20 replies to this topic

[Porker]

Hi all, My car is at Lotus for maintenance and a general check-up. The dealer called me to say the wishbones needed replacing because they're rusted. And at the rear there appeared to be one different wishbone left than right (apparently one is an updated one, the other isn't), no biggie in my book, but the dealer insists it should all be changed as it would be too unsafe. I went to have a look myself, and all I could see was a little surface rust, but I have absolutely no technical knowledge to prove him wrong, he might be right for all I know. Is it a common problem, those wishbones? I will try and find someone to get me a second opinion but there's so little knowledge about these cars here in Belgium...

[LY_Scott]

sounds like he's yanking your chain for cash. Get a second opinion.

[techieboy]

Very common for the wishbones to have quite a bit of surface rust. Mine had, so I had them all cleaned up, zinc treated and powder coated earlier in the year as part of my suspension refresh. Later wishbones (standard on the turbo) have some additional bracing, so sounds like one of yours has been replaced at some point. P.S. Only way to tell if it's too much rust, is to cut one open to check the thickness of the metal and therefore destroying it.

[Duncan VXR]

As stated they do get rust and if it has gone too far can effect the strength of the wishbone. Most cases required either the cheap wire brish / machine to clean to metal and then used some suitable / treatment / metal paint and will be fine or if you have the bearings out go for the full refurb option (shot blast / acid dip / zinc coating / powder coat. You will know how far it has eaten into the metal when you lean it up and make a choice from there I suspect it is more than fine to just clean / treat / paint Get a picture uploaded DG

[mandarinvx]

When you say zinc coat, are they safe to galvanise, or can you only plate them

[FLD]

When you say zinc coat, are they safe to galvanise, or can you only plate them

You can get zinc electroplated on if thats what your after.

[mandarinvx]

Galvanising would be great, as my dad's in that business so could get it done cheap (the same company that did the rear subframes ) But sealed tube sections may 'explode' when the trapped air inside heats up and creates additional pressure

[starlight]

Just drill a small hole in the closed section then... The early Lotus Elan Turbo rear lower suspension arms used to rust badly until they started galvanising them.

[mandarinvx]

I don't really want to compromise strength I may try and get hold of a bent one to do some experiments with Anyone got one lying around they don't need

[Porker]

I don't really want to compromise strength

I may try and get hold of a bent one to do some experiments with Anyone got one lying around they don't need

You can always have my 'rusty' ones if I decide to have them replaced!

[mandarinvx]

You can always have my 'rusty' ones if I decide to have them replaced!

You won't need them replaced


(you do realise it will be ~£1600 for the wishbones, and prob about £500-1000 for fitting )

[robin]

has the bloke got ££ in his eyes when he told you? dont bother you could take them off an clean/repaint them yourself. doing mine over winter time going to sandblast them and get them powdercoated.

[Anarchy]

Steel rusts.

[Nev]

FYI each mm of rust is just 1/10 of a mm of steel. So it take a lot of rust to actually significantly weaken a strudy item like a wishbone.

[Ouchie]

Eliseparts now sell VX220 wishbones with a choice of bushes and the ball joint pre-installed. Look nice and they are cheaper than Vaux.

[Crazyfrog (Fab)]

I don't really want to compromise strength

I may try and get hold of a bent one to do some experiments with Anyone got one lying around they don't need

yes i have and ready to be sent if needed lol

[mandarinvx]

Eliseparts now sell VX220 wishbones with a choice of bushes and the ball joint pre-installed. Look nice and they are cheaper than Vaux.

Those are good prices, esp with everything you need pre-installed

So £1334 all in, which still sounds a lot but...

Shotblast old wishbones ~£80
Zinc Plate old wishbones ~£100
Paint old wishbones ~£80
8x Ball Joints £160
Ertalon Full Bush Set £200

So it's ~£600 to fully 'refresh' the existing set, and with the pain of fitting them; you could also sell the old ones on

[Zoobeef]

Think i would reather refresh my original ones as new ones will rust as fast as the ones that are on. And you can put better than oem bushes on. And seeing as i found a place to powder coat them in doncaster for £50, think it includes blasting too but if not i have a sand blaster at work

[Ouchie]

The eliseparts wishbones are better quality, better bushes, include new ball joints and powder coated. Still, I'm not entirely sure if it works out the same price to replace then sell the old or just refresh the old. At least you can do the entire car in a lazy weekend and that would suit those of us with the VX as their only car.

These are a very high specification replacement wishbone.

The tube used is a top quality CDS (Cold Drawn Steel) instead or ERW (Electrically welded tube).

CDS is inherently stronger than ERW as there is no seam so we can reduce the wall thickness without reducing the strength .

In fact our wishbones are slightly stronger than the original but not to the extent where the chassis could get damaged prior to the wishbone as you want the “weakest link” to be a relatively cheap part to replace should you have an encounter with a kerb or large pot-hole.

All of our wishbones are TIG ( Tungsten inert gas) welded rather than the messy MIG (Metal Inert Gas) which forms a stronger bond to the metals and gives a cleaner pristine finish.

TIG welding was introduced within the aircraft industry some 60 years ago and still is used in this industry and in F1 race technology today (albeit with much more modern machinery and consumables).

TIG welding is less prone to stress cracking and distortion whereas MIG welding can cause porosity which can weaken the joints.

This takes more than twice as long to TIG weld the wishbones but we think it is worth the extra benefits TIG welding gives.

Once the wishbones have been welded they are then lightly bead blasted to give a nice key for the black powder coat finish.

All of our wishbones have new ball joints pre installed and we also offer the option of 3 types of inner bushes ,Original rubber, polyurethane or ertalon.

[Winstar]

Shotblast old wishbones ~£80
Zinc Plate old wishbones ~£100
Paint old wishbones ~£80
8x Ball Joints £160
Ertalon Full Bush Set £200

So it's ~£600 to fully 'refresh' the existing set, and with the pain of fitting them; you could also sell the old ones on

Where have you been getting your prices?

my wishbones cost me £80 to be blasted, then zinc primed and powder coated.