i want to take the marea lower again now, the only real issue i can forsee is that at present the front lower arms are already completely horazontal.

how should i overcome this? i know i cant just leave it as having the arms on a negative angle is a no no i beleive.

can i just have some raiser plates made up and use longer bolts? how can i calculate how much they need to be raised by?

i cant imagen there being any issues with the rear, can anyone else?

any more tips of preventing bodyroll? i love the look of a car remaining completely flat while flying round corners

Cheers,
Ry

bulldog5046 said:

i want to take the marea lower again now, the only real issue i can forsee is that at present the front lower arms are already completely horazontal.

how should i overcome this? i know i cant just leave it as having the arms on a negative angle is a no no i beleive.

can i just have some raiser plates made up and use longer bolts? how can i calculate how much they need to be raised by?

i cant imagen there being any issues with the rear, can anyone else?

any more tips of preventing bodyroll? i love the look of a car remaining completely flat while flying round corners

Cheers,
Ry

Click to expand...

No one thing is to get ride of your crappy PI springs and read this it might help you

http://www.torquecars.com/tuning/suspension-settings.php

the PI prings are going in favor of FK coilovers

Quote:
can i just have some raiser plates made up and use longer bolts? how can i calculate how much they need to be raised by? Quote.

Hi Mate, As it happens today I started putting on my new Fr lower susp arms.
I only got as far as finishing the nearside. Pig of a job I can tell u !

But if you want to get some raiser plates made up to raise the inside fr susp arm brackets. You could but you won't have much room to play with, maybe 10mm to 20mm to be safe. But you will run into a problem on the inside rear bracket that tucks up next to the anti-roll bar bracket, it's tight for sure.

tomorrow I will start on the offside. more aarrgghhh.......

In the morning I post a pic of it so you can see what I mean?
Hope that helps you mate.
Rob

why should it be a problem if the wishbones sit on an angle? the wisbones are designed to be able to accomodate the entire travel of the suspension (to the bump stop).

it is true that when the suspension is lower the bushes are under more strain (they're designed to sit central under normal weight and suspension settings), but that extra strain will not be a large contributor to premature bush wear, certainly nothing compared to hard cornering, acceleration and braking that i'm sure you do everyday.

besides, dont all marea owners change their wishbones at every MOT anyway, so what difference does it make

Pics. All taken off the nearside new Arm.
Some thumb's, just enlarge



Hope that gives you an idea of things.
Rob

good to see someone bothering to use copper grease, i'm sure you'll go far in life

cheers jug, since I found some for my brake pad job last summer I always use it in those tight spot's ?

Rob

i use copper greese!

i changed mine end of april, and yeah actually your right it will hit the gearbox IIRC.

besides they should only take about 30 minutes a side to fit

apparently having the arms on a negative angle screws up the handeling which i dont want to do....

anyway i might have bigger issues like losing my job now Marea anyone?

Ryan. You have a PM mate.

every time you lose a job its a kick in the arse to find a better one. go find that job!

bulldog5046 said:

apparently having the arms on a negative angle screws up the handeling which i dont want to do....

Click to expand...

negative camber improves cornering grip

jug said:

besides, dont all marea owners change their wishbones at every MOT anyway, so what difference does it make

Click to expand...

Very true - I got a pair of German SWAGs last August/September and they're loose already.

How common it is in the UK? I mean how often do you have to replace wishbones?

Did you ever try going for polyurethane bushes (e.g. powerflex)? Or it is the ball joint that's failing?

What make of wishbones do you advise to buy?

I had it done three times already - first I replaced the bushes only (failed after 20 kkm), then I replaced the whole arms with Tofas ones (Turkish originals, lasted 40 kkm) to end up with these SWAG ones which looked OK but are squeaking already.

Fitting pollys to any Tipo-based suspension arms is usually a waste as the ball joint rubber fails before the bush.

Maybe on track day cars etc it might be worth it for the improvement in handling - but for day to day I wouldn't bother. Not at £200 a pop.

And how much is a wishbone in the UK?

If they the same as the bravo ones (which i dont see why not) they £38 a pair including postage well tyhats what i paid anyway.

bulldog5046 said:

apparently having the arms on a negative angle screws up the handeling which i dont want to do....

Click to expand...

Negative angle? As in upright balljoint is higher vertically than the pickoff on the chassis?

For my Marea 2.0 20v weekend I found the Fr wishbones for £10.93+vat per side. Arrived within 2 days.

http://www.buypartsby.co.uk/wishbone_display.php?txtmodel=Marea&Submit=Next&txtmake=FIAT

Rob

arseofbox said:

Negative angle? As in upright balljoint is higher vertically than the pickoff on the chassis?

Click to expand...

thats what i think he means.

i dont see how that can be a problem, the whole point of wishbones with a ball joint is that camber is not greatly affected by ride height. a bit of negative camber is a good thing unless you prefer tyre life to cornering ability (and i know you dont)

Tomasso said:

And how much is a wishbone in the UK?

Click to expand...

£12-15 for an unbranded part, £20 for a good quality QH part (Quinton Hazell Automotive)

i think QH wishbones are the best. my escort ate wishbones every 3/4 months, but when i fitted QH they almost lasted a year (but still failed MOT!)

i paid out for poly (powerflex) bushes and gave up trying to fit them, they were a right ass and i got fed up and bought standard arms costing about £50/60 the pair.

the camber wont be affected by lowering as its just not adjustable?

i was just told from another forum that going lower then when the arm is level messes up the handeling, i guess becasue it puts alot of pressure in unwanted places, maybe i'm wrong?

bulldog5046 said:

the camber wont be affected by lowering as its just not adjustable?

Click to expand...

thats why it is affected, because you cant adjust your camber to compensate for a change in ride height.

lower ride height = more negative camber

the wishbone setup means the change in camber is very small across the entire travel of the suspension, it cant become negative enough to cause handling problems no matter how low you go.

when it sits lower the ball joint and bushes are under more strain, so they will fail sooner, but thats all.

on the rear you dont have a wishbone setup, which is why you often see a noticable negative camber on the rear of very lowered cars, yet the front looks ok with the same drop. thats shows the difference a wishbone setup makes.