Educate me on Tuscan suspension springs please
Discussion
Hi folks,
My 2003 Tuscan S grounds out a lot. On the Cadwell park track day I was grounding out at the bottom of the dip on the Park straight and a couple of times under hard braking into the 90degree left Mansfield. It also happens on the road when driving on A roads and there’s a dip.
The car is on Nitron suspension that my former TVR mechanic had set to hard (a couple of clicks off max).
Last summer as part of the service he told me one of the springs was broken so he replaced the pair. I thought it said it was the rear springs, but the rear springs look pretty old/dirty when I’ve just looked, and the fronts look pretty new so I assume it was the fronts that were changed.
However, as per the pictures the springs both front and rear are the red ones. The invoice from last year says 2 x OE Ebach coil springs.
From searching other threads I understand on the S the front springs should be green and the rears blue. To be honest I don’t know what the ratings for the red springs are versus the other colours, so if anyone could let me know if the reds are stiffer or softer I’d be grateful?
Also do the PH collective think I should be switching back to the standard coloured springs to assist with my grounding issues or should I just be playing with ride heights?
Front
Rear
Thanks for any input
Andy
My 2003 Tuscan S grounds out a lot. On the Cadwell park track day I was grounding out at the bottom of the dip on the Park straight and a couple of times under hard braking into the 90degree left Mansfield. It also happens on the road when driving on A roads and there’s a dip.
The car is on Nitron suspension that my former TVR mechanic had set to hard (a couple of clicks off max).
Last summer as part of the service he told me one of the springs was broken so he replaced the pair. I thought it said it was the rear springs, but the rear springs look pretty old/dirty when I’ve just looked, and the fronts look pretty new so I assume it was the fronts that were changed.
However, as per the pictures the springs both front and rear are the red ones. The invoice from last year says 2 x OE Ebach coil springs.
From searching other threads I understand on the S the front springs should be green and the rears blue. To be honest I don’t know what the ratings for the red springs are versus the other colours, so if anyone could let me know if the reds are stiffer or softer I’d be grateful?
Also do the PH collective think I should be switching back to the standard coloured springs to assist with my grounding issues or should I just be playing with ride heights?
Front
Rear
Thanks for any input
Andy
I don’t actually have any records of them being serviced. I’ve got a detailed file of all the services, etc from the past and haven’t seen any record of when the nitrons were fitted though.
Safe to say it’s been at least 2 years, as that’s how long I’ve owned it…could be a lot longer.
Safe to say it’s been at least 2 years, as that’s how long I’ve owned it…could be a lot longer.
Trying to stop the bottoming out using the resistance adjuster will be only a slight improvement, the compression resistance will be something like a quarter of the rebound, so you also run the risk of jacking down using too much resistance on the adjuster and soft springs.
You need to address this with spring rate changes / bump stops / ride height, depending on how you want the ride / look - personal preference.
You need to address this with spring rate changes / bump stops / ride height, depending on how you want the ride / look - personal preference.
If the fronts are 400lb then by the same logic the rears are 325lb.
You could try putting the 400s on the rear and going up on the front to keep some kind of balance.
In the meantime, put a cable tie on the piston rod so that over bumps the action of the top of the damper on the tie will push it up the rod, this tells you how close the top of the damper is to the bump stop on big compressions ..
The nitrons have always had short bump stops .. it might be that yours are never coming in to play.
You could try putting the 400s on the rear and going up on the front to keep some kind of balance.
In the meantime, put a cable tie on the piston rod so that over bumps the action of the top of the damper on the tie will push it up the rod, this tells you how close the top of the damper is to the bump stop on big compressions ..
The nitrons have always had short bump stops .. it might be that yours are never coming in to play.
spitfire4v8 said:
If the fronts are 400lb then by the same logic the rears are 325lb.
You could try putting the 400s on the rear and going up on the front to keep some kind of balance.
In the meantime, put a cable tie on the piston rod so that over bumps the action of the top of the damper on the tie will push it up the rod, this tells you how close the top of the damper is to the bump stop on big compressions ..
The nitrons have always had short bump stops .. it might be that yours are never coming in to play.
The code is length in inches / diameter / rateYou could try putting the 400s on the rear and going up on the front to keep some kind of balance.
In the meantime, put a cable tie on the piston rod so that over bumps the action of the top of the damper on the tie will push it up the rod, this tells you how close the top of the damper is to the bump stop on big compressions ..
The nitrons have always had short bump stops .. it might be that yours are never coming in to play.
I would speak to the guy who really knows all about TVR suspension, and that's Ben Lang his company is called Blackdown Automotive, Ben Worked for TVR and developed the Bilstein... search Pistonheads for threads, one is Bilstein...
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Edited by JOMAR on Thursday 10th August 12:46
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