What's made you grumpy today?

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What's made you grumpy today?

Daffo the yellow Panda making creaking / cracking noises over bumps. After new struts, strut top bearings and suspension arms I am well P'd off. Dismantled the struts tops and a small stone fell out. I think all is now well.... Shame about the large sum spent on the drop links and diagnosis...... Still they did need doing as someone had fitted 1 new one of a different thickness than standard. At least now they match. Only the anti roll bar rubbers to do and the front end is 100% new. It certainly feels really good all new gas filled dampers have totally transformed the ride braking and handling. It feels as good as Noop who has now reached the dizzy heights of 854 miles.
 
Daffo the yellow Panda making creaking / cracking noises over bumps. After new struts, strut top bearings and suspension arms I am well P'd off. Dismantled the struts tops and a small stone fell out. I think all is now well.... Shame about the large sum spent on the drop links and diagnosis...... Still they did need doing as someone had fitted 1 new one of a different thickness than standard. At least now they match. Only the anti roll bar rubbers to do and the front end is 100% new. It certainly feels really good all new gas filled dampers have totally transformed the ride braking and handling. It feels as good as Noop who has now reached the dizzy heights of 854 miles.

What was of differing thicknesses..?

Too long a list there.. hope my new panda isnt like that.. :(
 
The replacement fitted by Toyota was nearly twice the thickness. Something like 6mm original and 9.5 on the replacement. Probably not an issue as they are not resigned to bend anyway. It had no hex key slots to ease fitting and removal. I decided to fit a balanced pair as a matter of good practice. It all seems fine now as far as I can tell. It has 95% brand new front end.... I just need to deal with the clonking rear dampers. Bilstein have larger steel bushes, so I either need a bigger bolt or a sleeve to stop the irritating rattles and clonks. The Bilstein B4 dampers are however very effective and the ride ery smooth. I understand I can get thicker bolts, if not I may have them built up with weld and machined back to the right size so the car will sound as good as it feels.
 
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The rear damper bottom bolts cannot be drilled out and tapped to a larger size. The top bolt holes "could" be drilled out but that would mess things up for fitting OEM dampers and a whole list of things can go sideways when opening out body shell captive nuts.

Suitable sleeves are far more sensible.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/M8-Clearance-Stainless-Steel-12mm-O-D-washer-spacer-sleeve-PICK-LENGTH/282625428789?var=581815649354&hash=item41cdc9cd35:m:m-3_0IN-7KH0hX2i_zzHDHA

Top tip. Fit the shock absorber top bolts first. The self cleaning threads can very easily go cross thread and even shear off if you try too hard.
 
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Thirteen years ago I had a hip operation, now I'm waiting for the other one to be done...:cry: Still trying to keep as active as possible. I've just finished washing my daily runner & I'm knackered & in pain. The simple jobs like oil & filter change & seeing to the brakes will soon be a memory..:cry: Doped up with tramadol helps a bit...:cool:

I'm still a youngster inside my head......:D
 
Thirteen years ago I had a hip operation, now I'm waiting for the other one to be done...:cry: Still trying to keep as active as possible. I've just finished washing my daily runner & I'm knackered & in pain. The simple jobs like oil & filter change & seeing to the brakes will soon be a memory..:cry: Doped up with tramadol helps a bit...:cool:

I'm still a youngster inside my head......:D

Hips can go from grumbling to horrible very quickly so to anyone else with a wonky hip get it checked and if the X-rays indicate, get on the list for a new one. As Jim says life can be very miserable until it's done.

But the good news is that replacement hips are really excellent these days. They have you walking (almost) as soon as the anasthetic has worn off.
 
Indeed Dave, I'm an upbeat sort of guy, my glass is half full. Of late though I have to sit down to put my pants & trousers on, this doesn't sound much but I'm going down hill on a weekly basis. Sense of humor is still there though..:D
 
Jim, I'm a chiropractor and I understand your pain. I get people in every week with unusual back and leg pains. Many of them turn out to be hip problems. But when they are replaced it's like a new lease of life. Take care how you go and dont play down the pain levels when you see the medics. I'm not saying you should make an excessive fuss but many do over play their problems. That colours the Dr's view of what's really bad and what's manageable.
 
