After my new suspension turned up about 2 weeks ago, I finally fitted it last Sunday, and it has transformed the handling immensly. For those who don't know I went for M474 front konis, M030 rear konis and 968CS front springs. Fitting took about 6 hours in total, doing the whole job on my drive, but a lot of that time was spent trying to get the old hardwear undone, and thorughly cleaning, preparing and waxoiling everything that came off the car that was to be reused.
It went pretty smoothly, with no major problems, the hardest part was actually unding the bottom bolts for the rear shocks that fasten into the trailing arms, they are on there tight, and even with the back end up on axle stands, there isn't a lot of room to get any leaverage under there. In the end a good long extention and the brute force of two people got them free, the rest was fairly straight forward. I used the factory manuals, Clarks garage and David Sims's instructions mainly, and had almost a enough information to do everything. The are a few small but tricky bits, like how the plastic clips are held on to the strut, which weren't metioned anywhere, but most of that can be worked out.
(they have a small plug that holds them in, once you lever this out with a small screwdriver it makes it easy to remove and reinstall in the new ones!)
I replaced all the bolts and other hardwear with new items, the old ones were all pretty rusty, and for the few quid I would have saved it didn't really make any sense not to. Putting everything back together was made so much easier with new nuts and bolts anyway, hopefully they should last another 14 years[
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One of the stumbling blocks of this job is getting the strut tops undone to remove the springs if you don't have access to an impact wrench. There is a 22mm nut on top, holding the strut bearing and spring cup on, and the shaft of the strut has a 7mm allen key head. You need to hold the shaft of the strut in order to undo the nut, but with what you might ask? A normal ring spanner is not slim enough to fit, and a socket doesn't give you access to the shaft. In the end I opted to use a 22/21mm box spanner, which I held on the outside of the 21mm end with a 25mm ring spanner (which was a prefect fit), which had a big enough hole down the middle to use a 7mm allen bit on the end of an extension bar and a ratchet. It worked a treat too. I have only ever seen one similar special tool advertised, a 22mm socket, with a hex head and a hole down the middle for about $43 on a US site. The box spanner cost me £2.60 and worked perfectly!
The old dampers seemed to be the original 116k mile units, and once they were removed it was apprent just how bad they were. With the springs removed and stood on end, the shafts just sank into the body under their own weight! There was very little resistance left in compression, they were leaking slightly and had play between the body and shaft.
I was expecting the combination of the firmer konis and harder springs to be more uncomfortable and possibly show up a few more rattles, but I have been extremely impressed with the ride quality and overall comfort of the whole package. The front sits 20mm lower, actually leveling the car as it used to sit a bit front high, and the ride is harder, but compared to the old setup the car drives so much better. Pitch and dive under braking is all but eliminated, the rear squats a lot less under acceleration and the front stays put. There is a lot less roll, and even over uneven or bumpy tarmac the ride has improved. It holds the road so much more and just feels a lot more planted and agile. I installed the dampers in their stock adjustment settings, and they feel excelent for road driving. I'm not sure what the difference would have been if I had set them firmer, but I am very happy with the way it performs and don't think I will be stripping it down again any time soon, just to fiddle.[]
Here's how the car sits now, not exactly slammed, but definatly a lot more planted and level
It went pretty smoothly, with no major problems, the hardest part was actually unding the bottom bolts for the rear shocks that fasten into the trailing arms, they are on there tight, and even with the back end up on axle stands, there isn't a lot of room to get any leaverage under there. In the end a good long extention and the brute force of two people got them free, the rest was fairly straight forward. I used the factory manuals, Clarks garage and David Sims's instructions mainly, and had almost a enough information to do everything. The are a few small but tricky bits, like how the plastic clips are held on to the strut, which weren't metioned anywhere, but most of that can be worked out.
(they have a small plug that holds them in, once you lever this out with a small screwdriver it makes it easy to remove and reinstall in the new ones!)
I replaced all the bolts and other hardwear with new items, the old ones were all pretty rusty, and for the few quid I would have saved it didn't really make any sense not to. Putting everything back together was made so much easier with new nuts and bolts anyway, hopefully they should last another 14 years[
]One of the stumbling blocks of this job is getting the strut tops undone to remove the springs if you don't have access to an impact wrench. There is a 22mm nut on top, holding the strut bearing and spring cup on, and the shaft of the strut has a 7mm allen key head. You need to hold the shaft of the strut in order to undo the nut, but with what you might ask? A normal ring spanner is not slim enough to fit, and a socket doesn't give you access to the shaft. In the end I opted to use a 22/21mm box spanner, which I held on the outside of the 21mm end with a 25mm ring spanner (which was a prefect fit), which had a big enough hole down the middle to use a 7mm allen bit on the end of an extension bar and a ratchet. It worked a treat too. I have only ever seen one similar special tool advertised, a 22mm socket, with a hex head and a hole down the middle for about $43 on a US site. The box spanner cost me £2.60 and worked perfectly!
The old dampers seemed to be the original 116k mile units, and once they were removed it was apprent just how bad they were. With the springs removed and stood on end, the shafts just sank into the body under their own weight! There was very little resistance left in compression, they were leaking slightly and had play between the body and shaft.
I was expecting the combination of the firmer konis and harder springs to be more uncomfortable and possibly show up a few more rattles, but I have been extremely impressed with the ride quality and overall comfort of the whole package. The front sits 20mm lower, actually leveling the car as it used to sit a bit front high, and the ride is harder, but compared to the old setup the car drives so much better. Pitch and dive under braking is all but eliminated, the rear squats a lot less under acceleration and the front stays put. There is a lot less roll, and even over uneven or bumpy tarmac the ride has improved. It holds the road so much more and just feels a lot more planted and agile. I installed the dampers in their stock adjustment settings, and they feel excelent for road driving. I'm not sure what the difference would have been if I had set them firmer, but I am very happy with the way it performs and don't think I will be stripping it down again any time soon, just to fiddle.[
]Here's how the car sits now, not exactly slammed, but definatly a lot more planted and level
