Help me with my new suspension please....
- Thread starter chanlon1
- Start date
pvr said:Indeed, I don’t want your alpina with knackered suspension
Part of the appeal of my Alpina is that the previous owner had gone to town with work on it, much of which was preventative maintenance, before a continental road trip.
Full suspension refresh with the B12 kit
Gap-Tech
Brake pipes replaced
New water pump, expansion tank and all pipe work
Paint corrected and ceramic coated… I’ll redo at some point.
Some other stuff that I can’t remember, might be new front arms and some bushes… need to plow through the box of receipts at some point.
All in the last few thousand miles
Yes, almost need a display case for them, it's a shame that they're soon be getting muddy and grimey 
So last night I had the car up on a ramp, and a few of us tackled changing the suspension.
Overall took about 3hrs.
Some measurements:
Beforehand, the distance between wheel arch and ground at the rear was 67.5cm
the distance at the front was 66cm
Afterwards, the rears are now 66cm, so its dropped 15mm
Drivers side front is now 65cm, so a drop of 10mm
Passenger side is now 66cm, so no drop.
Not sure why passenger side has stayed the same.
I've only driven about 4 miles with the new setup, so maybe it takes time and distance for it to settle????
Overall took about 3hrs.
Some measurements:
Beforehand, the distance between wheel arch and ground at the rear was 67.5cm
the distance at the front was 66cm
Afterwards, the rears are now 66cm, so its dropped 15mm
Drivers side front is now 65cm, so a drop of 10mm
Passenger side is now 66cm, so no drop.
Not sure why passenger side has stayed the same.
I've only driven about 4 miles with the new setup, so maybe it takes time and distance for it to settle????
chanlon1 said:
Look at the underneath of the hub on each side, at how much of the shock is protruding… hope that makes sense?
Starting the obvious, but something, somewhere is causing the difference.
If you’ve built both front struts up exactly the same, with the same new parts, it can’t be the struts themselves.
True-Blue said:
I get you. I know when the struts were built up, they were the same.
When we were lining them up to the hubs, and making sure the locator pins on the struts slotted into the hub, I do know one strut went in a lot easier than the other, but I was sure that they were the same.
Highly likely that I am wrong!
When the weather dries up, I'll take a look at the bottom of the hub and see if the same amount protrudes
Given that the knuckle bolt not only clamps the strut tight but also sits between the two lugs on the strut to prevent it moving up and down I very much doubt it isn't fully located. If it wasn't then the hub would slide off the strut. Been there, done that. Definitely don't drive it anywhere until you've checked though.chanlon1 said:
Could be one spring not quite seated. Try a few lock to lock turns.
Or simply that with weight on the car, one spring is slightly weaker than the other.
I assume you've rolled it back and forth several times to settle it all down? The front legs tend to droop inwards when they are lifted, so you need to roll it a bit to get them to realign themselves.
