Under the arches......
Discussion
Well, today I finally got around to installing my coilovers I designed and made a few months ago. The weather is brightening up and some of the potholes are getting filled so I thought it was time to get them installed.
I was very surprised to see just how exposed the car was when the wheel arch liners were removed. I am used to seeing them there to protect the metal arch from the rigours of everyday road water and debris, but was not expecting to see just how absolutely essential they are on the DB9. With the front liners out, the car is almost a space chassis with everything there open to the elements.......
Rear of OS front arch showing washer bottle and pumps.....
Front of OS arch showing access to alternator, access to headlamp bulbs, alternator and airbox.....
Rear of NS wheelarch showing ABS assembly....
and front of NS arch with a good view of the intake ducting all the way from the airbox, through the airflow meter and into the throttle body.
So the procedure I used to replace the front struts complete was to remove the lateral strut brace.....
and then working inside the newly exposed wheel arches......showing the existing strut assemblies.....
Starting by disconnecting the ABS sensor and unclipping the wiring attahed to the upper wishbone to prevent stressing them,
I removed the inner bolts on the upper wishbones
[url]
|http://thumbsnap.com/LJgXzmGT[/url]
Allowing the upper arm to swing clear.....
and then the lower bolt securing the bottom of the strut to the lower arm.
|http://thumbsnap.com/EWmoiL7b[/url]
Then with one hand supporting the strut, you can undo the 3 nuts inside the engine bay to release the strut assembly which can then carefully be removed from the car.
Here you can see the removed strut alongside my new coilover for the front that is slightly shorter.
Installation of the new unit is simply a reversal of the removal procedure, remembering to carefully resecure the wiring to the upper wishbone. The upper arm bolts are not fully torqued up to spec until the suspension is jacked from underneath so that they are preloaded to allow full tightening with the suspension in its normal static load state. This is not necessary on the lower strut mount as the mount is a spherical balljoint.
With the front wheels now reinstalled after refitting the arch liners, it was off the the back end. Again, component exposure was most surprising with the arch liners removed.....
NS showing the fuel tank breather system .........
and the OS.......
[url]
To remove these rears is a little more awkward and so after removing the strut lower bolt and the lower balljoint bolt, the 4 upper strut mounting carrier bolts can be removed allowing the strut freedom to move within the rear arch, but insufficient clearance to remove it. To do that, you need to remove the upper strut carrier from the strut by removing the upper 3 nuts, which leaves the assembly small enough to then remove from the confines of the arch. Here seen next to my new coilover.
The 4 carrier bolts can be seen here with the yellow paint marking........
and here you can see the lower strut bolt and in the far bottom RH corner, the refitted lower arm bolt.
After refitting the arch liners, it was back on with the rear wheels and time for a well deserved cuppa after a busy 3 hours. Will be off for the inital test drive as soon as time permits and to begin setting up the ride heights once the coils have settled.
The final job was to reinstall the lateral chassis brace across the engine bay once the car was back on its wheels with the weight bearing up on the suspension turrets.
I was very surprised to see just how exposed the car was when the wheel arch liners were removed. I am used to seeing them there to protect the metal arch from the rigours of everyday road water and debris, but was not expecting to see just how absolutely essential they are on the DB9. With the front liners out, the car is almost a space chassis with everything there open to the elements.......
Rear of OS front arch showing washer bottle and pumps.....
Front of OS arch showing access to alternator, access to headlamp bulbs, alternator and airbox.....
Rear of NS wheelarch showing ABS assembly....
and front of NS arch with a good view of the intake ducting all the way from the airbox, through the airflow meter and into the throttle body.
So the procedure I used to replace the front struts complete was to remove the lateral strut brace.....
and then working inside the newly exposed wheel arches......showing the existing strut assemblies.....
