S1 suspension refresh

[Gad-Westy]

This is very much in the planning stage rather than the doing stage at the moment but just wanted to start costing things up.

My basic plan is to do all of the bushes, ball joints, TRE's, wheels bearings, drop links, powdercoat the wishbones etc this year and then a set of new dampers next year. I'll be doing everything myself but just looking for a rough cost for a full set of bits. Anybody got any rough estimates off the top of their head?

[wacattack]

Depends on if you want to mod or not. I reckon you should budget around £1,500 to £2,000

[Mark B]

Wheel Bearings - £25 each
Bushes - Autobush is what I went for, £120
Ball joints £12 each (x8)
TRE - £15 each
Drop Links - £35 each
Powder coating - £100
Rear TRE - approx £35 each. (x4)

So, all in about £650 and a whole load of scraped knuckles and stress... It IS worth it though...

Did mine last year.

I also fitted low mileage LSS at the time to give ride height adjustment.

This winter it's under the front clam rebuild with new all ally radiator.

[Scuffers]

Gad-Westy said:

I'll be doing everything myself but just looking for a rough cost for a full set of bits. Anybody got any rough estimates off the top of their head?

well, having done a few of these before, I would go with this list (cut&paste from Eliseparts!):

Shopping Cart
8 x Ball Joints £135.60
2 x Rear Toe Link Ball Joint Outboard £71.90
2 x Rear Toe Link Ball Joint Inboard £71.90
2 x Wheel Bearings full kit (Rear) £69.90
2 x Wheel Bearings + 2x Circlips (Front) £65.90
4 x 4 Stud Hub Flange (EN24) £319.80
2 x Anti Roll Bar Drop Links £57.90
1 x Lotus Original Wishbone Bushes £199.95
2 x M16 Hub Bolt Kit £53.90
1 x Wishbone Nut & Bolt Set £26.95
1 x S2 Nylatron Anti Roll Bar Bushes £31.95
1 x Stainless Steel Braided Brake Hoses £59.95

Total £1,165.60 Exc. VAT

you could drop some stuff off the list like the 'M16 Hub Bolt Kit', but to my mind if your going to do the job, might as well do everything.

Wishbones wise, get them blasted (ali oxide or the like), then passive zinc'ed, then powdercoated (I don't agree with just powdercoating them, if they get chiped, water gets under the powdercoat and rusts away out of sight)

Other stuff you might want to think about is re-furbing the brake calipers, Re-anodise the front uprights and zinc/powder the rears (if steel), etc etc.

Edited by Scuffers on Tuesday 25th November 14:30

[lee111s]

Gad-Westy said:

This is very much in the planning stage rather than the doing stage at the moment but just wanted to start costing things up.

My basic plan is to do all of the bushes, ball joints, TRE's, wheels bearings, drop links, powdercoat the wishbones etc this year and then a set of new dampers next year. I'll be doing everything myself but just looking for a rough cost for a full set of bits. Anybody got any rough estimates off the top of their head?

I want to the same thing to mine.....need...more....money!

[chris7676]

Dampers are almost certainly due for renewal/upgrade in any S1, not necessarily the rest. I have had just the dampers+springs and track rod ends replaced as the rest seemed to be fine tight.

[Gad-Westy]

Scuffers said:

Gad-Westy said:

I'll be doing everything myself but just looking for a rough cost for a full set of bits. Anybody got any rough estimates off the top of their head?

well, having done a few of these before, I would go with this list (cut&paste from Eliseparts!):

Shopping Cart
8 x Ball Joints £135.60
2 x Rear Toe Link Ball Joint Outboard £71.90
2 x Rear Toe Link Ball Joint Inboard £71.90
2 x Wheel Bearings full kit (Rear) £69.90
2 x Wheel Bearings + 2x Circlips (Front) £65.90
4 x 4 Stud Hub Flange (EN24) £319.80
2 x Anti Roll Bar Drop Links £57.90
1 x Lotus Original Wishbone Bushes £199.95
2 x M16 Hub Bolt Kit £53.90
1 x Wishbone Nut & Bolt Set £26.95
1 x S2 Nylatron Anti Roll Bar Bushes £31.95
1 x Stainless Steel Braided Brake Hoses £59.95

Total £1,165.60 Exc. VAT

you could drop some stuff off the list like the 'M16 Hub Bolt Kit', but to my mind if your going to do the job, might as well do everything.

Cheers for that list, very comprehensive. E24 stud hub flange? Not come across this, is that standard offset or a revised offset?

[Gad-Westy]

chris7676 said:

Dampers are almost certainly due for renewal/upgrade in any S1, not necessarily the rest. I have had just the dampers+springs and track rod ends replaced as the rest seemed to be fine tight.

Where my car is at, at the moment is that more or less everything has been replaced at least once in 70k miles. The dampers were replaced for new red konis about 20k miles ago. The dampers are therefore in good nick though long term I'd obviously like to upgrade, whether that's to Bilsteins or something else more exotic, I'm not sure yet. The reason for doing the more or less everything at once is just so that I know I am starting from zero as it were and that it would be quite nice to do this all once and then forget about it for a while.

