Rear subframe options

[breeze]

The rear arms are being replaced on my Golf and the mechanic (I did the front, not this time) has pointed out that the rear subframe is looking a bit crusty. Not terrible, but it would be a good time to do something about it, since it is all down. His suggestion is to give it a paint.

Any advice? Will any FWD Golf MK5 rear subframe work?

Are any of the rear subframes on other cars interchangeable, like perhaps an aluminium option from another model on the same platform?

Grateful for thoughts.

[Clarkj93]

A job I'm planning but dreading doing this winter. You can get aluminium ones that will fit but this will mean cutting the wheel well off to fit as they were for 4wd variants.

I've always wondered if the mk7 and mk8 rear subframes fit as they look identical.

Personally I'm planning to clean up a bit and apply a rust converter/paint. It's thick steel so should all be surface rust.

[pudding]

Buy one off ebay and get it prepped & powder coated ahead of time, then just sell/bin the one that comes off your car.

As above, no one in their right mind would chop the boot floor away for an alloy subframe with minimal to no weight savings, unless going 4WD.

Yeah it is proper beefy steel and the rust is worse than it looks.  Mine has never even had an advisory on it, and I know for a fact my local tester gives everything under there a hefty prod with a pry bar!

[breeze]

Yep rust was better than it looked. He’s been using a wire wheel and actually it looks quite good now. Plan is Bilt Hamber Hydrate 80 and then paint/stone chip.

It should be quite presentable when done. An aluminium option would have been nice, but I couldn’t find anything for FWD cars. Also a bit unreasonable for the mechanic to expect my car to sit on a ramp for a few days to wait for parts.

[Clarkj93]

Nice! I don't fancy leaving my car on axle stands for a week while I do mine as its a bit of slopey sketchy driveway so I'm still debating whether to do as you did and get someone with a lift to do it or just get a spare and powder coat is as Pudding said and just swap it out in a day.

[pudding]

Axle stands, uff, I seriously get tired of all that nonsense  I keep thinking about buying a quick lift but at £1200, it's quite spendy.  Then again, with the amount of times we jack these old cars up, one corner at a time, I can't help thinking all that twisting of the bodyshell can't be good for it 

[Clarkj93]

Axle stands, uff, I seriously get tired of all that nonsense  I keep thinking about buying a quick lift but at £1200, it's quite spendy.  Then again, with the amount of times we jack these old cars up, one corner at a time, I can't help thinking all that twisting of the bodyshell can't be good for it 

I saw an advert a year or so a go of what I presume to be a local millionaire who had some massive unit with a few lifts in it and extensive tool set to use on a 24/7 basis for each tenant, at 350 per month though that's hard to justify just to make life easier 

[pudding]

Yikes, sod that!  That's a good idea though as I've heard of 'rent a workshop' type places which you can use for a day. Perfect 

Thing is though, with my stupid 3K oil change regime, that's 6 times a year I have to jack it up, plus all the other jobs I do in-between    Hmmm, I'm definitely warming to a quick lift!  Another thing is, there's no where to put the bloody stands at the rear as the trolley jack uses the only jacking point back there    A quick lift gets around that quite nicely, and lifts it waaaaaay higher, so no more crooked necks 

[Clarkj93]

Yikes, sod that!  That's a good idea though as I've heard of 'rent a workshop' type places which you can use for a day. Perfect 

Thing is though, with my stupid 3K oil change regime, that's 6 times a year I have to jack it up, plus all the other jobs I do in-between    Hmmm, I'm definitely warming to a quick lift!  Another thing is, there's no where to put the bloody stands at the rear as the trolley jack uses the only jacking point back there    A quick lift gets around that quite nicely, and lifts it waaaaaay higher, so no more crooked necks 

Yeah would love a lift in high up double width garage. No weather to worry about, no worry about leaving the car in the air with the job half done when it's a Sunday afternoon and you fancy just having a beer or 2 instead. Maybe one day... but probably not

[breeze]

Axle stands, uff, I seriously get tired of all that nonsense  I keep thinking about buying a quick lift but at £1200, it's quite spendy.  Then again, with the amount of times we jack these old cars up, one corner at a time, I can't help thinking all that twisting of the bodyshell can't be good for it 

I’ve been thinking exactly the same. Quickjack at £1200 ish but it is quite hard to justify.

