General New shock absorbers

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General New shock absorbers

smc4761

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My 56 plate 1.1 active just failed on its MOT with leaking shock at front and rear. The Panda has only done 25 000, so was very surprised at this.

Can anyone recommend any good places to have these repalced at a sensible price in Glasgow /Lanarkshire area. Best quote so far has been Kwik Fit which I found surprising at just under £300 for all 4 shocks.

Thanks
 
Reckon they will fit the 100?

They probably would but they'll be matched to OEM Panda 1.1/1.2 springs and therefore possibly not best suited.

To the OP, go for the Bilsteins, I had some on my Fiat 131 that went to the scrapyard in 2001 which my dad fitted back in the 80's and they were still in great condition and got sold on to someone for a decent price :)
 
Euro car parts do some bilstein rear shocks for the 100 at £25 each!! Wonder if that would help the ride with the fiat units? :chin:
 
Are the part numbers the same for the 1.1, 1.2 and 100hp?
 
Anyone seen these ?

http://www.gazzellaracing.com/home.php?cat=2290

I could be tempted but, not without knowing somebody's feedback on them - particularly with the 100. Trouble with some aftermarket's is their of the same performance as standards, and what with so many variants/models of damper, it can sometimes be hard to ascertain which is an improvement over standard (having to deal with sales person's which know nothing but just want to sell).

Have a feeling that these would be good, shame you can't try before you buy eh ?
There's a significant price difference compared to Koni, but this is probably for a reason, quality & non adjustable perhaps ? Pay's y'money, y'takes y'choice.

http://www.larkspeed.com/index.pl
 
Anyone seen these ?

http://www.gazzellaracing.com/home.php?cat=2290

I could be tempted but, not without knowing somebody's feedback on them - particularly with the 100. Trouble with some aftermarket's is their of the same performance as standards, and what with so many variants/models of damper, it can sometimes be hard to ascertain which is an improvement over standard (having to deal with sales person's which know nothing but just want to sell).

Have a feeling that these would be good, shame you can't try before you buy eh ?
There's a significant price difference compared to Koni, but this is probably for a reason, quality & non adjustable perhaps ? Pay's y'money, y'takes y'choice.

http://www.larkspeed.com/index.pl
They're Bilstein, they'll be a billion times better than the crapola that comes with the Panda as standard.
 
The part numbers do seem to be the same as the 1.2's so i guess not specifically for the 100. :cry:
 
The part numbers do seem to be the same as the 1.2's so i guess not specifically for the 100. :cry:

Whats to say that they haven't based their dampers on the 100HP? I read some where on here that they normally base the springs/dampers on the highest models
 
Whats to say that they haven't based their dampers on the 100HP? I read some where on here that they normally base the springs/dampers on the highest models

Well the 100hp is so few in numbers compared to the 1.1/1.2 they probably haven't even considered that.

Don't believe everything you read. I'd say only buy a part if you know it's correct for your model as we well know the difference between the suspenders on a 100hp and the other models is going to be night and day really.
 
Don't believe everything you read. I'd say only buy a part if you know it's correct for your model as we well know the difference between the suspenders on a 100hp and the other models is going to be night and day really.

The only damper which i'd consider to put on my 100HP is the Koni Sport dampers, maybe they are not specifically for the 100HP but they are adjustable,
 
The only damper which i'd consider to put on my 100HP is the Koni Sport dampers, maybe they are not specifically for the 100HP but they are adjustable,

Koni's are very good, had them on some of my other cars. I guess you'd expect the Koni's to be setup for the 100hp as maybe it's just me thinking, why would you want to put Koni's on anything other than a 100hp?
 
Koni's are very good, had them on some of my other cars. I guess you'd expect the Koni's to be setup for the 100hp as maybe it's just me thinking, why would you want to put Koni's on anything other than a 100hp?

Do you think the Koni's will be a good match for the standard springs? I've never uprated shocks in the past so i don't have first hand experience, i've only ever lowered my megane 225 on 30mm eibachs.
 
Do you think the Koni's will be a good match for the standard springs? I've never uprated shocks in the past so i don't have first hand experience, i've only ever lowered my megane 225 on 30mm eibachs.

Trouble is whenever I've changed dampers, I've changed the springs as well. Tbh all you can do is suck it and see. I guess in the worse case scenario at least springs are relatively cheap in comparison to dampers.

Thing is on the 100hp you really don't want to lower it as there is hardly any rear suspension travel to start with, well that seems to be the case with the length of the bump stops.

