Discussion
I've spent the winter rebuilding the suspension on my Elise and finally got the car back down on tarmac yesterday and on track today.
I stripped all the corners, pressed the ball joints and bushes out and then gave the wishbones a good clean with wire brushes and a drill before slapping a coat of zinc primer and some hammerite on. The ali uprights were also given a good clean up and even the wheel-arches!!. Everything was also given a good inspection. I rebushed the car with Autobush one piece poly bushes (chosen mainly because they looked easy to fit, which they were), put in new balljoints from Eliseparts and had the steering rack professionally refurbed and some new TRE's. I also upgraded the toe-links to the Elisparts uniball kit. The only moving parts not touched were the ARB and drop links as I intend to upgrade these but don't know what to yet. It took me a while as a) I didn't start until that freezing weather took hold, b) I was working outside as there isn't room for a car in the garage at the mo and c) a combination of a and b meant two hours at a time was about the most I could manage! A wet spell of weather also didn't help.
I'm glad to say that apart from getting off seized bolts (one took six hours!!) and getting stuck in the footwell its not a particularly difficult job to undertake. The TADTS website, SELOC techwiki and Lotus service book pretty well walking me through a job I've never undertaken before. I wish I could say the finished results look as good as George's (see his Exige rebuild thread) but I don't have his levels of patience and Geary at Eliseparts is looking to bring out some wishbone sets at very competitive prices so I will probably treat the car to some of these down the line so didn't need to make 'as new'.
After a last minute panic the car got through her MOT yesterday afternoon (although emmissions were reluctant to fall into line after the lay up) with no more than an anticipated advisory on all four tyres. Straight from the MOT centre to the tyre fitters where they had 4 888s waiting for me and then the few miles home.
First impressions over those few miles were that the crashing and general looseness I had been feeling in the car (71k miles S1) were gone. The steering was also wonderfully sharp and accurate.
Today I was on track. Up (eventually this morning) and a drive from Plymouth to Llandow, west of Cardiff, on 'semi-slicks' (that I'd no experience of) covered in release agent in the rain. Oh how happy I was!! Got to Llandow in time for a session before lunch and took it easy, tip-toeing around, feeling the car and getting used to her again and her new found composure.
Unfortunately due to everything taking longer than expected yesterday I wasn't able to get the toe on the wheels properly sorted - camber I was sort of happy with but toe?? In the end I drew up two parallel lines either side of the car and measured the wheels to them and got them as straight ahead as I could. I then angled the fronts out a tiny bit and the rears in a tiny bit plus a bit more!! As good as I was going to get in the hour I had. I'd therefore been rather nervous about how the car was going to behave. I shouldn't have worried - whilst there's no doubt work to be done (a trip to Randy I think) the car was like a dream on track in the afternoon. I'd been to Llandow before but just couldn't believe how much more speed I could now carry on the bends (them 888s are good!) but particularly how sharp and composed the car felt. I remember one of the guys from Lotus last year telling me to straight line a chicane over the kerbs before turning into a right hander (avoiding a tyre wall). In the Exige S I was driving with him this felt OK. In my car it really just wasn't doable at the time as the car was too unsettled to get into the corner at any speed. Today I just found myself braking later and later through the chicane and into the corner and the car just doing all I asked of it. A couple of times through the Bus-Stop (as in Walshy's video) I sort of outbraked myself but still managed the sharp left and the car was easy enough to recover from the resultant muddle - pre refresh it would have just spun out. I even managed to avoid a car spinning right in front of me, again the car being wonderfully easy to control whilst rapidly scrubbing off speed mid bend (and thanks Walshy for teaching me how to do that!). I really can't put into words properly what a difference its made to the car. Bloody marvellous!
BTW - did I mention the suspension is a lot quieter and the car seems to ride better now too
If you're thinking your Elise isn't quiet right, not 'on the ball' as it was, has become 'crashy' and generally not very well settled then maybe its time to have a look at getting your suspension sorted. I know lots say that surely an MOT would pick up anything faulty but I got my car looked over before the refresh and only 1 item (one of the TREs) was a failure.
