Suspension Options

[e46m3c]

Morning Chaps,

Need to sort the suspension out on the Tuscan and wondered what peoples recommendations are.

Currently running AST which i find a little hard, they are leaking.

So option 1 is replace AST shocks.
2 Replace with OEM / Bilstein

further options?

Mainly road, weekend, alpine roadtrip usage so dont need to be hard. Prefer stability and predictability.

[e46m3c]

Option 3. GAZ Gold - I had these on my old m3 trackcar. Whilst not exactly luxry they were great and made a massive improvement to lap time.

[Tuscan Wil]

e46m3c said:

Morning Chaps,

Need to sort the suspension out on the Tuscan and wondered what peoples recommendations are.

Currently running AST which i find a little hard, they are leaking.

So option 1 is replace AST shocks.
2 Replace with OEM / Bilstein

further options?

Mainly road, weekend, alpine roadtrip usage so dont need to be hard. Prefer stability and predictability.

I have mine replaced with Bilstein. Like youself mainly for normal road use and weekends leisure drive they are good enough. Make sure you have the correct tyre pressure and geo set up. I am not a track demon, but have taken the car to Spa and the Ring with Bilstein. I found they are a bit too soft. However the car is very stable with one hand on the steering drive style doing high Autobahn speed in "Germany". I think they they are good value for what they are.

[Speed 3]

Quite a few have Nitrons, although they're not particularly cheap. Mine came with them when I bought it so can't compare before/after. They have a decent rep but you need to make sure you get the right specs for your required use, most of the negative comments I've seen appear to have been due to poor selection up front rather than their actual perfromance which is appreciated by most owners. I have mine wound off fully for best road ride and don't do track days. As said by others, the hardware is only half the solution (or less). Full Geo required and play with tyre pressures.

[e46m3c]

Think im leaning towards the gaz gold.

Just hope they arent too stiff on a long road trip. 400/325 springs.

Same as pro tech i think.

[e46m3c]

Anyone know the springrate for the AST kit RG sell?

[TV8]

I have had both Gaz Gold and Gaz Monos and like both of them, at least on the Chimaera. The monos have more range with the frim/soft adjustment. I would think very seriously about being firmer than suggested for the rear springs. I ran firmer springs on the gaz golds and ran both cars for a while and preferred the firmer set-up under accelleration -less squat

[MartH70]

We currently have gaz gold pros on the Tuscan and going to change them, thinking either protects from kits and classics or nitrons with eibachs. Maybe it's just something wrong with our setup but not happy with them, even though our mx5 has them and handles amazing! Don't do many track days but do try and do the Alps every year.

Cheers

Martin

[e46m3c]

Thanks for the feedback.

It would seem gaz and protec are a similar product so have been discounting protec due to the increased cost.

Looks like i can get my AST's refurbished for about the same price as new Gaz.

Anyone compared AST to GAZ in either direction? AST are mono Gaz are twin but it seems neither is defactor better.

What longevity are people getting? These AST have only achieved 4 years/20k miles (not under my ownership)...Not sure if that is normal?

[alspeed]

Fitted Nitrons recently.......massive improvement over standard shocks, night and day transformation to handling and well worth the cost. Best money I've spent on the Tuscan so far.

[ChrisnChris]

Nitrons were one of the first upgrades I fitted when I bought the car 11 years ago. They were rebuilt a couple of years ago, after about 40k miles, not cheap but well worth the money.
As has been said, tyre pressure and geo set-up shouldn't be overlooked.

[QBee]

Hold on chaps.

You have dampers at £500-£5000 a set.
You have springs at £100 a set.

If your springs are too strong, your ride will be too hard.

Your dampers can be refurbed for a fraction of the cost of a new set.

[m4tti]

QBee said:

Hold on chaps.

You have dampers at £500-£5000 a set.
You have springs at £100 a set.

If your springs are too strong, your ride will be too hard.

Your dampers can be refurbed for a fraction of the cost of a new set.

I reckon you could do £400+ on the AST refurb.


http://www.ast-suspension.co.uk/service

So not really a fraction..

[QBee]

Sorry, I was going on the cost of refurbishing Gaz or Bilsteins.

[m4tti]

QBee said:

Sorry, I was going on the cost of refurbishing Gaz or Bilsteins.

AST are on par with nitron.

The problem with all of these shocks is if your going to drive the car every day in what ever weather (pretty much what it wasn't designed for) you'll be needing to have the shocks rebuilt. I think the last conversation I had with nitron they mentioned every 18 months or so.

[QBee]

How much is a new set of ASTs? Nitrons are pushing £1500 a set.

[QBee]

Stopped being lazy and looked it up myself. New AST and Nitron dampers are both £1200 a set.
£400 is a fraction of £1200 - 1/3rd

[m4tti]

QBee said:

Stopped being lazy and looked it up myself. New AST and Nitron dampers are both £1200 a set.
£400 is a fraction of £1200 - 1/3rd

Thought you referring to a fraction of the cost of the gaz or protechs mentioned at the start.

[e46m3c]

gone for the gaz. Fitting on the 9th. which gives me 10 days of shakedown before alps trip.

[stevieeg]

e46m3c said:

Thanks for the feedback.

It would seem gaz and protec are a similar product so have been discounting protec due to the increased cost.

Looks like i can get my AST's refurbished for about the same price as new Gaz.

Anyone compared AST to GAZ in either direction? AST are mono Gaz are twin but it seems neither is defactor better.

What longevity are people getting? These AST have only achieved 4 years/20k miles (not under my ownership)...Not sure if that is normal?

I have ASTs on mine... just had them refurbed as they were leaking (They had about 30K miles on them). A little under £400 for the work and they now feel fantastic.

Having said that it did take them an awful long time to turn around, to the point I wondered if I'd have been better to get a new set of Nitrons!

Others who have driven my car said they preferred them to Nitrons though, so I'll live with it. Should get to give them a good test at the Nurburgring next weekend.

Edited by stevieeg on Wednesday 27th July 15:39