Bought some cd's to play in the panda and the cd player is refusing to accept/play them, it's very annoying.
At least the radio part of it works though.
 
Oh dear, Oh dear, Oh deary me! Poor Becky (our Panda) has suffered a rupture to a main artery! I noticed a wee - roughly £2 piece sized - oil deposit on the drive where she stands the day before yesterday when Mrs Jock went shopping in her. I've known she has a very small oil leak, more of a dampness, from the N/S driveshaft seal on the gearbox, I've found these types of leak often go on very gently suppurating for ages before needing to do anything about them so I just thought "must keep an eye on that". Tonight I was walking up the street just as Mrs J pulled into the drive and I saw a drop of something fall from under the front of the car. Stuck my finger in it - oh dear, oil! Took the wheel off and this is what confronted me : Oops? Upload of file failed? I thought this had been fixed? Ah well, sorry can't give you a picture. So How best to describe it? well it looks as if an oil bomb has gone off under the wing. The top seal on the strut has failed big time and shocker oil has been sprayed all over the place - inner wing, running down the shock itself, bottomsuspension arm, driveshaft (which has merrily flung it off all over the place). It's a right old mess, I've never seen one fail quite so dramatically or quickly - It must have pumped itself dry in less than 20 miles of driving!

Anyway I've asked at a couple of local factors and they are all more pricey than our friend Mike (or is it Mick?) at Shop4parts so as I know his stuff is good I'm going to order from him and claim the Forum discount as well. I've not heard of his Top Line brand of shocks though but there seem to be good reviews on some other sites so I think I'll go with them. The local factor is selling KYB at £50 +VAT another is doing them at £66.90+VAT. Also being offered by the first chap is a make I've not come across before - Ashika - for £35 +VAT pretty much what S4p want for their "Top Line" brand. Anyone got an opinion on which might be best of the three. Top Line, KYB or Ashika?

I'm going to do a total rebuild, Struts, springs, bump stop and gator, top mount, on both sides. I might as well whip the driveshaft out and renew that weeping seal at the same time. S4p's prices beat all the locals and then there's the extra forum discount too and all for parts I feel confidence in. Yes, I think I'm going back to S4p online tomorrow.

If we could get the pictures upload to work again by using that paperclip icon on the "go advanced" page I would love to send you all a couple of pictures of the mayhem and the nice shiny new parts Mike (Mick?) will be sending me.

Stay safe everyone
Jock
 
If we could get the pictures upload to work again by using that paperclip icon on the "go advanced" page I would love to send you all a couple of pictures of the mayhem and the nice shiny new parts Mike (Mick?) will be sending me.

I've raised it with the boss, I think the storage is full (again!)
 
I've raised it with the boss, I think the storage is full (again!)
Thanks for doing that. It's just that a few images make the viewing so much more interesting. I love to see what people are working on - as they say "a picture paints a thousand words"!

I'm still stumbling around with things like this. I have posted quite a number of images in this way and you say the storage is full, so should I be trying to track down some of my old posts and trying to delete images (although I wouldn't know how to do that) so that space can be freed up?
 
Thanks for doing that. It's just that a few images make the viewing so much more interesting. I love to see what people are working on - as they say "a picture paints a thousand words"!

I'm still stumbling around with things like this. I have posted quite a number of images in this way and you say the storage is full, so should I be trying to track down some of my old posts and trying to delete images (although I wouldn't know how to do that) so that space can be freed up?

You can't delete pictures, this is why we encourage uploading pictures to the forum because it stops threads being left full of holes when the images disappear ;) Ben just needs to install a new disk, or pay the hosting company some more pennies, not sure which way it works to be honest :p
 
well it looks as if an oil bomb has gone off under the wing. The top seal on the strut has failed big time and shocker oil has been sprayed all over the place - inner wing, running down the shock itself, bottomsuspension arm, driveshaft (which has merrily flung it off all over the place). It's a right old mess, I've never seen one fail quite so dramatically or quickly - It must have pumped itself dry in less than 20 miles of driving!