I guess one other thing I should be considerring is the steering rack.

[Gad-Westy]

wacattack said:

Depends on if you want to mod or not. I reckon you should budget around £1,500 to £2,000

Assume this includes labour or some dampers of some kind? Both of those could be left out at the moment.

[Scuffers]

Gad-Westy said:

Cheers for that list, very comprehensive. E24 4 stud hub flange? Not come across this, is that standard offset or a revised offset?

std dimensions, just made from proper steel not OEM cheesium©

[Gad-Westy]

Mark B said:

Wheel Bearings - £25 each
Bushes - Autobush is what I went for, £120
Ball joints £12 each (x8)
TRE - £15 each
Drop Links - £35 each
Powder coating - £100
Rear TRE - approx £35 each. (x4)

So, all in about £650 and a whole load of scraped knuckles and stress... It IS worth it though...

Did mine last year.

I also fitted low mileage LSS at the time to give ride height adjustment.

This winter it's under the front clam rebuild with new all ally radiator.

Cheers Mark, that's more in the ballpark of what I was hoping for. Are autobush, standard rubber or a poly/nylon? Assume you got the geometry reset afterwards?

[Scuffers]

Gad-Westy said:

I guess one other thing I should be considerring is the steering rack.

not unless it has slack in it...

usually just the end cup's need replaceing...

[Gad-Westy]

Scuffers said:

Gad-Westy said:

Cheers for that list, very comprehensive. E24 4 stud hub flange? Not come across this, is that standard offset or a revised offset?

std dimensions, just made from proper steel not OEM cheesium©

I see, cheers. Assume there have been reported failures of the standard hubs? Sounds like a worthwhile safety measure.

[Scuffers]

Gad-Westy said:

Scuffers said:

Gad-Westy said:

Cheers for that list, very comprehensive. E24 4 stud hub flange? Not come across this, is that standard offset or a revised offset?

std dimensions, just made from proper steel not OEM cheesium©

I see, cheers. Assume there have been reported failures of the standard hubs? Sounds like a worthwhile safety measure.

Failure is probably the wrong word, they have to get really bad to fail as such, the issue is one of wear, it's not offten you can change the bearings and find that the old flange is still on spec once you have pressed it out, I recon once the bearing have been changed 2+ times the flanges will be screwed.

[cyberface]

What are TREs? Acronym isn't obvious to me at first glance...

[TIPPER]

Thanks for the tip about the hub flages, Simon. So thats £350-ish a corner next time I need new wheel bearings.

I'm starting a refresh (amongst other things) at the end of this week: Its amazing how much the cost of the parts start totting up. Glad I had new dampers at the beginning of this year (incidently replacing the dampers just shows how tired everything else is)and wheel bearings last year and not too many miles since so that's some money saved.

[Mark B]

Gad-Westy said:

Mark B said:

Wheel Bearings - £25 each
Bushes - Autobush is what I went for, £120
Ball joints £12 each (x8)
TRE - £15 each
Drop Links - £35 each
Powder coating - £100
Rear TRE - approx £35 each. (x4)

So, all in about £650 and a whole load of scraped knuckles and stress... It IS worth it though...

Did mine last year.

I also fitted low mileage LSS at the time to give ride height adjustment.

This winter it's under the front clam rebuild with new all ally radiator.

Cheers Mark, that's more in the ballpark of what I was hoping for. Are autobush, standard rubber or a poly/nylon? Assume you got the geometry reset afterwards?

Autobush are poly bushes, seem really good after 4k miles +. I can't say if they are much better as my car was 80+k miles old and clearly quite worn.

I did a Geometry set up myself using the DIY routine, took about 3 hours, but very satisfying to do and the car drives really well.

[TIPPER]

cyberface said:

What are TREs? Acronym isn't obvious to me at first glance...

Track Rod Ends.

[Gad-Westy]

Scuffers said:

Gad-Westy said:

Scuffers said:

Gad-Westy said:

Cheers for that list, very comprehensive. E24 4 stud hub flange? Not come across this, is that standard offset or a revised offset?

std dimensions, just made from proper steel not OEM cheesium©

I see, cheers. Assume there have been reported failures of the standard hubs? Sounds like a worthwhile safety measure.

Failure is probably the wrong word, they have to get really bad to fail as such, the issue is one of wear, it's not offten you can change the bearings and find that the old flange is still on spec once you have pressed it out, I recon once the bearing have been changed 2+ times the flanges will be screwed.

Cheers Simon, I assume therefore that its a case of getting the bearings out and measuring them and buying them if needed rather than just buying them anyway?

[Scuffers]

Gad-Westy said:

Cheers Simon, I assume therefore that its a case of getting the bearings out and measuring them and buying them if needed rather than just buying them anyway?

well, you can normally tell when pulling them out of the bearings...

to be honest, I got fed up changing bearings only to find the car handled like a pig, spend hours trying to find the problem for it to be some tappering of the drive flange, for the same of a few £, the EN24 ones are fit and forget.

Should add that at some point over time, Rover much have changed something as some of the flanges I have pulled out are as soft as s**t, whereas others are notably harder.