New toy

[Mike Scib]

I said this on frolic, and i'll say it again. Your driving stylee needs a few subtle tweaks for the elise. I.E turning in, and stomping on the throttle wont give you oversteer, it'll cause understeer

http://videos.streetfire.net/video/Top- ... 174848.htm

Anyway.......

One of the rear shocks is leaking which must not be helping.......



So do i get them re-built or change them for something else? LEDA shocks BTW.

Adjustable front ARB, do all S1 have them? I take it mine are set to there softest setting at the mo?



If i make them stiffer what effect will it have?

Next question, are all toe links adjustable? I take it these are standard?



Any point upgrading if running standard road tyres?

And finally a couple of pics

[donnac]

So is it better than your S2000 in your opinion or similar? whats the pro's and con's of each?

[campbell]

Not all S1s have adjustable ARBs. Some just have rattly ones. Like mine

I suppose a rebuild of just one shock, or even a pair, may not break the bank. A full set of new items will be nudging £600 I imagine, that's for the S2 Bilstein for S1 kits. You may get GAZ ones for less but TBH the Bilstein shocker is a brilliant design and I reckon you generally get what you pay for in this area.

If you want the S2 for S1 kit, contact Steve Butts and see if he's still doing them, as he can offer some choice of ride height settings (not really user-adjustable, more about how he sets up the spring platform and damper mount bracket combos for you). And Mark McKenzie has the S2 LSS kit on his S1 (ie, very hard but very well damped...probably more for trackday focus).

Alternatively you may get a set of low mileage S2 bilsteins from an S2 owner who's putting Nitrons etc on their car. Much cheaper way, so long as the miles really are low. I may be looking at this for a front pair as I think one of mine is defective.

Can't really comment on toelinks other than to say unless you are doing lots of trackdays on sticky tyres, there is no need to change. OTOH McApe may testify that there is every need given what happened to him on Mt Ventoux or whatever it was on FF last year!

[Shug]

Get the full set of Ledas rebuilt - if you do two, I guarantee that one of the ones you didn't do will leak at the next TD - ask me how I know... Don't expect them to last more than a year once they've been rebuilt, but be budgeting for an upgrade in that time...

ARB - most people report a sharper front end on tightening up the ARB. Should technically lead to mid-corner understeer, but doesn't seem to be the case with Elises. Not difficult to swap about in the pitlane if you've freed off the nuts, so something to experiment with to get the feeling you want.

Toe links - well, given that I know how you drive (not a criticism ) I'd be thinking about getting these done sometime in any case. Certainly, it's not an urgent upgrade and it's expensive, but keep a close eye on them. Make sure they can twist freely (indicating the balljoints are free) and replace any sticky ones quickly. Not expensive to refresh the balljoints, so if you're not broke, it's probably worth it as a precaution. Yes - they are adjustable, all the suspension settings are in one way or another (shims, mostly)

[robin]

If you want your car to maintain constant handling over time, don't drive sideways.

If you don't drive sideways you also won't need to worry about toe links, bearing and balljoints nearly so often.

If you plan on using sticky tyres, you might need to upgrade the rear toe links and be prepared to fund a wheel bearing habit

My advice is keep it smooth and stick to road tyres ... but then I'm boring

Cheers,
Robin

[BigD]

That's a bit of a pain with the suspension, seems common with them though.

Also Mike, you've mentioned a few things that you want to do, or possibly do. I would do one thing at a time otherwise you could end up alot worse. In other words if you are going to rebuilt/replace the suspension then do that and try the car. The handling won't have been helped by a dodgy shock. Although wilst this is being fitted it could be just as easy to get the geo setup at the same time.

If you go and get the geo setup and then replace the suspension, that could change your setup and would need setup again. But everytime you change something you need to then try the car and see how it feels. I wouldn't touch the ARB until you have a good setup.

Many happy wheel bearing and toe link purchases to come i feel.