Starting by disconnecting the ABS sensor and unclipping the wiring attahed to the upper wishbone to prevent stressing them,
I removed the inner bolts on the upper wishbones
[url]|http://thumbsnap.com/LJgXzmGT[/url]Allowing the upper arm to swing clear.....
and then the lower bolt securing the bottom of the strut to the lower arm.
|http://thumbsnap.com/EWmoiL7b[/url]Then with one hand supporting the strut, you can undo the 3 nuts inside the engine bay to release the strut assembly which can then carefully be removed from the car.
Here you can see the removed strut alongside my new coilover for the front that is slightly shorter.
Installation of the new unit is simply a reversal of the removal procedure, remembering to carefully resecure the wiring to the upper wishbone. The upper arm bolts are not fully torqued up to spec until the suspension is jacked from underneath so that they are preloaded to allow full tightening with the suspension in its normal static load state. This is not necessary on the lower strut mount as the mount is a spherical balljoint.
With the front wheels now reinstalled after refitting the arch liners, it was off the the back end. Again, component exposure was most surprising with the arch liners removed.....
NS showing the fuel tank breather system .........
and the OS.......
[url]To remove these rears is a little more awkward and so after removing the strut lower bolt and the lower balljoint bolt, the 4 upper strut mounting carrier bolts can be removed allowing the strut freedom to move within the rear arch, but insufficient clearance to remove it. To do that, you need to remove the upper strut carrier from the strut by removing the upper 3 nuts, which leaves the assembly small enough to then remove from the confines of the arch. Here seen next to my new coilover.
The 4 carrier bolts can be seen here with the yellow paint marking........
and here you can see the lower strut bolt and in the far bottom RH corner, the refitted lower arm bolt.
After refitting the arch liners, it was back on with the rear wheels and time for a well deserved cuppa after a busy 3 hours. Will be off for the inital test drive as soon as time permits and to begin setting up the ride heights once the coils have settled.
The final job was to reinstall the lateral chassis brace across the engine bay once the car was back on its wheels with the weight bearing up on the suspension turrets.
Edited by 8Tech on Sunday 30th March 23:13
burntout said:
Great Thread..... Always envious of others that can do this work themselves... 
Do you have any pictures of the car with these fitted, does it sit much lower? Also hows the ride now??
Not until I have allowed the suspension to settle and then made the finer adjustments to the ride height as I am currently set at just the height using all my theoretical calculations from my earlier post. From the very limited drive I have done on them, the ride is expectedly firmer but I have yet to drive it properly.Do you have any pictures of the car with these fitted, does it sit much lower? Also hows the ride now??
V12Vanquish said:
Thanks, great write up. Do you think the ride height change upset the wheel alignment.
Yes, it will alter the alignment very slightly but until I have settled on the final ride height, I will not redo the alignment as it will only change again with every adjustment I make to the height anyway. There will probably be more of an alignment shift just through simply disturbing it all more than the ride height change, especially where camber and caster are hardly affected with the double wishbone suspension set-up.One of the most surprising things I found whilst doing this was when I removed the chrome strakes that attach over the vent on the front wings. I am possibly the worst offender for using Carbon Fibre as a decorative material on the car rather than functional, but whilst the door handles and mirror caps are pretty bling and make no appreciable weight difference, my goodness, I'll wager those strakes weigh more than the complete wing!!
They are CAST ALUMINIUM and weigh in at 634g each, thats 1.5lbs of metal hanging on to those 3x 6mm bolts in the fibreglass wing.
These should be chromed plastic or carbon fibre.
Just as a side note on them too, whoever built the car initially at Gaydon never bothered fitting the end 2 securing nuts and it was only retained by the 3 nuts on the grille section. Must have been an ex- british leyland employee!!
They are CAST ALUMINIUM and weigh in at 634g each, thats 1.5lbs of metal hanging on to those 3x 6mm bolts in the fibreglass wing.
These should be chromed plastic or carbon fibre.
Just as a side note on them too, whoever built the car initially at Gaydon never bothered fitting the end 2 securing nuts and it was only retained by the 3 nuts on the grille section. Must have been an ex- british leyland employee!!
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