Coilovers: more trouble than they're worth?

[adamlewis01]

On my way to wrok last week, i was transfering from the m56 onto the m53. As i came round the bend to the end of the slip road i heard this scrubbing noise and then a horrendous smell of burning rubber, i move straight onto the hard shoulder and popped my head out of the window to see my tire had deflated. So i made my way off the motorway at cheshire oakes (50 meters max) and pulled up after the first roundabout on an unused drive.

Please excuse crap pics with phone camera:

First Fail.

Second fail:

Jack wouldnt fit under the car so i had to get one of the lads from college/work to bring me a block of wood to drive up onto.

Hmmm whats this around my arch??

Tyre

Flipped the tyre over to see this:

Bye bye 2 month old tyre.

Took the car to one of the guys at work and he checked it all out for me and said that the bottom of the coilover was loose so when i turned left after bearing right it had moved the camber of the wheel right into the adjuster rings on my coilovers.

So when i got home and checked the passenger side i found that i deffintaely need spacers to be safe even if its only 3 -5 mm ones. My passenger side tyre was litterally 3mm off my adjuster rings shown in the pic below.

 

[Slammed172]

Bad setting up ?

Not the coilovers fault !

s**t one, could have been pretty dangerous still.

 

[Limca]

ahhh, how low did you go??

 

[adamlewis01]

yer was pretty lucky that i wasnt going that fast or could have been dangerous. I had them checked over once by a garage and all was well...it just pays off to keep a close eye on them i suppose.

 

[Craig]

nasty

 

[f0xy]

i had to run 5mm's on mine to clear the shock because i had some neg camber set on the coilovers

 

[adamlewis01]

ahhh, how low did you go??

till it looked good, around 70mm i believe

 

[adamlewis01]

i had to run 5mm's on mine to clear the shock because i had some neg camber set on the coilovers

think it sounds like a good idea mate. bifcaids lent me some 10mm ones but i dont like the fact that the wheel isnt sitting on the hub (not hubcentric) so 3 or 5mm ones will be purchased this week along with another tyre.

 

[Brett]

Could have been worse. Just a bit of bad luck mate, plenty run coilies with no problems.

 

[nick.]

lucky imo opinion m8y that could of been alot worse hope you get it all sorted soon

 

[adamlewis01]

cheers mate

 

[Da]

I can't get a standard trolley jack under mine as it is and it's only on Sportlines :dapprove:

Looks nasty though mate and lucky all the same.

 

[jujuju]

Got 25mm spacers on mine with my coilies, plenty of room, no way would I have had them on there without, tooo close for my liking lol.

Luckily you weren't doing speed etc, could have been alot worse!!

 

[Android]

jesus mate.
im worried now haha

 

[BIFCAIDS]

ha ha ha adam you FAG lol funny thing was tho i laughed when he told me cos i didnt quite realise how serious it was lol, hows the spacers

 

[Fletcher]

Not the coilovers fault. I've had no problems whatsoever with my H&R coilovers.

 

[jams]

Unlucky mate but it could have been a lot worse. When I first fitted my coilovers i didn't fit spacers and after the first week of having them on I checked how close the wheel was to the coilover. It was only just over 1mm so I bought some 7mm spacers but the wheel still sits on the hub slightly so no vibrations at high speed.

 

[JD]

this is why my coilies were fitted after buying spacers, good old Paul at RStuning immediately said no point in fitting unless there is at least a finger sized space between coilies and tyre.

sorry to hear lad, but as said not the coilies fault. take it those are 16" wheels as well yeah?

jamie

edit, in fact looks the same setup exactly, FK coilies as well yeah?

 

[BIFCAIDS]

ill answer for him lol there not mate i thought exactly that there just 15's and yea there fks

 

[Christopher]

Poor fitting/setup more than the unit's fault

 

[adamlewis01]

yer your probably right probably more poor setting up than anything else but still. Fk highsports and 15's yes cheers mike.

 

[Christophe]

i kind of did this in my corsa. had coilovers on for a year on 14" wheels then upgraded to 16" and got this garage to fit them for me.

Anyway picked the car up and went off home except as soon as i set off i could hear really loud rubbing noise. I thought it was my arches until some guy drove next to me and shouted there's smoke coming from my tyres haha. Drove back to the garage who fitted and they took the wheels off and there was a 5 mm groove in my tyres!!!! the coilvovers were digging into them. So i did few hundred metres in brand new tyres and they were shagged lol. Was quite annoyed how they didnt check to see if it was safe.

anyway I argued till I got new tyres for free and bought myself some spacers lol

 

[scott1205]

yer could ov been a lot wurse

a low car does look good tho so its wurth it lol