Lemon Lupo - is it repairable?

[stuboy]

On 06/10/2024 at 15:30, bunglebus said:

her injuries are a bit better

hope nothing too bad.

[bunglebus]

3 hours ago, red5 said:

I'd check the subframe-tend to get shoved back.  Measure wheel centre to wheel centre avec measure tape X1. 

It does measure 1cm longer on the driver's side ( was hit on OSF wheel by an overtaking car) but I just can't see what's moved. Measurements taken with the steering wheel straight ahead, but the wheel is turned about 30° to the right when driving straight ahead now 🤔 

Obviously that distance from front to rear wheel centre changes as you turn, so I'm not convinced it's a reliable measurement 

[red5]

Just measure them from rim lip to rim lip whilst respective sides are 'straight ahead'.  👍

[bunglebus]

On 17/10/2024 at 21:22, red5 said:

Just measure them from rim lip to rim lip whilst respective sides are 'straight ahead'.  👍

Checked that - exactly the same wheelbase side to side, but about half a turn from one side being parallel to the body, to the other. Massively toed in! I can adjust for that but something must be bent or moved for it to happen

[bunglebus]

It's about time I tried to fix this poor thing. I still have no idea what has been knocked out of kilter, but the lower arm seems like a cheap enough place to start

This should be a nice easy job, but turned into a half day battle, anti roll bar link nut spun on the thread, so needed attacking with the Dremel

I really struggled getting the ball joint separated, not having enough arms to hit both sides of the hub while levering the arm, I thought I'd have better access with the disc off, then discovered someone had fucked the lower caliper bolt

After much, much fighting, I somehow got the disc off and pads out of the caliper, then I could slide the caliper over the bolt and attack it with grips

Success, but more parts needed. 

Getting the new arm on was a bit of a fight as the anti roll bar is right in the way, took a brave pill and undid the other side to allow it to move freely. 

With it back on it's wheels, things were still not right, heavily toed in and the camber looked odd. Measuring with a spirit level, OS has quite a lot of negative, but the NS is positive! This is strange as measuring one of the others, they have a little bit of negative on both sides. This is adjustable via the bottom shock mounts (which were FT). Adjusting the OS for minimum camber, and the NS for maximum improved things, but there's still excessive neg on the OS.

Now I think about it, I used the watch the Mrs turn left opposite the house before reversing onto the drive, and the NSF wheel always used to scrub and look like it had positive camber. Next step is to fit the original shocks from the new open air Lupo (it's on coilovers) as I suspect one may be bent.

I also had a play with the tracking and got it much better, was hugely toed in after the accident, need to fine tune it once the rest of the suspension is done.

Lastly I measured across the crossmember where the suspension arms mount, this is the furthest forward part and the most likely to have got bent - measures exactly the same as one of the other cars so no worries there.

I do wish there was a smoking gun as to what's got tweaked, but there are no witness marks, bends etc to be seen anywhere.

Off to order bits!