Shocks, chalk and insurance

[cypruselise]

Hi folks, it is the 'L' plate elise S1 again!. I have had my wheels shot blasted, powdercoated and repainted by Pentland. The look simply fabulous. I would not have believed that they could come up so well. Great job an not too expensive.
Of course whilst the wheels were off (two at a time) I had a look around again. It appears that I have Bilstein shocks with Eibach springs. I read on the Lotus website that this an approved upgrade but one that should be reported to your insurance . I did this and got charged an extra £38.00!
However, I had a close look and could not believe the state of the collars that contain the spring. I gather that they are made of aluminium and that they flake and crumble after a while. Yes they do-and mine now look like and feel like chalk and need to be replaced quicky. It looks quite an easy job to do and I will need a simple spring compressor. Am I correct in this assumption or is there some ghastly trip-up awaiting me? Also I cannot quite figure out how the top collar is held in place, by a circlip I think-is this easy to change? Can anybody suggest a suitable spring compressor please? All part of the Lotus learning curve-no over engineering here. Thanks everyone for their help to date.
Regards.

[flyingscot68]

Sorry, can't help with changing your collars. £38 extra on your insurance though?? Someone's taking the mickey, what a rip off.

[robin]

I wouldn't bother, though I am beginning to sense a certain amount of OCD on your part, so I am sure you will

I have never heard of a collar breaking no matter how tatty looking it is. Typically on aluminium the oxide layer only goes to a certain depth and then it "isolates" the rest of the metal from the atmosphere. I guess where the spring presses against the collar it will wear away the powdery layer, allowing a new one to form, and in about 200 years the spring will have worked its way right through the collar ... so best change it before that happens

I also doubt the collars are available as spares by themselves, so you would end up buying new damper bodies to get new collars, as it were. Then move road springs from old to new using spring compressor. As usual on the elise everything is small, so you need to have a compressor that fits - I guess some of the more hefty items will be no use on the elise.

When you dismantle it you will discover that everything else is corroded too ... don't be tempted to replace the suspension bolts for anything other than new bolts of the same spec, even though they will once again rust ... shiny bolts won't rust, but they will snap and dump your car in the hedges

Cheers,
Robin

[tut]

You have to decide yourself what stage you stop declaring so called upgrades to your insurance company. There is barely any such thing as standard suspension on an old S1, things are changed so much over the years to keep the cars going, that half the time owners have forgotten what they do have on, and if you have bought a used one you would probably not know anyway unless you did all your own servicing.

What will you do when you have to fit new disks and pads, you would not fit original Lotus blancmange pads, and probably change to EBC disks. Is your exhaust original or has it been changed, or would you even know? Have you fitted a removable steering wheel to prevent theft, if so you would probably be charged extra for it as that is the way their twisted logic works.

Upgrading an engine is different, although if it was purely a cylinder head it would not show. However at this stage you are declaring it so it adds onto the value of your car if you write it off, the same with a set of £1,400 Nitrons. However no doubt you would find out when it came to a claim that they would just ignore it and pay book price, but of course they would go over the car first to see if they could disclaim it by finding that pressure was low in one tyre, or god forbid you had crept under 1.6mm.

Load of bloodsuckers half of them, and although I do not want to upset Robin who thinks that they do a great job, they want your premium and hope never to hear from you again until you get next years inflated renewal and forget to cancel it as it will be on a continuous DirDeb(what do you mean you did not see it on page 26 in the small print), or do not bother checking around for a lesser form of leech.

tut

[iain3915]

I read quite a lot about collars recently as my car failed its MOT on the state of the rears.

I paid someone to change mine for these http://www.eliseparts.com/products/show ... g-collars/

They are a hardened anodised version and should not crumble like the originals. The guy changing mine struggled with regular spring compressors as the springs are very tightly wound but he managed by hammering the compressor hooks into place - looked a bit dodgy. I believe some people use motorbike spring compressors.

I've still got the fronts to do but now that I've watched how to do the rears I'm going to have a go at that myself sometime.

Oh, and the top collar is only held in place by the circlip! There is a groove on the damper body in which the circlip rests and the collar pushes against the circlip. Quite amazing that the circlip is so strong.

[cypruselise]

Hi , ref OCD ,one of the springs is starting to move out of its collar. I could easy
break the rest of the collar with my hand !
I also am used to brakes that I can trust. Regards.

[iain3915]

If they are as bad as that then be very careful. There is an awful lot of tension in the spring and you could get hurt if the collar breaks while you are removing them.

[cypruselise]

Hi, one other thing. When my broker phoned the underwriter, they knew all about this upgrade
so they are probably more knowledgeable than we all realise. Regards.

[robin]

Hi, wasn't meaning to offend and apologise if I did so.

If you could easily break the rest of the collar with your hand, what's holding the car up?

Re: insurers, you are absolutely right to declare everything you are aware of - otherwise you may as well drive uninsured.

Cheers,
Robin

[cypruselise]

Hi, the car is on a trolley jack! Regards.

[sendmyusername]

Once a mod has been recorded by the insurance companies now I think they keep it on a central database, when I phoned about the exige, they listed my mods for me. (wasn't that many)
RE: payouts.
My insurance company told me that they would only replace damaged parts with original equipment, even if I declared the changes.

[Corranga]

Does the S2 suspension upgrade actually count as a modification since this is the only way of replacing your factory standard suspension on an s1, and is what Lotus would sell you if you went to them inquiring about replacement suspension?

(though mine is also declared anyway..)

Chris

[robin]

I think you need to declare it to be sure, as it was fitted as an upgrade once upon a time, even if now it is your only option.
Cheers,
Robin

[campbell]

OEM Pirelli P Zero tyres should have been declared to insurers, they weren't an upgrade but they were flippin' lethal!

I think many an Elise is now in far better shape today and a lower risk as a result, than when it came from the factory. But will an insurer be interested in that? Nope. Far too difficult to handle with a "database".

Is it an upgrade if you buy a part from Pentland Components instead of the Main Dealer?

Is it a downgrade if you fit something inferior? - can you get money off that way?!

[robin]

It is nothing to do with up- vs down- .... just non-standard. Anything different from the herd might result in a different risk so they want to know about it. Whether or not the fee they charge you for each non-standard part is in any way related to the change in risk is another question. Be happy that they will insure you at all ... many main stream insurers consider any modification as a step too far.

Cheers,
Robin