Scottish Elises

Well potholing actually. Was enjoying a nice run in the sunshine over the weekend when I landed my wee plastic car in a massive hole. Made a big bang and gave me a fright but she did manage to climb out.

Anyway, I pulled over and had a look round, no visible damage so back behind the wheal. Started up and moved off, not good, something very strange about the backend when ever I go over a bump and lots of vibration from the steering. Another look but all looked OK so limped home.

Took the wheals off today and had a look. Luckily it all looks OK. Nothing bent , but the rear passenger side disk and calliper are loose. The disk movers in and out taking the calliper with it. Could not investigate further because my tools are all and my parents and I couldn’t take the disk and calliper off the check it further.

Anybody got any idea what has broken??

Thanks as always.

Is the hub moving with the disc?

is the Hub carrier/upright moving with the disc?

Does the wheel move when bolted to the wheel hub

Is the hub moving with the disc?

I don’t think so. The disk is just loose on the hub.

is the Hub carrier/upright moving with the disc?

Not sure, (don’t think so) will have to have a look.

Does the wheel move when bolted to the wheel hub

Not when I grab the tyre and try to rattle it. I recon that when you put the wheel on the studs and tighten it all up it holds it all solidly, which may well be what it is ment to do since there are no flush bolts holding the disks on (which I think there have been on at least sum of my other cars).

The reason I thought the disk being loose might be causing the problem is that the other disks are all solid on the hubs and don’t rattle. If its not the disk does anybody have any other ideas?

Symptoms:

when the car hits a bump on the road the return is strange, it feels like the car is taking a wee jump to the side.

There is a lot of vibration in the steering as the speed increases.

I know my dampers are on their last legs and have a set to switch to (thanks Mac) so I suppose it could just be the pothole was the last blow to them and that the geo is out but it does feel more dramatic than that.

I’m beginning to wonder whether I have a buckled wheel, that would account for the steering judder but I can’t see why it would cause a problem with the bounce and return.

Graham,

Best to work from the outside in.

Could be a buckled wheel or something simpler like the weights have fallen off. Take the wheels to get re-ballanced, the tyre monkey will soon tell you if the wheel is buckled or not (he'll scratch his head and the sums to work out how much lead to add will be too hard)

The discs are held in by the caliper and on by the wheel if you get what I mean. On the S2 I've done away with the little screw (kept seizing) and the slightest touch of the disc when working on the brakes is enough to dislodge it slightly - again then he wheel bolts (nuts in your case) are nipped up tight then it takes that away. Just make sure that you've re-centered the disc on the hub having first removed the brake disc and cleaned the hub and disc middles.


HTH

Mac

Thanks Mac,

I’ll take the wheel off this evening and take it round to my local 24 hour car wash / tyre change / drug dealer to see if the rim has been bent.

While its off I’ll put your dampers on and see if that helps.

Thanks again.

Wheel not bent but did not get time to change damper. Will try and get that done tomorrow and see if it makes a difference.

Found the main problem and am back on the road.

The spring had slipped on the damper.

Still have a steering judder which is pretty bad as you approach 80 tuts but is practically non existent up to 60. Investigations continue but at least I’m back on the road.

Titanium S1 111S (gla) wrote:
Still have a steering judder which is pretty bad as you approach 80 tuts but is practically non existent up to 60. Investigations continue but at least I’m back on the road.

Get the wheels balanced and you should be fine.