full boost. Instead, I just get 100% full enjoyment and big smiles when I put all that power down. I might have to look into doing this for the S2000. I know it doesn't need it as much as this engine does but having a smoother operating crank can't hurt, especially on a 4-banger.
