182 subframe questions

[mocod]

Hi guys,

Had a minor snow, handbrake, , , footbrake, curb, incident last night in the 182, like a total jeb end, so don't worry I'm not looking for sympathy.

Anyway, had a look today, looks like sole victim was the subframe.

Here's the offending near side, you can easily see the crease where the paint's chipped off to show the silver colour below:

For comparison, the off side, which looks fine:

The steering rod, ball-joint and wishbone look fine and the wheel got away with a few small scuffs too, was probably doing about 10mph, mostly sideways!

So just a few questions about the subframes, which I haven't found conclusively by searching:

1. Are all post 2001 subframes the same, i.e. the extra track width is in the wishbones? I've seen you need to drill a hole for gearbox mounting if it's not a 1*2 one, is it obvious where to put the hole?

2. Getting it off doesn't look too bad, but wanna check I haven't missed anything?
- Up on stands and wheels off
- Disconnect steering column from rack
- Drain PAS fluid
- Disconnect PAS hoses
- Disconnect steering rod ends
- Diconnect ball joints from wishbones
- Unbolt subframe and drop in face

Any tips appreciated!

Oh and if anyone has a subframe, send me a message!

Cheers
Andy

 

[Fred@BTM]

doesn't look like there's anything wrong with it mate, just a scratch? (they're galvanised metal, not painted)

have an alingment check done, if its ok don't worry about it

 

[mocod]

The near side wheel isn't pointing in quite the right direction anymore, the camber angle looks the opposite to what it should be, and it crabs along, so I'm sure something's up.

Is the underneath of the subframe the same both sides, i.e. should look flat? Because the near side one is not flat anymore, but quite kinked.

It's dirt that's cracked off, not paint then!

 

[Tom85]

The subframes are pretty chunky things, from the picture looks like nothing too serious, double check everything, have a good look at the steering arms, they would be the weakest point, and most likely causing the misalignment.

When reattaching subframes, they dont just bolt on square everytime and can need some adjustment by wiggling trial and error, or if its not bad, by setting the tracking.

If you can avoid it prob best not to remove.

see if when the hand wheel is straight there are even gaps either side of the car to the rear and front of the roadwheel arches from the tyre.

both sides of the subframe shouls be the same. your wishbone mount positions may have moved a few mm.

hope you sort it!

 

[Tom85]

if you have positive camber the wishbone mounts could well have moved towards the centre of the car. try getting some measurements off a solid reference point to compare both sides,see if u can find where it has moved. wont be much though.

 

[The Boosh!]

The near side wheel isn't pointing in quite the right direction anymore, the camber angle looks the opposite to what it should be, and it crabs along, so I'm sure something's up.

Is the underneath of the subframe the same both sides, i.e. should look flat? Because the near side one is not flat anymore, but quite kinked.

It's dirt that's cracked off, not paint then!

You could have just knocked out your toe/camber? Only costs 45 for a full geo alignment. May be worth doing that before you start forking out for the expensive stuff

 

[iimushroomzii]

same place mine was bent on my 1.2... swapped it and everything was fine.

 

[Tom84]

i did the same in mine and looks the same as how mine bent. is deff the subframe

i fitted one off a base model with no problems just had to drll out the gearbox mount hole as you said.

oh and another thing i left my steering rack on the car i ust unbolted it off the subframe and the droppped the frame off, four 16mm bolts i think. took me 3 hours start to finish to swap over but that was with a ramp and airline to hand. oh and make sure soak the front subrame mounting bolts as both of mine sheered off the captive nuts

 

[mocod]

Got the subframe changed at the weekend, what a total b*****d of a job!

Didn't take too long to get the old one ready to remove, but then everytime I dropped it down, I realised something else was stopping it! The worst offender was a heatshield bolted to the top of the subframe at the back. I lost a lot of skin, swore a lot and eventually got the buggers undone after about 2 hours, by which time I was close to smashing the whole car with a hammer!

Anyway, the old one was well nackered. New one lined up perfectly, so chassis is good and straight which is a relief. Getting ball-joints and arb reattached wasn't much fun either!

After all that, some problems still remain. I think the hub/bearing needs replacing and I'm dubious about the steering rack. Manually adjusted the tracking back, so it drives ok, but camber is still off.

The nsf shock was leaking a little bit a few months back, and looks worse now, so that'll need changing too.

So a few more queries:

- Is it ok to change one front shock, or should they be done in pairs?
- Is the hub different on the 1*2s from normal Clios?

Cheers