New Suspension

[andyblackman777]

I went for a drive yesterday and although my car is shockingly fast (much quicker than my M3). The handling is a bit scary (crap)

The geometry was spot on last year after adjusting it all , my mate owns a tyre shop so i can use his alignement rig.

The car also makes a clicking/knocking/cracking kind of sound from the front when manovering! Any ideas? I checked all the chassis to body mounting bolts they were all fine.I did notice some play in top ball joint!

While on the phone to SJ to order new ball joints i accidentally ordered the new lotus suspension

Anyway i should get it all next week sometime so i'll let you all know what i think!!

cheers Andy

[Winter]

I went for a drive yesterday and although my car is shockingly fast (much quicker than my M3). The handling is a bit scary (crap)

The geometry was spot on last year after adjusting it all , my mate owns a tyre shop so i can use his alignement rig.

The car also makes a clicking/knocking/cracking kind of sound from the front when manovering! Any ideas? I checked all the chassis to body mounting bolts they were all fine.I did notice some play in top ball joint!

While on the phone to SJ to order new ball joints i accidentally ordered the new lotus suspension

Anyway i should get it all next week sometime so i'll let you all know what i think!!

cheers Andy

Hi again Andy

This is on my medium-term list. My car is now eight years and 90,000 miles old so it could probably do with new springs and dampers. Likewise, new polyurethane bushes wouldn't go amiss either. It's just all the aggro that probably lies in wait that deters me: seized bolts, bushes and just about everything else.

Also apropos the aircon pipes, I didn't actually answer your specific question. Unfortunately, I don't know the routing. I do know that the union at the dehumidifier/chill matrix looks as though it's not easily accessible plus of course, it's wrapped in that claggy black sticky stuff to stop condensation dripping into the footwell, which I suspect will not be easy to remove and reapply.

[Paula&Marcus]

Hi Andy,

Could you please tell us all (when the installation of the new suspension is finished) if your car's ride height looks normal, or if it has magically transformed your beauty into 4x4 looks

Cheers

Marcus (very curious)

I went for a drive yesterday and although my car is shockingly fast (much quicker than my M3). The handling is a bit scary (crap)

The geometry was spot on last year after adjusting it all , my mate owns a tyre shop so i can use his alignement rig.

The car also makes a clicking/knocking/cracking kind of sound from the front when manovering! Any ideas? I checked all the chassis to body mounting bolts they were all fine.I did notice some play in top ball joint!

While on the phone to SJ to order new ball joints i accidentally ordered the new lotus suspension

Anyway i should get it all next week sometime so i'll let you all know what i think!!

cheers Andy

[andyblackman777]

Marcus,

Yes i've heard this rumour . i'll be very dissapointed if this is the case and it will be going back. I think the person thats car was higher than normal must have had the wrong springs

cheers Andy

[Paula&Marcus]

Hi Andy,

Yes I also heard this, but nobody could tell what actually was wrong.

Thats why I asked.

I hope yours will turn out fine.

Cheers

Marcus

Marcus,

Yes i've heard this rumour . i'll be very dissapointed if this is the case and it will be going back. I think the person thats car was higher than normal must have had the wrong springs

cheers Andy

[andyblackman777]

A quick update

My new suspension arrive in the post the other day and I fitted the rears yesterday, I selected the lower ride height and after fitting, the ride height at the rear is very slightly lower than before. I only reversed the car about 10m and then back in the garage so i guess after a proper drive it will settle a few mm lower. So no 4x4 looks

It took about 2 hrs to do one side and then 30 mins for the other!

cheers Andy

[peter_england99]

Andy,

Please give us feed back on the handling with the new suspension.

What model year V8 have you got?

Regards,

Peter.

[superdavelotus]

I'd be interested too!

[andyblackman777]

hi,

its a 96 V8

When i get the front done . I'm replacing top and bottom ball joints too. I'll get the geometry checked and then i can go for a drive and see what its like

Andy

[andyblackman777]

Hi all,

I've put all the new suspension on the car now including new top and bottom ball joints on the front. I have yet to check the geometry but i went for a drive just now and its an improvement over the old . The damping is much better very noticable on the rear when cornering on an undulating road or a corner with a dip, the old setup used to wallow quite badly. Also the ride is much smoother not so much 'crashing' when going over pot holes etc.