I stripped all the corners, pressed the ball joints and bushes out and then gave the wishbones a good clean with wire brushes and a drill before slapping a coat of zinc primer and some hammerite on. The ali uprights were also given a good clean up and even the wheel-arches!!. Everything was also given a good inspection. I rebushed the car with Autobush one piece poly bushes (chosen mainly because they looked easy to fit, which they were), put in new balljoints from Eliseparts and had the steering rack professionally refurbed and some new TRE's. I also upgraded the toe-links to the Elisparts uniball kit. The only moving parts not touched were the ARB and drop links as I intend to upgrade these but don't know what to yet. It took me a while as a) I didn't start until that freezing weather took hold, b) I was working outside as there isn't room for a car in the garage at the mo and c) a combination of a and b meant two hours at a time was about the most I could manage! A wet spell of weather also didn't help.
I'm glad to say that apart from getting off seized bolts (one took six hours!!) and getting stuck in the footwell its not a particularly difficult job to undertake. The TADTS website, SELOC techwiki and Lotus service book pretty well walking me through a job I've never undertaken before. I wish I could say the finished results look as good as George's (see his Exige rebuild thread) but I don't have his levels of patience and Geary at Eliseparts is looking to bring out some wishbone sets at very competitive prices so I will probably treat the car to some of these down the line so didn't need to make 'as new'.
After a last minute panic the car got through her MOT yesterday afternoon (although emmissions were reluctant to fall into line after the lay up) with no more than an anticipated advisory on all four tyres. Straight from the MOT centre to the tyre fitters where they had 4 888s waiting for me and then the few miles home.
First impressions over those few miles were that the crashing and general looseness I had been feeling in the car (71k miles S1) were gone. The steering was also wonderfully sharp and accurate.
Today I was on track. Up (eventually this morning) and a drive from Plymouth to Llandow, west of Cardiff, on 'semi-slicks' (that I'd no experience of) covered in release agent in the rain. Oh how happy I was!! Got to Llandow in time for a session before lunch and took it easy, tip-toeing around, feeling the car and getting used to her again and her new found composure.
Unfortunately due to everything taking longer than expected yesterday I wasn't able to get the toe on the wheels properly sorted - camber I was sort of happy with but toe?? In the end I drew up two parallel lines either side of the car and measured the wheels to them and got them as straight ahead as I could. I then angled the fronts out a tiny bit and the rears in a tiny bit plus a bit more!! As good as I was going to get in the hour I had. I'd therefore been rather nervous about how the car was going to behave. I shouldn't have worried - whilst there's no doubt work to be done (a trip to Randy I think) the car was like a dream on track in the afternoon. I'd been to Llandow before but just couldn't believe how much more speed I could now carry on the bends (them 888s are good!) but particularly how sharp and composed the car felt. I remember one of the guys from Lotus last year telling me to straight line a chicane over the kerbs before turning into a right hander (avoiding a tyre wall). In the Exige S I was driving with him this felt OK. In my car it really just wasn't doable at the time as the car was too unsettled to get into the corner at any speed. Today I just found myself braking later and later through the chicane and into the corner and the car just doing all I asked of it. A couple of times through the Bus-Stop (as in Walshy's video) I sort of outbraked myself but still managed the sharp left and the car was easy enough to recover from the resultant muddle - pre refresh it would have just spun out. I even managed to avoid a car spinning right in front of me, again the car being wonderfully easy to control whilst rapidly scrubbing off speed mid bend (and thanks Walshy for teaching me how to do that!). I really can't put into words properly what a difference its made to the car. Bloody marvellous!
BTW - did I mention the suspension is a lot quieter and the car seems to ride better now too
If you're thinking your Elise isn't quiet right, not 'on the ball' as it was, has become 'crashy' and generally not very well settled then maybe its time to have a look at getting your suspension sorted. I know lots say that surely an MOT would pick up anything faulty but I got my car looked over before the refresh and only 1 item (one of the TREs) was a failure.
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