hi all...
iam new to this so please bear with me . i have a 2003 doblo on a 53 plate and iam having problems with my rear suspension it only has about an 1" of travel between the rear leaf spring and the rubber cone ( helper ). ive got a years warranty from dec 06 so i have taken it in and the are saying that its not covered is this rite ? also i have a nocking sound on my steering rack.
can any 1 help
thanx
big bird

Hi.

Try the bushes at the front and back of the leaf springs. If worn the suspension might sag a bit as things aren't as tight. Also, it could be that your springs are bent out of shape. Crawl underneath and look for any bends in the springs. Should be a smooth curve (mine isn't but almost - someone loaded it right up everyday before I bought it). Don't worry about small bends but if there is a massive flat section this could be it.

To be honest it could be one of a number of things. Even shocks. Best to take it to a good independant garage. It's important to get done as braking ability will be affected by iffy suspension as will handling, esp in the wet.

Depending on the life of the car (load carried daily) it may ride at a different height. My girlfriend's parents' Doblo rides low (not that low though) having carried a 170Kg wheelchair in the boot most days for 5 years. Mine rides high after getting the suspension fixed at an independant but was as low as theirs before that, having carried out a similar task for it's previous owners.

It probably won't be as serious as you are expecting. And getting it fixed will be safer and give you a better drive.

As the dobbin is van derived, shouldn't it be capable of carrying as much as the van? - I'd imagine that'd be around a ton?
in which case, why do we need to uprate springs, coils or whatever?

I thought the payload was around 620kg on the family version

Ordinary Dobbin - 5 seats, so 5 people plus luggage would weigh approx?
& I also thought diesels were powerhouses & were capable of pulling...

sludgeguts said:

As the dobbin is van derived, shouldn't it be capable of carrying as much as the van? - I'd imagine that'd be around a ton?
in which case, why do we need to uprate springs, coils or whatever?

Click to expand...

My Doblo was originally used by Cornwall NHS Trust (according to insurance docs left in car) and my mechanic suspects that it was fitted with a wheelchair lift capable of lifting at least 350kg (electric wheelchair + 150kg person). This apparatus would be very heavy and when fully loaded the vehicle would probably be riding on the bump stops because the bulk of the load would be directly over the rear axle. Therefore my uprated springs (as mentioned in other suspension related threads) go someway to help to alleviate this problem as they are stiffer. However, when by bushes went, the suspension went a bit saggy (riding bump stops when about 3/4 loaded).

I don't think that the amount of weight is necessarily the issue, the location of the weight is key. In a van it is possible to load items evenly across the load bay, whereas in the passenger versions this is not possible with the seats in place. Stiffer springs also offer greater stability when there is a heavy load in the rearmost sections of the vehicle.

In normal circumstances the Doblo is very capable, the option is there though for specialist uses.

big_bird_17 said:

hi all...
iam new to this so please bear with me . i have a 2003 doblo on a 53 plate and iam having problems with my rear suspension it only has about an 1" of travel between the rear leaf spring and the rubber cone ( helper ). ive got a years warranty from dec 06 so i have taken it in and the are saying that its not covered is this rite ? also i have a nocking sound on my steering rack.
can any 1 help
thanx
big bird

Click to expand...

hi,

if the rear of the doblo is not loaded ..
1" of travel space should be the norm for doblo cargo


i have abt 100 kg loaded on the doblo cargo .
and there is close to non travel space.

Bump stop has had it mingsect!!

With just 100kg it shouldn't ride on the bump stop.

And as has been said that one's had it and would fail an M.O.T. over here!

Sorry guys but what you are calling a bump stop is not actually a bump stop. It is a spring assister. Bump stops are designed to provide a short flexible limiter to the end of the travel of the suspension. The Doblos spring assisters are designed to work with the suspension spring, the main part of the springing is done by the spring itself, but when loaded or on rough roads where the suspension is going through more travel the assister helps. Its like a twin spring system or dual rate spring. You can see from the picture the size of the assister, and how much it can actually compress.

By the way there is a service news for knocking noise from the rear upto chassis number 5445393

Well I never... biggest bump stop I'd ever seen too

Bump stops are generally little black rubber cones.

Wondering why this assister is encased in a plastic wrapper?

Probably to stop any rubbish getting caught up in the spring as it looks like the coils are pretty tight... either that or they are trying to hide the fact it needs a helper spring

I'm driving a Vauxhall Combo at the moment, and due to it's coil sprung rear axle the ride is so much smoother than an empty Doblo!

Ozzie1989 said:

I'm driving a Vauxhall Combo at the moment,

Click to expand...

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