In summary providing the Koni's are standard length dampers (there is no reason to believe otherwise) then they ought to be okay with the stock springs. How they go with the stock springs is something you'll just have to take a chance on. I doubt the result would be disastrous though and at least the Koni's are less likely to be underdamped, I mean let's face it, it'd be hard to make a damper as bad as the stock ones! So I'd expect an improvement and best of all you can adjust the Koni's which really ought to help a bit.
 
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Dunno why people are moaning about not having any 100hp-specific ones. A lot of dampers are common throughout ranges unless there are significant differences in engine size. Impreza's for instance shared dampers from lowly 1.6's up to higher spec turbo cars, they did however change the springs to lower the cars and of course to make them stiffer. I really don't see how the Bilstein's with stock springs or even with lowered springs could be anything less than a big improvement on the standard setup.

I had some Bilstein's on my 131 and although they weren't adjustable they were (so my dad says) far more damped and much better quality than the standard dampers it came with.

Anyhoo doing what sensible people do and browsing on the Bilstein online catalogue, the part numbers for the 1.1,1.2 and 1.4 dampers are exactly the same so no problems there. If you were feeling adventurous you could try to fit the coilovers Bilstein make for the 500 but there are no guarantees that they'd fit of course :)

Personally unless you're actually going to adjust the dampers all the time I'd stick with the Billies as they're cheaper, Bilstein aren't monkeys and you'll probably never use the adjustability anyway. My dad has Koni's on his 504 on the softest setting (always have been) and they're uber-plush and great on rough roads, he's also got some Bilstein's on my mums Saab 900i and it's handles really well and is very progressive :)
 
Dunno why people are moaning about not having any 100hp-specific ones. A lot of dampers are common throughout ranges unless there are significant differences in engine size. Impreza's for instance shared dampers from lowly 1.6's up to higher spec turbo cars, they did however change the springs to lower the cars and of course to make them stiffer. I really don't see how the Bilstein's with stock springs or even with lowered springs could be anything less than a big improvement on the standard setup.

I had some Bilstein's on my 131 and although they weren't adjustable they were (so my dad says) far more damped and much better quality than the standard dampers it came with.

Anyhoo doing what sensible people do and browsing on the Bilstein online catalogue, the part numbers for the 1.1,1.2 and 1.4 dampers are exactly the same so no problems there. If you were feeling adventurous you could try to fit the coilovers Bilstein make for the 500 but there are no guarantees that they'd fit of course :)

Personally unless you're actually going to adjust the dampers all the time I'd stick with the Billies as they're cheaper, Bilstein aren't monkeys and you'll probably never use the adjustability anyway. My dad has Koni's on his 504 on the softest setting (always have been) and they're uber-plush and great on rough roads, he's also got some Bilstein's on my mums Saab 900i and it's handles really well and is very progressive :)

Thanks for that :)

Are the bilstein dampers the B4 or B6 that your dad uses? They only list the B4 OE dampers for the panda, if I recall they don't list the B6 sport dampers for the panda which is a shame because I've heard they are very good.
 
Thanks for that :)

Are the bilstein dampers the B4 or B6 that your dad uses? They only list the B4 OE dampers for the panda, if I recall they don't list the B6 sport dampers for the panda which is a shame because I've heard they are very good.
Not sure if they're B4's or B6's. I seem to remember them being yellow (then again I may be remembering my 131's dampers) in which case they're B6's but my dad usually doesn't go for anything sporty but being in Australia it may have been that the B4's weren't in stock or just weren't sold at all in Australia. Could be b4's, could be b6's :) Anyhoo Bilstein dampers are fantastic and the ones in my 131 were still in good condition after 15+ years of use and loads of mileage on roads which at times were rough. I suspect they were only B4's
 
My 56 plate 1.1 active just failed on its MOT with leaking shock at front and rear. The Panda has only done 25 000, so was very surprised at this.

Can anyone recommend any good places to have these repalced at a sensible price in Glasgow /Lanarkshire area. Best quote so far has been Kwik Fit which I found surprising at just under £300 for all 4 shocks.

Thanks

Hi,i changed the front shocks of my mk2 punto over the last 2 weekends,a horrible job,i bought spring compressors,and it was a complete nitemare of a job,couldnt compress the spring enough,and when u really tighten it,it gets longer at the end,so hard to fit the shock back up,after 6 hours of wrestling with one shock,i used car jack to force it up,then the top ring wasnt seated right,and had to start all over again,GET A MECHANIC TO DO IT,i am so sorry i didnt,only 50 pounds to fit them,i spent about 15 hours!!!!!!!!!!:mad:
 
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