I'm not sure how knackered the old shocks were, they are 10 yrs old and 30000 miles, i do think that they could have got away with a slightly stiffer spring, Its not that there soft its just i like a hard ride

As for the ride height the rear looks the same but the front looks higher and i'm running on the lower setting, i think that if you use the higher setting then the car would look high at the front . You can move the spring platform 10mm down which at a guess equates to about a 20mm drop in ride height. So if i was running the standard setting it would look odd! i can get 3 fingers between the front wheelarch and the tyre about 55mm.

I'm gonna go and take a measurement under the car to get the proper ride height

cheers Andy

Ok the ride hight measure from under the front crossmember is 180mm with car empty it should be 170mm with 2 pax.

I should have measure it b4 i started , oh well it could be that the front springs were saging they were pretty rusty

cheers Andy

[actwon]

Hi all,

I've put all the new suspension on the car now including new top and bottom ball joints on the front. I have yet to check the geometry but i went for a drive just now and its an improvement over the old . The damping is much better very noticable on the rear when cornering on an undulating road or a corner with a dip, the old setup used to wallow quite badly. Also the ride is much smoother not so much 'crashing' when going over pot holes etc.

I'm not sure how knackered the old shocks were, they are 10 yrs old and 30000 miles, i do think that they could have got away with a slightly stiffer spring, Its not that there soft its just i like a hard ride

As for the ride height the rear looks the same but the front looks higher and i'm running on the lower setting, i think that if you use the higher setting then the car would look high at the front . You can move the spring platform 10mm down which at a guess equates to about a 20mm drop in ride height. So if i was running the standard setting it would look odd! i can get 3 fingers between the front wheelarch and the tyre about 55mm.

I'm gonna go and take a measurement under the car to get the proper ride height

cheers Andy

Ok the ride hight measure from under the front crossmember is 180mm with car empty it should be 170mm with 2 pax.

I should have measure it b4 i started , oh well it could be that the front springs were saging they were pretty rusty

cheers Andy

I have that problem with my suspension. I have installed Spax's all around. The front of my car sits 25.4mm higher thanit's supposed to. I was told that Lotus used a taller softer spring in my car. Well, the problem is I cannot find anyone who makes a shorter, stiffer spring for it. Called Eibach and I got the run-around there. Won't even make anything custom for me. So, now I'm stuck with a cr that sits higher than I want it to. I actually wanted to lower the front from 101.6mm to 76.2mm in the front and minus 25.4mm from whatever the rear is, currently.

[Jonathan]

The front of my car sits 25.4mm higher thanit's supposed to.

blimey thats a lot !

Probably the similar thing I had what the AVOs where they turnbuckle simpoly cannot get lower than the standard damper with the stock springs.

Marcus @ PUK sells adjustable suspension, perhaps he can help with a shorter spring ?

[andyblackman777]

Hi,

I emailed lotus about the ride height of the new suspension, i got a very promt reply and Dave Massey suggested that 180mm unladen was about right. He also mentioned the fact that the pivot points should be torqued up at the correct ride height, which i did do.

So if you want to run your car at the correct ride height then you have to use the lower of the 2 spring platform heights! If you install them as they come ie with the clip in the 1st groove then your car will be 20mm or so higher than it should be. i don't think this is right as the blurb from lotus on LEW suggested that 2 ride heights were available the first at standard height and one a bit lower .

I can't believe they screwed up after all that testing!? What do you guys think?

cheers Andy

ps i even removed one side to chck that i had assembled it correctly.

[steveduffell]

hi, ive just had the new suspension and poly bushes fitted to my 99 V8 GT, BIG improvement, i would recommend it. I track my car and have to say, its made a big difference, feels more stable and less wallowing. On the road it has boosted my confidence in the car. The old suspension was original although it had only covered 29k, it was sh......ed. I have my own garage and we specialise in Alfas mainly (somehas too!!) but we do a few lotus's. The workshop has virtually rebuilt mine!! All enquires welcome!!! steve 01892 783366

[andyblackman777]

Steve,

Whats the ride height like on your car is it higher than before

cheers Andy

[andyblackman777]

Hi all,

I managed to find two 75 kg mates and i have measured my ride height with them in and 1/2 a tank of gas. The results are exactly as they should be for stock ride height. 170mm at the front and 165 at the rear.