That said, I realised recently that with my car on factory height suspension I can actually drive up ramps (still needing extensions admittedly). I’d forgotten how helpful ramps are for getting under a car.

[breeze]

Yikes, sod that!  That's a good idea though as I've heard of 'rent a workshop' type places which you can use for a day. Perfect 

Thing is though, with my stupid 3K oil change regime, that's 6 times a year I have to jack it up, plus all the other jobs I do in-between    Hmmm, I'm definitely warming to a quick lift!  Another thing is, there's no where to put the bloody stands at the rear as the trolley jack uses the only jacking point back there    A quick lift gets around that quite nicely, and lifts it waaaaaay higher, so no more crooked necks 

Why on earth are you doing 3k changes? No track use and reasonably high mileages right? If I ever started doing changes 6 times per year I’d at least use a top side oil extractor for every other change.

*TBF my oil changes probably are every 3k… but that is with a 12m interval.

[breeze]

Nice! I don't fancy leaving my car on axle stands for a week while I do mine as its a bit of slopey sketchy driveway so I'm still debating whether to do as you did and get someone with a lift to do it or just get a spare and powder coat is as Pudding said and just swap it out in a day.

My view having seen mine is that I wouldn’t bother unless you need it to come down to get the arms off. It was solid, just the surface rust made it look bad. It will look much better when done but honestly, there are better things to do. Like making sure your bodywork is mint.

[Clarkj93]

Nice! I don't fancy leaving my car on axle stands for a week while I do mine as its a bit of slopey sketchy driveway so I'm still debating whether to do as you did and get someone with a lift to do it or just get a spare and powder coat is as Pudding said and just swap it out in a day.

My view having seen mine is that I wouldn’t bother unless you need it to come down to get the arms off. It was solid, just the surface rust made it look bad. It will look much better when done but honestly, there are better things to do. Like making sure your bodywork is mint.

My body work is sh*t mate I just wanted to get it protected for a good number of years while I'm swapping out all the bushes in a few months so seemed like the right time to do it. How many hours labour or how much was the charge for it in the end? May be the deal breaker if I do it myself or not.

[LC5F]

I have looked for places that do garage use by the day/hour but everywhere that tried seems to have died a death.
Suspect cars get stuck on the lift in a disabled state blocking other bookings.
Then there is the whole provide tools or not - if they are provided, likely they will sprout legs and walk

Buy one off ebay and get it prepped & powder coated ahead of time, then just sell/bin the one that comes off your car.

I did this a while ago - wish I weighed the old bare crusty subframe Vs new used - considerable weight difference.
The good news is any 2wd subframe will work - mine came from a Golf plus from down south - complete subframe with arms was £115 delivered.
Arms are all the same across the board. Consider the usual "while you are in there" upgrades of alloy hubs & new bearings.

[breeze]

Nice! I don't fancy leaving my car on axle stands for a week while I do mine as its a bit of slopey sketchy driveway so I'm still debating whether to do as you did and get someone with a lift to do it or just get a spare and powder coat is as Pudding said and just swap it out in a day.

My view having seen mine is that I wouldn’t bother unless you need it to come down to get the arms off. It was solid, just the surface rust made it look bad. It will look much better when done but honestly, there are better things to do. Like making sure your bodywork is mint.

My body work is sh*t mate I just wanted to get it protected for a good number of years while I'm swapping out all the bushes in a few months so seemed like the right time to do it. How many hours labour or how much was the charge for it in the end? May be the deal breaker if I do it myself or not.

I think 6 hours total. Was done at a friends rate. There aren’t rubber bushes to mount the subframe so no benefit to dropping in that sense. I think others like R32 have rubber bushes.