The Doctor's travels through time. Fin.

[rusty998]

34 minutes ago, TheDoctor said:

It's annoying, my missus is away for two days so it would be a perfect time to replace the rear springs, but I'm confined to my bed at the moment due to my back. Getting old sucks. 😔

I to suffer from a bad back, just had two days of work due to it, strangely it's not my normal back spasms this time though,  just feels like bruising now, hope your on your feet soon mate

[DoctorRetro]

Well, I dosed myself up with painkillers and jacked up the Fenlander to see how easy it would be to change the springs. Very easy it would seem, one bolt for the trailing arm and one for the bottom of the strut, then two at the top. Lovely! 

Only one of the bolts started to round off, will need heat etc. So as it was starting to rain and I was feeling the pain through the drugs, I decided to put it back together and pack up. 

I think I'll just have to bite the bullet and get a garage to do it. 

[DoctorRetro]

Figured out how to swap the springs without removing the strut from the car, so all sorted now. 

It looks a bit arse down in the pictures for some reason, but it is level. 

[MorrisItalSLX]

Absolutely superb ride height there, right where it wants to be.

[DoctorRetro]

Comparison pictures from when I first got it. 

[Andyrew]

Looks spot on. Good job dude

[dave j]

Looks good! Glad you managed to sort it. Its a ride height I like as it's still comfy and useable

[DoctorRetro]

I've taken all the crap out of the boot and it looks better. Will take a picture tomorrow when the car park is more empty 

[Cord Fourteener]

It does look right now. How is the ride? Will it soothe your back or will you get every bump?

I wonder if the appearance of arse dragging had something to do with the standard rake having been reduced. I guess the rake will have been pronounced on the taller springs.

[DoctorRetro]

22 minutes ago, Tim_E said:

It does look right now. How is the ride? Will it soothe your back or will you get every bump?

I wonder if the appearance of arse dragging had something to do with the standard rake having been reduced. I guess the rake will have been pronounced on the taller springs.

Ride is OK, a little more jiggly, and I'm noticing the poor fueling issue more (or it could be my imagination). 

Most FWD cars are slightly higher at the front for some reason, so yeah it does show when you lower them equally all round. Hence why I'd normally use a grinder, then its a custom stance as opposed to and out-of-the-box one. 

I'll try to park it in the same position as this one tomorrow to show the difference. The 416 was too low, pretty much on the bump stops. 

[bunglebus]

I love the stance in the 416, just have to admit these days I can't be arsed dodging potholes and crawling over speed bumps at 45 degrees to avoid leaving the exhaust behind. 

Not many cars that don't look better with a little bit of altitude adjustment though

[DoctorRetro]

Better pics today. Not sure if the back needs spacers maybe? 

 

[bunglebus]

Nah looks about right - it'll probably drop another 5-10mm in the next few weeks too

[Fumbler]

That actually looks pretty good. Me leik.

[Cord Fourteener]

13 hours ago, TheDoctor said:

Ride is OK, a little more jiggly, and I'm noticing the poor fueling issue more (or it could be my imagination). 

Most FWD cars are slightly higher at the front for some reason, so yeah it does show when you lower them equally all round. Hence why I'd normally use a grinder, then its a custom stance as opposed to and out-of-the-box one. 

I'll try to park it in the same position as this one tomorrow to show the difference. The 416 was too low, pretty much on the bump stops. 

People often use coil-overs, though I expect that solution would be more than the car is worth!

[DoctorRetro]

1 minute ago, Tim_E said:

People often use coil-overs, though I expect that solution would be more than the car is worth!

[Cord Fourteener]

Just now, TheDoctor said:

Free postage at least!

[Cord Fourteener]

My E46 always likes like it's sagging at the rear wheel you look at the arches only.

In fact it's not, it's as well as a 15 year old can sit on original (presumably) springs. From a distance it looks right.

I think the front arches are set higher for greater suspension travel for hitting bumps with the heavy end, then designers make a huge fuss about drawing up-sloping lines to hide the wheel arch effect.

 

[Cord Fourteener]

[wuvvum]

Rover looks spot on like that. 

[TrabbieRonnie]

Looks spot on that Doc, well done.

