How Much Of A Pounding Can The Suspension Take?

On a normal vanilla VX that is. I seem to hit a lot of potholes and general crappy road, especially on the front nearside tyre. Could this result in serious damage to suspension/shocks/tyres?

Not sure about road use, but I managed to kill the rear suspension on one of the VXs at Bedford Autodrome. Left rear suspension collapsed as it loaded up through the chicane just after the pits on the North circuit. Scary, as it caused the car to spin quite dramatically and I could see a tyre barrier and a scared marshall looming! Seemed a little too common for my liking, judging by the matter-of-fact way the instructors handled it. Phill

Phill, do you know what actually broke on the suspension? Was it the toe link, the damper, a wishbone/mounting or something else? Toe link failures are pretty common on Elises that are frequently tracked. Lotus sell an uprated toe link to avoid this sort of failure. I've not heard of any other areas being particularly suspect.

well, I don't know if that's the same issue, my rear hub-retaining bolts collapsed few weeks ago, causing an almost spin with lotsa ruckus+blue smoke from the tyre rubbing against the inner liner..... I reluctantly agreed to pay the repair since there was the "suspicion" (by the dealer o/c ) that it was still a consequence of my july 2002 Ring crash....like the bolts wait to split 6 months later, after 3 more track sessions..... me thinks that if the bolts were weakened by the crash, then they should have broken way earlier, maybe while curbing on track... I accepted to pay ONLY because it was not 100% sure and the bolts were "gone".... after that episode Iam not 100% relaxed anymore when driving at speed, since the sudden brakdown was quite dramatic at 120km/h, and I cannot fathom the consequences it it had happened the day before, while driving at 200 km/h on the hwy back home.....I guess lotsa flowers by my name... :ph34r: I am now thinking to replace those alloy/iron bolts with stainless steel ones,if I can find the same size....

Edited by Ricky2772, 01 March 2003 - 09:28 AM.

Phill, do you know what actually broke on the suspension? Was it the toe link, the damper, a wishbone/mounting or something else? Toe link failures are pretty common on Elises that are frequently tracked. Lotus sell an uprated toe link to avoid this sort of failure. I've not heard of any other areas being particularly suspect.

Don't know exactly, I was still strapped in the car. Some sort of arm was mentioned I think?
Anyway, it was bad enough that the car couldn't reverse, just sort of jammed if you tried to back up. Had to crawl all the way back round the track at about 5mph.

Ellie was there that day with me, he might have heard what it was from the pits.

Phill

Some sort of arm was mentioned I think?
Anyway, it was bad enough that the car couldn't reverse, just sort of jammed if you tried to back up. Had to crawl all the way back round the track at about 5mph.

Sounds like the toe link then, if it was still driveable - albeit very slowly. It's good to have an idea where the suspension weak points are if the car is being regularly tracked

when I kissed the ARMCO at the ring, the rear toe link was the only thing to go bad, along with a slightly crooked rim......"L" bent at the tightening-bolt junction.

I had a rear suspension failure while cornering gently at 20mph! The suspension collapsed as i accelerated (gently) loading the back of the car. Good job i was tired and going slowly, turning onto a dual carriageway - lots of space and no big lorries to go under! The car went back to vauxhall tech where they diagnosed it as a 'production fault on one of the bolts'. Presumeably they mean it wasn't strong enough. Bit worrying really as CD Bramall Wolverhamton had checked the car 2 days earlier as i was unhappy with how that corner's suspension sounded, but they said it was normal and that i was imagining a problem (not in exactly those words). Needless to say they were rather embarassed and sorted it all out under warranty via vauxhall tech, and it now sounds normal. The incorrect sound was a hollow 'clonk' rather than the usual thud when going over a pothole, which was louder from one corner than the rest (the corner that failed) It's kinda hard to describe though, so if one corner sounds different get it checked. Make sure you check all you tire pressures first though and put a cusion on the seat; deliberately driving over potholes with low tires won't do the wheels any good, and if you're as thin as me it hurts! Graham

can you be more specific about WHICH bolt was involved in the prod. fault?!? ....I might go and lift some dust by the dealer then...