Suspension troubles?

[davislove]

I may have answered this question myself but..........the ride quality on my S2 has been a bit err 'fidgety' lately and yesterday I checked the rear shocks......pushed down the right side and could bounce the car, pushed down the left side with same pressure and it felt pretty solid, how should it be?

the car has done ~38K, i'd have expected them to last longer than that

Geo and MOT recently didn't flag anything up

anyone else experienced this?

Edited by davislove on Sunday 26th August 16:48

[NathanE]

38k is a lot for one set of shocks on a liz really.

[Paul RN]

Could be geo, or could be suspension. Certainly 38k is a fair amount for an Elise, which gives the suspension a lot of wear.

[TIPPER]

Sounds like a dodgy shock. As said 38k isn't bad for shocks on the Elise. Suspension components are very much consumable.
I'm giving my car a complete suspension refresh this winter.The shocks have been replaced once and various bits and bobs replaced as and when necessary but I want to uprate the shocks and springs and there seems little point in doing that without refreshing the lot. The car has done 60k miles now.
New bushes all round, replace all ball joints, uprated toe link kit, uprated ARB, recondition steering rack and new shocks and springs. In parts alone that's pushing £2k.

[Sam_68]

TIPPER said:

Sounds like a dodgy shock.

Take the rear wheel off and have a good look at the shock absorber. Chances are you'e see signs of oil having leaked out.

Being mid-engined, an Elise with a dead rear shock absosber is a very dangerous animal, so don't drive it until fixed.

[davislove]

checked the dampers today, can't see any signs of leakage from either left or right, but on the right side there is a 'wear patch' about 1 inch on the piston rod, I think I'll get it looked at but I don't know what else they can check for?

Edited by davislove on Monday 27th August 14:42

[GreenV8S]

The 'bounce' test will only really show up completely knackered dampers, so if it fails that you can be pretty sure they need replacing. Remember to replace all four as a set.

If it's failed because of wear on one side of the rods it may be that something has been putting a side load on the damper. so make sure everything else is OK before you fit the new ones otherwise they might go the same way.

[davislove]

checked the price of dampers today, about £100 a corner............seems very reasonable considering they are the key component of the Elise USP