Update on these.
They have now done XXXXX miles - including 2 fully laden camping trips to France (rural potholed roads and ridiculously severe speed bumps)
All was well until last week we were approaching Saint-Nazaire. Driving down a half-resurfaced road, there was a reasonably load bang and the parcel shelf jumped up into the air. I pulled over to investigate, and found the damper rod had come up through the top mount and was pushing up onto the speaker supports.
With around 1000 miles still to drive, this was a bit of a problem.
It was hammering down with rain and I had no tools (other than a jack and wheelbrace) in the car at all. After limping around for 10 minutes we stumbled on a massive Hyper U supermarket which had an underground carpark - what a godsend.
After unloading the car I sent Kate into the Hyper U to try and find some tools - I reckoned a cheap spanner set or a couple of adjustables would be enough. She came back with 2 adjustable spanners.
I locked the damper rod with one and used the other (awkward!) to free off the top mount retaining nut. This allowed me to remove the topmount rubber which allowed me to see the damper rod and the problem became clear.
Look at the rear coilover on the left of this picture:
The damper rod is held to the top of the car by the top mount. Then you have the silver uppe spring cup which holds the spring in place. To stop the damper rod simply rising until it is fully extended, it needs a protruding lip to prevent it's ascent through the spring cup.
This is done with a simple washer, and this was the problem. The washer had sheared, so there was no longer anything stopping the damper rising up through the car.
So I had a think and looked at what I had to hand - the top mount itself does very little work and contains a number of parts which I reckoned it could manage without. The upper topmount rubber is stabilised by 2 pressed metal washers. You can see one of them underneath the retaining nut in this picture:
I reckoned if I could "borrow" the lower one of these washers, I could get it to do the job of the sheared washer.
Unfortunately, to do this I would need the damper rod pressed all the way down so that I could lift the spring cup and slide it in. With the damper on the car (no tools to remove the bottom bolt) this would be tricky.
With the car supported on it's own wheel I realised I needed to get the rear beam as low as possible to stand any chance of doing this. Standing on the hub or levering it with a bar wouldn't cut it.
So, I put the scissors jack between the body and the beam and gently began to jack the 2 apart. It worked perfectly and down came the coilover as a whole. I could now pop off the spring cup and slide on the borrowed washer. With Kate pushing down on the damper rod with the handle of a hammer this was achieved, the spring cup went back on, unwind the jack, refit the top mount (minus it's lower pressed washer)
Job done! Took about 40 mins I suppose and left me with very dirty hands.
Moral of the story? Cheap coilovers work fine but are made to a budget. Don't be surprised if relatively minor parts like this fail with hard use. The top mount (minus it's stolen part) has been fine since the repair and doesn't seem to miss the washer. I'll still replace it though.
I'm now going to replace the other damper retaining washers with these ones from the rear topmount kit - they fit perfectly, seem stronger, and are IMO an improvement on the original design.
They have now done XXXXX miles - including 2 fully laden camping trips to France (rural potholed roads and ridiculously severe speed bumps)
All was well until last week we were approaching Saint-Nazaire. Driving down a half-resurfaced road, there was a reasonably load bang and the parcel shelf jumped up into the air. I pulled over to investigate, and found the damper rod had come up through the top mount and was pushing up onto the speaker supports.
With around 1000 miles still to drive, this was a bit of a problem.
It was hammering down with rain and I had no tools (other than a jack and wheelbrace) in the car at all. After limping around for 10 minutes we stumbled on a massive Hyper U supermarket which had an underground carpark - what a godsend.
After unloading the car I sent Kate into the Hyper U to try and find some tools - I reckoned a cheap spanner set or a couple of adjustables would be enough. She came back with 2 adjustable spanners.
I locked the damper rod with one and used the other (awkward!) to free off the top mount retaining nut. This allowed me to remove the topmount rubber which allowed me to see the damper rod and the problem became clear.
Look at the rear coilover on the left of this picture:
The damper rod is held to the top of the car by the top mount. Then you have the silver uppe spring cup which holds the spring in place. To stop the damper rod simply rising until it is fully extended, it needs a protruding lip to prevent it's ascent through the spring cup.
This is done with a simple washer, and this was the problem. The washer had sheared, so there was no longer anything stopping the damper rising up through the car.
So I had a think and looked at what I had to hand - the top mount itself does very little work and contains a number of parts which I reckoned it could manage without. The upper topmount rubber is stabilised by 2 pressed metal washers. You can see one of them underneath the retaining nut in this picture:
I reckoned if I could "borrow" the lower one of these washers, I could get it to do the job of the sheared washer.
Unfortunately, to do this I would need the damper rod pressed all the way down so that I could lift the spring cup and slide it in. With the damper on the car (no tools to remove the bottom bolt) this would be tricky.
With the car supported on it's own wheel I realised I needed to get the rear beam as low as possible to stand any chance of doing this. Standing on the hub or levering it with a bar wouldn't cut it.
So, I put the scissors jack between the body and the beam and gently began to jack the 2 apart. It worked perfectly and down came the coilover as a whole. I could now pop off the spring cup and slide on the borrowed washer. With Kate pushing down on the damper rod with the handle of a hammer this was achieved, the spring cup went back on, unwind the jack, refit the top mount (minus it's lower pressed washer)
Job done! Took about 40 mins I suppose and left me with very dirty hands.
Moral of the story? Cheap coilovers work fine but are made to a budget. Don't be surprised if relatively minor parts like this fail with hard use. The top mount (minus it's stolen part) has been fine since the repair and doesn't seem to miss the washer. I'll still replace it though.
I'm now going to replace the other damper retaining washers with these ones from the rear topmount kit - they fit perfectly, seem stronger, and are IMO an improvement on the original design.
![[TW]Fox](/data/man-of-honor/2009.png){kind=avatar}
Worth the gamble for you as you know what you are doing, but after your story i would pretty much take that as a no go product!