[Mike Scib]

Cheers for the sound advice guys, appreciated

Going to get the LEDA's rebuilt, all 4 of them. Just waiting to hear back from them for a price, lead time. Once they are back on the car i will then get the geo re-set to 340R road settings and go from there with the ARB, tyre pressure etc.

Not going to run R tyres, never intended to as i don't think 135bhp merits them. Also IMO i think it will lose some of the fun out of the car. Was just not sure if the Toe Links were a idea for piece of mind. Will see how money goes with the other bits first.

Would love to say i am not going to go sideways but i do track days for fun, not against the clock

[Mike Scib]

Going to get the LEDA's rebuilt, all 4 of them. Just waiting to hear back from them for a price, lead time.

Heard back from LEDA...

"The cost of this is £75 (excl VAT) per damper. This covers stripping and cleaning the units internals, replacing all necessary oil seals & o-rings, rebuilding, refilling with fresh oil and then a dyno test to ensure matched performance of your shock absorbers.


If we were to find that any additional work needed to be carried out once the units were stripped down on the workbench, we would contact you with the appropriate costs to gain your authority before we continue."

Hmm, only replace "necessary" bits and there could be "additional" work depending what else they find. On top of that i have postage.

Anyone recommend anywhere else that could service them?

Thinking out loud, how much for a second hand set of Nitrons if i can find any that is?

[point n squirt]

Tenkfeet is selling a set just know ,i think he had a buyer but may have fell through ,there in very good con give him a pm.

[campbell]

Thinking out loud, how much for a second hand set of Nitrons if i can find any that is?

Depending on how they have been sprung, Nitrons can be VERY hard for the road. The damper adjustment doesn't help much because it's the firm spring rating that most are shipped with which rattles your fillings and fixings out. Be mindful of that.

I know at least one clued up SE'er who changed from Nitrons back to the S2 for S1 Bilstein kit for just this reason. And I've driven a couple of Nitron'd cars on the road and they were very firm indeed.

S2 for S1 Bilstein kit is your friend

[mckeann]

S2 for S1 Bilstein kit is your friend

Absolutely spot on for a road car, but they wont do aswell on track if you drive remotely hard. Far too softly sprung, i think you'll be on the bump stops all the time. I think thats what my problem is with the LSS, so i'm going for new dampers with mega spring rates.


In terms of comfort, the damping has more effect than the spring rates. The new randy spec nitrons have mega springs (750 pound rears) but are ok on the road

[campbell]

Hm that's a bit weird then.

My old Spax adjustables were harsh no matter how the adjusters were set (and they definitely adjusted, cos you could dial out a lot of bounce by winding them up!).

Anyways, point taken re: track. I can only comment from mainly road use obviously, so it's all about the compromise a given owner wants to make...I have a hunch the 135 in question may well spend a lot of time on track in which case Nitrons would presumably make a lot of sense.

I just like people to be aware that harder suspension does not always necessarily mean better handling / better car.

[mckeann]

absolutely agree re the road, i was just pointing out the other side. Its all to do with priotities, and if you take it easy on track (i.e normal) then the S2 billies will be fine. Trouble is that mike is a nutter, so i suspect he might end up pushing them beyond there limits (although he does brake like a girl, so maybe not )

[campbell]

Trouble is that mike is a nutter, so i suspect he might end up pushing them beyond there limits (although he does brake like a girl, so maybe not )

I got that impression but didn't like to say

[Mike Scib]

(although he does brake like a girl, so maybe not )

I agree

Practise makes perfect and all

Anyway, the car is a road/track car but i probably want it set up as a track/road car if that makes sense?

Not sure what to do. A- Get my LEDA's rebuilt B- Nitrons (Normal ones) or C- Billies. I just think it is a lot of money to get the LEDA's rebuilt, plus they are not know to be the best in the first place (as said i find them pretty impressive but i have nothing to compare to) Nitrons would be excellent from what i have read and they would add some value to the car IF i decide to sell. But they are a lot of money. Billies, would probably be up to the job 99% of the time. But just not sure if they are the right shocks for me.

Is there anywhere else that will rebuild my LEDA's?

Maybe i should just fit my old Koni Red's