Bilsteins and Eibachs ?

[Cos]

Hi Guys,

Finally made the decision to get my car a new set of springs and dampers. I decided to go for the shiny yellow and blue dampers Bilstein dampers and the eibach springs. I ordered them from SJS and got the delivered to me, very kindly by my brother in his suitcase when he came to visit me in Cyprus.

I have changed the suspension on other cars before, but this isnt quite the same. Has anyone done a post on how to do this?

If they have, can someone please show me the link, cos I cant seem to find it.

I am also going to look at recoating the upper and lower links at the rear and the wishbone at the front.

Some pics would be useful

Cos

[fjmuurling]

Check this link Esprit Suspension Fitting out.

Freek

[Cos]

Thanks Freek.

I never thought that LEW would have such a good thread about suspension. Good on them. Just right for me.

Thanks again

[Jonathan]

Way out of date though - when I done mine last I used a whole new set of techniques, it's just the way it happens, the more you do it the more ways you can think of improving things.

Use it as a basic guide, the Esprit suspsension really isnt that hard at all - main thing is setting it up correctly.

From personal experience I would whole heartedly recomend putting the spring height platform of the dampers to the lowest section.

When setting up put the car under load (I plan on using 2 ballasts of 80KG each on each seat and 1/2 tank of fuel which is what the good book says) then tighten the bolts up.

Again I did this wrong last time and tightened things up when it was on the Kerb weight not the mid-laden weight of the car.

Like most things on the Esprit - fitting and the basics are simple, it's the small additional items that are often overlooked / not made clear that can cause problems.

100% recomend a garage manual for the car if you service it yourself - so many useful bits and tips in there.

[ajb1967]

Just my 2 cents worth.

Once you have done the set up it will look like the car is riding very high and it will be off by probably 20-25mm.

This is just because everything needs to bed in.

This takes a couple of weeks to settle before you will get to the normal ride height.

rgds

Adrian

[mm7770]

Hello, I just wanted to add my experience with Bilstein/Eibach to my GT3. In three words I would say "floating while cruising". I used the middle position from 3 and the car is just too high. Maybe crossing the channel during a winter windy day with canoe, is more stable than my car at 250Km/h...

I have to remove them to use the lower position. But allthough I have the V8's tires, there is a distanse up to 3'' between tire and wheel arch... I onder how am I going to lower this! These springs( i believe the height depends on them mostly) must be very hard. Actually I would bet that they are for other car and not Esprit. I 've purchased them from SJSportsCars which I trust, and Steve said: "All of the suspension bolts should be tightened with the weight on the suspension. ensure this was done or slacken them all go for a short drive at very slow speeds to settle the suspension, then load the car as if there were to people in it and tighten the bolts." Any suggestions?

[Jonathan]

That was my next course of action - when ever I get time to breathe here !

In all honesty it's easier said than done with the car on the deck (easier with a drive on set of ramps) - you only need to slacken the main bolts that are on the main bushes, I'd be tempted not to go for a drive though, load it up passenger wise and roll the car back and forth a few meters and or depress the front / back of the car manually to ensure the suspension is settled.

let us know how you get on.