Suspension Refresh

Entry posted by mambosasa January 21, 2011

8,529 views

Hey again,

Like most Elise', mine clonks and bangs with the best of them. Due to years of abuse, the suspension is feeling a little worn at the moment. As we have been having some of the worst weather in history, it is the perfect opportunity to get the suspension stripped and rebuilt.

Now, there are couple of very good blogs/ threads that go into detail as to what you need to do, so I am not going to do that here. I am just going to show you a quick over-view of what I got up to.

Good references:-

Phil's thread as below...

http://www.midlandsl...ension-refresh/

And Martin R's very detailed approach...

http://www.midlandsl..._hl__winter+diy

As for me, my journey started just before X-Mas 2010 and in pictures, it went something like this...

Got the car up on stands...

I then removed all the bolts and fixings holding the wheelarch lining in place and by twisting it and out a little, I made enough room to get to all the bolts I needed to remove the suspension.

The photos show it best.

Good clearance to the bolts.

Disassembling begins. The only advise I would give at this point is that make sure that you keep all your bolts in a safe place. I use a number of containers that I mark to ensure that I put them back where they came from.

Some really unpleasant looking bits...

A few hours later, all the bits are off the car...

Please note that there a number of shims that you will need to make sure you make a note of and retain. More details on the threads referenced above.

Make sure that you support the brake calipers with some cable ties so as not to stress the brake hoses.

To clean the rust off the suspension parts, I used rust removing goo that you can buy from most motor shops. You simply apply it to the metal, leave it over night, then simply scrape it off with wire brush and wash off.

The outcome is not too bad. Its not as good as say, shot blasting, but it certainly cheaper and quicker.

Once dry, I then applied some rusk killer paint (please don't use the dining room table at Christmas like me - not a good move) and once dried, it was ready for painting.