Wondering handling

[pbmr2]

Hi all,

Car Rev 4 UK, totally stock. 93k on the clock.

Bit of history.
December 15 car had been parked for 3 years in a garage.
Passed the MOT first time with advisory for front tyres, asked for rainsports but they fitted T1r. No problem will live with it.

Asked for full check of all suspension/bushes/ball joints as past MOT history showned underperforming fronts, the handling was all over the place and the tracking (front left wheel) was visibly out by loads.
Asked for full 4 wheel but they only did the fronts.

Car was all over the place, pulling one way but over correcting in the other direction, very hard to drive straight. It was much improved after the tracking was done but not fixed.

All 4 calipers were sticking, rebuilt fronts and replaced rears. Freed up the car a lot but didn't really fix the handling much.

Got new wheels, 16" 205/45 fronts on 7j and 225/45 8j rear.
Different tyres front to back but in great low mile condition. F Hankook Ventus V12 evo2 29psi, R Kumho SPT KU31 33psi.

The issues:
New wheels have made the car more stable with lots more grip but has made the steering heavy with it.

It still pulls in the direction of the camber or other terrain features, only settles down once in a bend where it feels nice and planted.

The left rear shock feels stiff, like too stiff and very hard to compress by body weight. Right rear feels very soft in comparison but responds about normal to pressing on the car with body weight.
The car corners well but on bumpy B roads the stiff shock makes it feel like the back whats to jump out, though it hasn't since fitting the new wheels and tyres. It does make me hold back a bit. Just the chassis feedback through the seat and internal G meter feels like the feedback is wrong.

Front shocks feel ok but the steering is very numb. Not sure if this is normal for the mk2? Even with the 15" wheels it didn't have a lot of feedback. Past MOTs mention underperforming front shocks, no record of them being replaced in the history.

It doesn't fell like it's trying to kill me and in town or down a B road it's ok if not pressing on too hard. On A roads or motorways it's very hard to not look drunk behind the wheel. Allways correcting and unable to find a middle ground between pulling one way or the other.

Sometimes, about once a week maybe less, I can feel the power shift from one rear wheel to the other and back again. Normally left>right>left. When doing the brakes the diff felt VERY open (stock uk box no mods or lsd). If it spins a rear wheel (not done it since changing wheels) it will be the right rear the spins first, allways, doesn't matter which way the corner was turning either.

Sorry for the long post, was trying to give as much detail as possible. Please point me in the right direction. Don't just want to chuck parts at it in the hope they will fix something, this is the wrong way to do things and is expensive. Would love to prove an issue and then replace parts.

Cheers

[thomp1983]

A proper 4 wheel alignment is your first place to start, if the rears out then the front will be out even though they adjusted it

[mr2nut123]

I've just had this recently with mine. Turned out that my control arms were modified spherical bearing ones and not safe at all to use with stock struts. Doubtful that yours at the same, but if it had coilovers before you bought it, double check.

Worth checking to see if your control arms are stock and all the suspension bolts are tight. Then, as said above, get proper 4 wheel tracking done. 3mm toe in for the rears and between 1mm and -1mm on the fronts. I personally went with 1mm toe in on the fronts. HTH

[CalMac]

I'd refresh the suspension before chucking money at alignments tbh, it really began to p*ss me off having a £96.00 geometry setup every time I tried a different spring or coilover

Sounds very similar to the issues I was having though as you say - you could try going a little higher with psi on the front tyres, I've just put 31psi in my new tyres and it feels a lot better than the old tyres at 28psi.

I also had issues on dual carriageway and motorway - especially while changing lanes or exiting on the slip road was a butt clenching moment. Country roads I'd find the car changing lanes of its own accord, especially while cornering (and it wasn't understeer!)

Being able to feel the diff alternating between sides is a bit odd, but the roads have been a bit slippery recently - I haven't used Kumhos before but it could be that they're not up to the job My friend had some Kumhos on his 14" MX5 wheels for a while and it would slide in any conditions at anything above 20mph with very little encouragement

[pbmr2]

to be fait, since putting kumho tyres on it's been sticking like poop to a sheet.

The old yoko A022 were a little more lively.

[thomp1983]

Sorry calum but he needs the alignment checking, yes first check all bolts are tight and check joints for wear but when doing the alignment on a fully adjustable suspension car the rear has to be done first as it changes the front aswell, the fact your front has been adjusted on it's own means the alignment for the whole car can't now be right and as such no matter what you change you will still be suffering with the alignment being wrong, you need it setting right to gave you a known basis to work from an alignment alone could solve most of your issues

Make sure you get a print out and put it up here, also id recommend using dino's settings

http://www.imoc.co.uk/forums/viewtopic.php?t=25719

[CalMac]

No need to apologise lol I just thought if something is broken you fix that first and then focus on fine tuning. Otherwise you're just adjusting worn out parts

[MartinF]

The left rear shock feels stiff, like too stiff and very hard to compress by body weight.

This would be a bit worrying to me. It's not usually the shocks which cause a problem with compression, but rather the springs, unless they are really screwed.

Think i'd be stripping down the suspension first and checking everything over before going for the next alignment.

[pbmr2]

Thanks for the input people.

Tend to agree that an alignment seems a little pointless if many parts need replacing soon anyway. However might do a DIY measurement to see if there is anything obviously out.

Will strip it all down and have a much closer look at it in a couple of weekends time. The 2 rear shocks acting differently is not going to be helping anything!

Current thinking is new koni inserts with H&R springs, plus anything else that shows up as past it. Hope the bushes are all ok for now, not a fun job that. Almost want to find a dead ball joint just to pinpoint an issue.