The thing is i am using the lower spring platform groove so they should be approx 10mm lower.

Anyway its only 10mm and i am quite happy with stock height. The old ones were so shagged that they were about 20mm lower at the front!

Hopefully i can use my mate's rig tomorrow, to do the alignment and geometry and then it should be handling superbly.

Anyway here is a pic of it let me know what u think

cheers Andy

[andyblackman777]

hi all,

I measured my geometry on Sat and it was quite a bit out after replacing suspension and ball joints . its all spot on now and the car drives much better than before. i have yet to drive the car hard and at speed but for normal driving the ride and handling is a big improvement on the old stuff

The issue of the front ride height is still there, I've been talking to Brian at Lotus and mine is about 5mm over the max tolerance taking into account the build variance of the chassis etc. They were thinking of putting a 3rd lower groove on the damper at the front, but on some cars this would mean the ride height would be to low and would induce bump steer. I guess if you drop it to much below standard height the steering rack will not be aligned correctly with the wishbone pivots . You only need to get this a few mm out to get some bump steer. This would explain why my car wandered about on a bumpy road with the old set up. After a few hundred miles if its still the same I'm gonna measure the steering rack arms and if i can get away with lowering the car a bit i might get some new platforms machined which will be a bit lower.

cheers Andy

[andyblackman777]

I've done acouple of hundred miles in my car now on the new suspension and its the best

[deak]

I've done acouple of hundred miles in my car now on the new suspension and its the best

[toyroom]

I now have the new springs and shocks all round and the improvement is ENORMOUS. Well worth every penny IMO. The car is just under an inch higher off the ground than it was. Don't forget that springs sag with age, just like facial skin and so the car with the ten year old springs will be lower than a car with new stuff. Hence, the fears about the wrong height are probably reassuringly not founded. Hope this helps !

Also, the factory say that the new shocks are not meant to be adjustable and that they are factory preset for the car for which they are requested. So if you ask for kit for a '98 V8 and then fit them to such a car, the height will be correct....(hopefully !)

[Jonathan]

I've had mine on about 2 months, sadly not enough time to test it but the limited amount of time in the car (done about 100 miles in that time !!!), so far it feels great.

What I will say on ride height is :

Rears set to upper platform = more or less exactly the same as original

Front set to lower platform = more or less exactly the same

The thing is as with any suspension you have to bed it in and excersise it, I wont form a complete verdict on it until nearly 1000 miles of use.

Over time the springs will relex a little bit as with the dampers, the car will find a happy medium.

Exactly like new brakes.

[andyblackman777]

Lotus cars told me that the new stuff may settle up to 3mm and won't sag like the old ones

Jonathan, do you have any front ride height measurements with the car laden?

I get stock ride height but by using the lower groove?

cheers Andy

what i ment to say was , are they the same as before? or are they as they should be ie stock height

[andyblackman777]

I've been asked for a pic of the car with new suspension fitted

here it is this morning

its about 10mm lower at the front with 2 people in

Edited August 7, 2007 by andyblackman777

[Simon350S]

LOL take it you dont get any problems going over speed bumps any more........

Troy this is all your fault.... Esprit 4x4 brigade.... you started it.....!!!!

Simon

[BadJelly350]

HI all,

Not sure if any other 350's have the new suspension yet, but worth posting that I have it fitted to mine but haven't had much chance to use the car as I've been out of the country a lot.

My thoughts though, my 350 has done about 45k miles and I had the original suspension swapped for a 'new' version of the original as a temporary step. The change here was significant. I had bushes that were shot and the geometry wasn't great. Getting it back from Hethel after that change was like driving a new car, as you'd expect and reminiscent of when I got my new 350 back in 2000.

I had the new suspension fitted only a couple of weeks before heading out to the US so not much chance to really test it. However the driving I did manage felt very planted, hard to really describe, but I felt more confident pushing it harder simply because of the improved 'feel'. I haven't tracked it yet so that's still something to try.

Verdit from me so far, all positive.

Andy

350 #19