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[Liam]

Hi guys.

Was all excited about my first trip to Wheels In Motion on saturday to cure my tyre destroying alignment problem .  So i was gutted that instead of sorting it all out, he told me to rebook when I've replaced the front wishbones and a snapped rear spring .  Still most places would have probably taken my money anyway and made the car worse!  May as well take it off the road for a little while as it's also cambelt and rocker cover gasket time again.  Anyway - have a few questions.

1.  Rear spring - how easy is the job?  Had a little ook through Mark DTMs guide and was suprised to see the shock coming off and subframe dropped   Is it not possible to get the blighter out with just spring compressors?

2.  Any good source for the spring?  Autovaux?  Ebay?  Do you have to change both sides at the same time?  WIM guy said the other one looks much newer so was maybe already broken and changed by the previous owner.

3.  I seem to get around 18 months - 2 years out of ebay-special wishbones.  If i recall vaux are stupid money, but is there a happy medium?  Prices seem to vary a fair bit on ebay, but are they all the same cheap parts, and if you choose to pay more are you just lining the pockets of a bolder ebayer who claims his wishbones are fantastic and 'not like all the other cheap tat on ebay'?

4.  I remember discussion ages ago about looking for a source of quality bushes to rebush the bones (using BMW 5 series bushes maybe??).  Was this ever resolved?  Anyone got supplier/prices of good bushes, and will these really last much longer than those on the ebay special bones?  Not really looking for hard poly bushes or owt like that.

5.  Will do my cambelt myself again.  Does anyone here lend/hire the locking kit out nowadays?  Or did autovaux do it (though I want to get the kit from my local motor factors)?

6.  Autovaux rocker cover gaskets gone one side in under a year I think - doh!  So much for them being genuine.  Could somebody remind me how much the genuine ones are again? .

Any advice much appreciated.  Cheers!

[Will B]

what miggy do you have? cos if your looking for bits on the cheap and just want her back on the road, alot of people are breaking motors and might save yourself a small fortune.

Just took my beast to WIM thank goodness it was just the camber gone and nothing like that .... good luck

[davethediver]

allgermanparts.com i think is the source for lemforder wishbones, these seem to be the choice of many on here about 70 a side iirc.

Springs or anything suspension wise should always be done in pairs 

HTH

[Shrek]

I did my springs without dropping subframe and using compressors , although i did have help from someone that new what they were doing .
I belive KYB make the recommended springs and always do them in a pair 

[Liam]

Cheers guys.  It's a mini-facelift Elite saloon by the way.  Hmmmm - most of what I need to replace I'd consider consumables and therefore want to fit new.  But rear springs off a breaker sounds reasonable enough.  Do you mean there are a lot on here?  Will have to have a browse...

That also reminds me - I have self levelling suspension (not that it works - duff sensor I reckon).  Does that mean I have different rear springs?

Cheers for the link - so the Lemforder bones are a level above the ebay specials then?

Cheers.

[Shrek]

Personally anything to do with suspension i would never use second hand  :-/
I belive the self levelers do use different springs 

[Liam]

Where can you buy the KYB springs?  Cheers.

[RobG]

Wishbones here http://www.allgermanparts.co.uk/ourshop/cat_277900-Steering-and-suspension-components.html
and my old mate Shrek is correct in that the self-levelling incorporates different springs

[RobG]

Where can you buy the KYB springs?  Cheers.

Here http://www.buypartsby.co.uk/

[Liam]

Thanks for all the help.  Any idea how I'd find which springs I'd need?  Type in my reg but there are still a few options for saloon rear springs including a 'heavy duty' type.  None mention self levellinf suspension.

Cheers again.

[RobG]

Best bet is to ring them with your requirements & they`ll get you sorted

[Liam]

You're probably right.  Was all excited about ordering NOW though !

Oooh i notice that place also does the bones for £36 each.  Obviously not Lemforder ones (unless allgermanparts are rippng us off), but anyone tried these that we know of?

[RobG]

You're probably right.  Was all excited about ordering NOW though !

Oooh i notice that place also does the bones for £36 each.  Obviously not Lemforder ones (unless allgermanparts are rippng us off), but anyone tried these that we know of?

Genuine, as fitted by VX

[TheBoy]

Dropping subframe is much easier than using spring compressors (virtually impossible in the space)

[Liam]

Dropping subframe is much easier than using spring compressors (virtually impossible in the space)

Yikes!  Thanks for the tip - I'll see how it goes.

What about the locking tool - anyone/anywhere lend/hire them out?

Cheers