Had things to do this morning so it wasn't until around 14.30 hours before I was home. Grabbed a bite to eat and decided, as the sun was still shining, to assess what's going to be needed to get Becky back on top form. It's the N/S (left side in "Fiat speak") shocker which has blown out so I took a look at the O/S first. Shocker not leaking but heavily - and "crustily" - corroded with a pretty rusty road spring too. The pinch bolts at the bottom of the strut are corroded to the extent that you can't really see any threads on the exposed parts of thread and the top mount is sitting somewhat "up" and back in it's mounting hole in the inner wing when compared to the N/S. - top mounts? - Looks like I'd better just renew the lot! I also notice that the car sits just very slightly lower on the N/S/F when on a level surface.

Put the wheel back on and moved round to the N/S. Jack up and remove wheel to be greeted again by the sight of all that oil, again surprising how much mess it's made? Suddenly hit by a "bolt from the blue" There are a lot of speed bumps up the little back lane which is a good way of getting out of our estate without getting stuck in traffic. Mrs J tends to go over them a little on the rapid side. So, damaged top seal and rapid compression induced by the bumps = oil sprayed enthusiastically around under that wing! I can see an awkward conversation looming in the near future.

Anyway, the wheel's now off and I'm looking at an obviously "goosed" shocker which is just as heavily corroded as it's pal on the other side. In fact this oil leak has probably done me a favour as both shocks were obviously well past their best even before this one blew it's seal. (Mid 60,000 miles, probably not actually working as well as they should even if not leaking). There's also some more rusty pinch bolts but the spring itself is nothing like so rusty. For a moment I consider not renewing it but then remember this is the wheel which has the low ride height - Oh well, better just do both springs. Should I do the bump stops and gators? seems a shame not to when I'm doing everything else, but it's all adding to the cost, We'll have to see.

So I'm sitting with my head under the wheel arch (yes I did have an axle stand suitably positioned) looking up at the underneath of the top mount to try to see if there is anything going on up there which was causing this side to sit lower on the ride height, when I felt something strange going on on my back (just wearing a "T" shirt - trousers too of course! ho, ho) I realize it's enormous, freezing cold, single rain drops! felt really weird! Then, almost before I could stand up, the heavens opened and it absolutely bucketed down. Worried about the rain getting into/onto the ram and other working parts of my trolley jack, I grabbed the wheel and slammed it back onto the hub locating and tightening up the wheel bolts as quickly as I could. By now I'm absolutely soaked - it's even running down inside the back waistband of my jogging bottoms and suddenly I realize my left ear's hearing aid has gone quiet because it's so wet - oh dear is that it ruined? Anyway took the jack into the garage took the battery out of the hearing aid in the hope I can save it and dried it and the jack off. Put the hearing aid on top of the airing cupboard hot water tank and went and stood in the shower for a good ten minutes - Ah, that's better. Hearing aid? thank goodness it's working fine. I'm so knackered now though that I think I'll wait 'till tomorrow to get onto the S4p website for my parts.
 
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No need for awkward conversations...
Show Mrs Jock the state of her suspension and remind her to please be careful over speed bumps. ;)
 
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No need for awkward conversations...
Show Mrs Jock the state of her suspension and remind her to please be careful over speed bumps. ;)
Had the conversation, not very stressful at all! She wants to know what to do with all the potholes though. Must say I can only agree with her.

Got all my parts listed and I've rung S4p and confirmed all the part numbers and that they are right for my car. Spoke with Michael this time. I thought it was the same chap I spoke with last time but turns out that was Mike. Wonder if there's a Mick? He was very helpful and took a lot of trouble double checking everything was correct. Amazingly I had actually found all the right part numbers! Anyway these shockers are going to be a stab in the dark for me - Top Line? never heard of them but I was assured they are top quality sourced from an Italian supplier and he doesn't think there's been a come back. https://www.shop4parts.co.uk/?name=store&op=Details&ProdID=5474&sku=63681 I found a site for Top Line Motor cycle shocks and they look to be high quality so I'm hoping they are the same people making the car stuff? Anyone had these Top Line shocks from S4p and if so how are they? I'll be going on the S4p site tomorrow to order up so that I can claim the forum discount and pay with paypal. Decided I'm going to get new springs too. - Oh the expense, the expense!
 
