Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 04:12 pm, by: Jeff Hogan(Hoges)
Well with the xmas holidays coming up i am guessing i will be doing a lot more driving, probably including a trip to Parkes in NSW (3000km round trip) and it gets a bit frustrating driving all that way with my TT so low. Currently I have Bilstein struts with HR springs i think, and it is very low and stiff. The previous owner also included the stock struts and springs when i bought the car, and I am wanting to put these back in. My questions: Is it hard to take out the suspension and replace it with the stock units? i am going to do this myself. The stock suspension has been sitting around since before the car came from japan (in 2000), would there be any problems with the stock shocks from sitting around for so long? can i get them tested before i install them? thanks all
Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 05:06 pm, by: Jeff Hogan(Hoges)
Im not sure about that, but i thought it would be easier to just take out the coilovers that are in there now and put in the stock ones, because dont you have to use a special tool to get springs on and off the shocks? No theyre not adjustable i dont think, but its mainly the ride height that is the problem anyway, it bottoms out on pretty much any bump in the highway.
Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 05:20 pm, by: Don Bagnall(Baggs)
Jeff, I don't forsee any probs changing back to the originals, BUT it may pay to get the old ones checked out with a Pedders shock test, or something similar.
I remember being told that shocks that've been sitting around in a horizontal position for some time, should be "Worked" up & down a few times to ensure that there's no air trapped.
Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 07:00 pm, by: Ryan McDonough(Ryan)
i just put coilovers into mine and its not very hard. The worst part i found was getting the rear ones out by myself. If you have 2 people you could do it in a day. Easy
Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 07:54 pm, by: Craig Webber(Soarr)
Jeff do you have Nitrogen in your tyres, if not in may pay to look in to it.I have it in mine and the wagon and swear by it. It makes a huge diff/to the ride comfort plus more, grip, tyre life.It's at all Bob Jane store Cost about $7.00 per tyre it's worth it
Thursday, November 10, 2005 - 08:15 pm, by: Thads Cooke(Thadz)
changing struts is quite easy, for the rears, use a longish piece of 4x2 or sim to gently lever the hub down to allow the strut to fit out easily (get helper to hold down for you). The fronts are easy too, take the swaybar link off the bottom shock mount, then take out the through bolt for bottom of shock, and remove the bracket from the lower arm. just be careful not to ding the paintwork on the guards when swinging the shock around trying to manuovre it out!
Friday, November 11, 2005 - 10:55 am, by: Cihan Aday(Cihan)
Nitrogen filled tyres..
The air we breath is over 70% nitrogen.. The molar mass of nitrogen and oxygen is almost the same. The tiny portion of C02 and other trace gasses dont add to the weight of the air you put in tyres. At most, the difference is 2 grams per mol of gas in the tyre.
Its definately not worth $28 everytime you want to adjust tyre pressures. I adjust mine once a week depending on the weather, so its definately not worth it for me.
Friday, November 11, 2005 - 11:26 am, by: Jeff Hogan(Hoges)
Yeah well there will be atleast myself and a mate (he doesnt know he's helping me yet :P) and maybe my brother, so that should be plenty of people. I have help a mate change the struts on his lancer before, it wasnt too hard, so hopefully the soarer wont be either (famous last words!) So to remove you just undo the bottom and top bolts and maneuver the strut out while levering the axle down to allow more room? doesnt sound too hard. I will give pedders a ring and see what they have to say about the standard shocks, and see if there is a test they can do before i install them to make sure they are fine.
Friday, November 11, 2005 - 12:04 pm, by: Chris Davey(Chris_davey)
are you talking about me????
I haven't pulled shocks out of a car with IRS before but I helped Todd briefly with his Silvia. I suspect the hardest part will be finding a place to jack your bloody low car up from!
Friday, November 11, 2005 - 01:39 pm, by: Jeff Hogan(Hoges)
lol how'd you guess chris :P but if i do do it it wont be till after i get back from thursday island. I think the easiest thing to do would be to drive it up onto your ramps enough to get the jack under it, jack it up, put it on chassis stands then do the fronts, then reverse it up onto the ramps and do the same for the rears. Does having IRS make things more difficult? i dont think it would?
Friday, November 11, 2005 - 03:06 pm, by: Chris Davey(Chris_davey)
Sounds like a plan.
Don’t know. I don’t really think so except you need 2 people as one has to push it down while the other takes it out. I just haven’t really done it before. You are right about changing springs though. Woody has the spring compressors that I used when I changed mine. Although Rob undid one of the strut tops and just shot the spring into the ground. Crazy mofo!
Friday, November 11, 2005 - 03:18 pm, by: Craig Webber(Soarr)
Cihan My mis informed Friend you need to go and have a word to the boy's at Bob jane and they will give you the run down on it.And $28.00 for a better ride longer life for your tyres is just the start.You should not need to adjust your tyres each week. I have had the gas in my car and the wagon and check them now once a year and they are always spot on.And if they do ever go down i can just pop into Bob Jane an get a FREE top up. And it's well WORTH IT.Don't knock something you haven't tried.
Friday, November 11, 2005 - 04:10 pm, by: David Vaughan(Davidv)
Bob Jane is the McDonalds of the tyre market "Would you like a special wheel balance with that? The special burger comes flavoured with nitrogen".
Nitrogen has payoffs, especially if you run a fleet of trucks or small vans, retread your tyres or run an F1 car in different countries. Its benefits for road cars are much smaller and easily negated if you have any inclination to change your tyre pressures for city and country running because you must top up with Nitrogen. Adding even a small quantity of air will introduce moisture, from which most of the problems arise. The main advantage on road cars, where the actual tyre load is typically well under the rated load, is that it saves from under-inflation those people who do not check their pressures regularly or properly.
On a road car, if you can get dried air cheaply, use that. It has the same benefits for reduced heat buildup and oxidisation of rims but lacks the advantage of slower diffusion through the rubber, so you will need to top up as often as with ordinary air. I have yet to see a credible claim that either makes the slightest difference to ride comfort or grip.