[DoctorRetro]

Corsa spat a wheel trim off on Progress Road today, luckily someone flashed their lights and I saw it and went back for it. Had to take the rest off, just in case. Will get the cable ties out at some point, maybe. 

In other news, I'm quite sure that the vibration is purely an out of balance, damaged wheel or a misshapen tyre. I'm going to do a tyre rotation tomorrow to check if it makes any difference. Annoyingly I just sold 4 vauxhall wheels with decent tyres. 🙄

[rainagain]

I had a vibration on my S80 under load. When I had cruise control set on it, the vibration would appear when going up hills. I thought it was the upper engine mount, which I changed. It turned out to be the tyres. I’d do what you said above and rotate the tyres before starting to replace stuff. 

[DoctorRetro]

Took the front wheels off and put them on the back of the Corsa. 

Went for a blast up the road and the wobble through the steering seems to be gone, replaced by another vibration, but not so much through the steering as through the whole car. I'd say that's pretty conclusive eh? I couldn't see any particular issues with the tyres, so perhaps just a weight come off one of the wheels... 

Just the wiper parking lottery, the radio code and the shit handbrake left to sort... 

 

[bunglebus]

Sounds like it. Get 'em balanced and checked for out of round etc, an unbalanced wheel on the back makes for arse clenching moments at 80+MPH - ask me how I know...

[bangernomics]

My E46 always likes like it's sagging at the rear wheel you look at the arches only.
In fact it's not, it's as well as a 15 year old can sit on original (presumably) springs. From a distance it looks right.
I think the front arches are set higher for greater suspension travel for hitting bumps with the heavy end, then designers make a huge fuss about drawing up-sloping lines to hide the wheel arch effect.
 

I have some NoS springs in the garage that I can throw at you if I ever manage to shitely them over. Red line so heavy jobs

[beko1987]

One of my now back tyres is unbalanced at 60/70.

Moving it from the front stopped the wheel shaking but now the rear view mirror vibrates everything to a blur! 

[DoctorRetro]

Why are cars such a pain in the arse? Luckily I don't need my cars for work, but they are both annoying me. 

Corsa has its wobbly wheel, random wipers, 'safe' radio and shit handbrake. 

Rover has a cough occasionally (obviously still air getting in somewhere) and a knocking rear strut (my fault as I mangled the thread on the top mount and couldn't get it tight - new strut on order). Oh, and add to that the fact it probably hasn't had a timing belt in 26 years... 

I'm going to have to drive 700 miles round trip to go to my Grandma's funeral shortly but I'm not sure whether I trust either car. 

Just having a mojo loss I guess. 😔

[Talbot]

Pack out the knocking rear strut with a washer perhaps?  At least if it's not knocking you can hear the engine cough a little every now and then.

In my experience, Lucas pumps do sometimes just cough a little, for no apparent reason.  Clearly it's air, but getting the fuel system 100% air leak free is quite a challenge.  even 99.999% isn't good enough for them.  Bosch pumps seem to be somewhat more tolerant of air and only have issues with bigger air leaks.

[DoctorRetro]

13 minutes ago, Talbot said:

Pack out the knocking rear strut with a washer perhaps?  At least if it's not knocking you can hear the engine cough a little every now and then.

In my experience, Lucas pumps do sometimes just cough a little, for no apparent reason.  Clearly it's air, but getting the fuel system 100% air leak free is quite a challenge.  even 99.999% isn't good enough for them.  Bosch pumps seem to be somewhat more tolerant of air and only have issues with bigger air leaks.

I'd do that, but the Allen key socket in the middle of the strut got mangled too. You know when you are having a comedy of errors and everything you do goes to shit? That's what happened to me. I think I cross threaded the nut. Tried to fix the thread but my tap/die set is shit and didn't seem to have the one I needed. Gave up and rammed the nut on as hard as I could and the Allen key started to spin too. 

Got it on enough to hold and packed out underneath with a rubber band to stop the worst of the knocking. New strut was only 30 quid, so it's not the end of the world. But it's just the feeling of one step forward, two steps back. 

I've ordered a new gearstick gaiter for the Corsa, gotta keep my priorities straight eh?