Had the conversation, not very stressful at all!

Anyway these shockers are going to be a stab in the dark for me - Top Line? never heard of them but I was assured they are top quality sourced from an Italian supplier and he doesn't think there's been a come back. https://www.shop4parts.co.uk/?name=store&op=Details&ProdID=5474&sku=63681 I found a site for Top Line Motor cycle shocks and they look to be high quality so I'm hoping they are the same people making the car stuff? Anyone had these Top Line shocks from S4p and if so how are they? I'll be going on the S4p site tomorrow to order up


Hi Jock.

Look at my panda damper swap.

They are still on our 1.1..and have given no trouble.

Worth checking over the bearings at the top of the strut
 
Final service of my VW service package today, and because of more than a couple of screwups on their part in the past, they threw in a free brake discs and pads change, given they had been claiming since 20,000 miles the pads where worn, and the car is now on 60k miles, I thought what the hell, and let them do the work, now that said I had looked at the brakes and they all looked fine to me....

“When you’ve change the brakes can you put the old parts in the boot”

“Yes” they agreed..

Well

If you see both the pads and the discs you’d not think they had done 10k miles. I’ll post a picture up tomorrow, but basically they look hardly used and I’m seriously considering putting them back on and saving the new parts till they actually are needed.

Considering I’ve now done 60k miles it’s amazing how little wear their is, although the car does have regenerative brakes and I’m very good at driving very long distances without needing the brakes, to me it’s no surprise how well they have lasted. To my wife who can burn through brake pads in 30k miles, it’s a bloody miracle.

Got me wondering how many people are changing their brakes on the recommendation of the dealership when the parts are not even 25% worn. The waste this generates and the expense not only to customers but the environment as well must be huge.
 
Hi Jock.

Look at my panda damper swap.

They are still on our 1.1..and have given no trouble.

Worth checking over the bearings at the top of the strut
Thanks Charlie. That sounds very encouraging and helps to stop me feeling anxious. Good point too about the top mount bearings. In fact I've decided to just "throw the baby out with the bathwater" - not sure if that is the best analogy? - We've decided Becky is a "keeper" and I'll just be doing anything that needs doing as it comes up - until something absolutely catastrophic turns up - So I have had a very careful look at the suspension components on both sides. The struts are really pretty grim with the N/S now leaking copiously and the O/S very heavily corroded. The top of the damper rod (under the bonnet) on the O/S is protruding noticeably further out of the top mount than the N/S but, when you stand back and look at the car from the front it is riding slightly lower on the N/S than the O/S which seems to be saying to me that the O/S top mount is suspect and the N/S spring is weak? The two pinch bolts at the bottom of the struts look pretty grim too with the threads mostly corroded away. O/S spring is heavily corroded in places where the paint cover is compromised, the N/S looks in much better condition except for one very localized but heavily corroded bit.

So, as I'm hoping she's going to outlast me, (and Mrs Jock has developed a strong emotional bond) I'm just going to do a complete rebuild. Both struts, both springs, both top mounts (inc bearings) actually if I'm going to the extent of stripping struts on anything with more than moderate mileage I would always do the top mount bearings, They seem - on any vehicle - to be a bit of a "weak point" and they aren't a big expense, but you end up really kicking yourself if they fail shortly after all the work that's involved to get at them. I'll get a set of pinch bolts too. The bump stops and rubber gators are about all I can see that might be reusable, but if I'm renewing everything else I'm tempted to spend a few quid more and do them too.

Just on the basis that 2 heads are better than one, can you think of anything I've left out Charlie?
Regards as always
Jock
 
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