Sheffield`s Roads Do It Again!!!!

Post by **PaulJohnson** » Tue Oct 26, 2004 11:27 pm

Yes Sheffield is not famous for Steel anymore but our DILAPIDATED road network which has now caused my front left damper to fail again for the third time in 5 months !!!!!!!
There I feel a lot better now that I have got that of my chest.
The problem this week is when I turn the car right the front left dips severely down, this is made much worse if I have a passenger in "Olive" as they have to train as a sidecar racing passenger.

Is there any EASY way of adjusting the arm so that there is a bigger gap between the front left wheel & the bodywork.

Post by **Cam** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 12:17 am

The damper arm cannot be adjusted at all.

If the car is pitching downwards when you turn right, I would check for play in all the suspension on that side to determine where it is coming from (then replace that part). If it's coming from where the top damper arm meets the damper body after 5 months, then I would think about changing damper supplier!!!

Post by **Kevin** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 4:56 am

I think Cam has hit the head the nail on the head because 5 months is a rather short time for a damper to last especially as it seems to be on one side maybe the replacement wasnt reconditioned properly, and I dont know what sort of guarantee you get with them.
Just one small thing did you do the final tightening up with the car back on the ground as reccomended.

Post by **Gareth** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 10:05 am

As I understand it, the dampers get reconditioned, and reconditioned, and reconditioned and after a while the process begins to be less effective - the supplier ought to know about this and may well be in a position to do a straight swap, since the unit failed in use so quickly. Might not mention the humps and potholes though...

;)

Post by **doobry** » Wed Oct 27, 2004 10:50 am

the damper only limits the 'bounce' behaviour of the car and as Cam says - if the car is pitching down on cornering you need to look at the suspension!

Is there any EASY way of adjusting the arm so that there is a bigger gap between the front left wheel & the bodywork

The ride height is set by adjusting the torsion bar and has nothing to do with the damper (it takes quite a few hours to unbolt everything and re-adjust by using a different hole in the setting plate on the crossmember). As the car is sitting low in one corner you need to find out why that happened before changing anything

Quite possibly something has broken as the ride height won't change by itself.