S2 Ride Height

[allanbyrne]

My springs look original and a 1" pebble in the road will catch my exhaust. Any idea what the ride height should be and where it is measured? I assume there is no adjustment on this model?

If the springs do need changing, any ideas if what, where and how much?

Al

[ketvrin]

Ground clearance is listed as 140mm or 5.6 inches in old money.. but I bet this is dry, and unloaded as I'm sure I have less than that. Are you sure your exhaust is tucked up as far as possible. Mine had thos awful "U" clamps and the bolts kept hitting the ground and twisting. I have now replaced them with band clamps and that gave me another 1/2 inch or so.

[allanbyrne]

Hi mate, where is that measured?

[Hoover.]

IIRC the ride height should be approx 150mm (7" measured from the chassis rail/out riggers (not from the body)on flat ground.

[clarenceboddiger]

That does sound low, may be worth checking your engine mountings as well.

[allanbyrne]

150mm is 5.9 inches. Isn't ride height normally (and easily) measured at the sills, at 2 points front and back.

[Le TVR]

Normally measured under the 2 main chassis rails not at the sills.
Rear should be approx 1cm higher IIRC.

[Hoover.]

allanbyrne said:

150mm is 5.9 inches. Isn't ride height normally (and easily) measured at the sills, at 2 points front and back.

its measured from the chasis rails as these are a true reflection of how the car sits on the ground. The body sits on the chasis and is not always but on level.

[allanbyrne]

So what should the height be 7", 150mm, or 5.6". Mine measures 7" front 7 1/4" rae, so I guess thats okay, I wouldn't want it any lower. My front pipe on the exhaust is at low only 3" clearance, lower when I get in. Photos I have seen suggests this is normal.

[ketvrin]

Hi Allan -the 5.6 inches I mentioned came from the Parkersteve website dimensions section... take a look:

www.parkersteve.dsl.pipex.com/sparts.html#dimensions

I hope this clarifies

kevin

[Roy C]

Earlier cars (S1 & S2) were originally set up "flat" - same clearance front & rear. Later cars (S£ onwards) appear to be higher at the rear.

[MWBS3]

Hi I changed the shocks and springs to all 4 corners on my S3 this winter. The originals were very tired koni's along with a broken spring for encouragement!
The new AVO's are adjustable so with the adjuster at full length you just drop in the new ( different to the original ) spring without the need for a spring compressor then adjust back up to give you the road height of your desire.

I was advised 165mm front in line with the front hub on the main chassis box ie clearance box to ground and 10mm more on the rear.

Hope this helps

Mark

[clarenceboddiger]

allanbyrne said:

So what should the height be 7", 150mm, or 5.6". Mine measures 7" front 7 1/4" rae, so I guess thats okay, I wouldn't want it any lower. My front pipe on the exhaust is at low only 3" clearance, lower when I get in. Photos I have seen suggests this is normal.

That means you are dropping 2/3 of your ride height 3"-1" those spring really are tired,may be wothr a quick check tht your front tyres on the inner edge havent been rubbing on cornering and worn, mine had.

[Roy C]

Ground clearance is poor on these cars as TVR seem to have added the exhaust as an afterthought. If you have the original Koni spring/dampers on an S2 they must be totally knackered by now. Popular replacement coices are AVO or GAZ.

[mbracing]

Yep a after throught. What idiot designed a exhaust pipe to runs directly under he sump. And everytime you hit a speed hump the bl**dy clamps hit the bottom. Madness I say, Madness!

[Hoover.]

As a thought have a look at the exhaust and see if there is anyway off getting it tighter to the car.... ie has it slipped down the down pipe a bit ?????

[Mr Plow]

I ended up renewing the engine mounts to get the engine and exhaust away from the floor and tighter to the body. This also stops the sump rubbing on the anti roll bar.

[AllanByrne]

Hoover. said:

As a thought have a look at the exhaust and see if there is anyway off getting it tighter to the car.... ie has it slipped down the down pipe a bit ?????

It could go up at least an inch with the front pipe, I will try tommorrow. Getting under these cars is a bit of a s*d, I am used to Land Rovers with 35" wheels, where you can walk around underneath on tiptoe. Any tips if you dont have a 4 post lift or a pit, someone should invent a scaffold or something!

[clarenceboddiger]

AllanByrne said:

Hoover. said:

As a thought have a look at the exhaust and see if there is anyway off getting it tighter to the car.... ie has it slipped down the down pipe a bit ?????

It could go up at least an inch with the front pipe, I will try tommorrow. Getting under these cars is a bit of a s*d, I am used to Land Rovers with 35" wheels, where you can walk around underneath on tiptoe. Any tips if you dont have a 4 post lift or a pit, someone should invent a scaffold or something!

For christmas my son bought me a fantastic trolley jack from Machine Mart, it drops down very low and has a good lift height (incidentally it also fits very easily under his lowered golf GTI, Coincidence??) but still a really usefull tool as it goes under the main rails even with a nice length of 2" wood above it to spread the load.
I would also recommend a set of wheeled Dollys as below, makes access easier and also really easy to push out of the way in the garage, an extra metre in front of a workbench makes all the difference.




ps the dolly's are bread tray trolleys cut down with angle iron across to support the wheels,cost £5 pair (see your local bread delivery driver)

[HugoS2]

My mechanic has raisen my car, saying that its ride heigt was to low for the dampers to work. I have a set of adjustable Gaz Shocks. It is a misery: I have measured 20cm front and 25 back.

Do you know if at its normal height the dampers have a long traveling?