Protech Suspesion ****Updated*****

Mikie711 · Post by **Mikie711** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 5:56 pm

When I bought my car it already had Protech units fitted and as far as I can tell from the history they are about 3 years old.
Since it will be used primarily as a track and hill climb car I decided, after the Nov KH track day to strip the whole suspension down and rebuild/replace bushes suspension units etc. I did not expect to find what I did and after thinking about it realized how fortunate it was that I did strip it all down.

The following photo's show the damage I found on the two front units. It only became apparent after they were removed and cleaned, one fell apart when the rod end was wire brushed!!!!.

I removed the rod end as initially I thought this was the only damaged one, how wrong was I.

the rear units which I know were fitted in July 05 are OK, no signs of any damage, however if you have or know someone that has these units might be worth while having at least the fronts checked. If only for piece of mind. Dread to think what might have happened............................

Rich H · Post by **Rich H** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 5:59 pm

Worth talking to protech?

Mikie711 · Post by **Mikie711** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 6:06 pm

That's the plan. At the very least they should be made aware of this. However it's the middle of the silly season so I doubt anybody would be there till at least the 2nd or 3rd. Will be e-mailing them tomorrow so it's there for them. happy New Year Protech

mckeann · Post by **mckeann** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 6:15 pm

I think there is a similar thread on seloc, could be worth a search to give you some more ammo for your email.

woody · Post by **woody** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 6:35 pm

mckeann wrote:I think there is a similar thread on seloc, could be worth a search to give you some more ammo for your email.

Was it not GAZ that was the issue on seloc?

Mikie711 · Post by **Mikie711** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 6:48 pm

Think Woody's right, the thread on Seloc was about GAZ. Couldn't find anything about this sort of damage/defect on Protech.

jj · Post by jj » Mon Dec 31, 2007 6:51 pm

Mikie711 wrote:Think Woody's right, the thread on Seloc was about GAZ. Couldn't find anything about this sort of damage/defect on Protech.

Id stick up a thread on SELOC with your photos and see if anyone else has experienced the same.

Looks

Mikie711 · Post by **Mikie711** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 7:43 pm

Now cross posted

Bob vanM · Post by **Bob vanM** » Mon Dec 31, 2007 9:34 pm

OOPS

not good !

Rag_It · Post by **Rag_It** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 12:46 am

Does Simon A not have protech or something like that!?

Dave

mckeann · Post by **mckeann** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 12:41 pm

woody wrote:
mckeann wrote:I think there is a similar thread on seloc, could be worth a search to give you some more ammo for your email.
Was it not GAZ that was the issue on seloc?

ah, you might be right. my mistake. Still worrying though.

robin · Post by **robin** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 1:50 pm

It's possible that they were fitted to the wrong brackets at the front - in this mode, on full droop, the neck fouls the bracket. I know that when we fitted the nitrons to Andy's car we had a problem with this and ended up swapping the brackets for some spares that I had. Obviously now the units are destroyed it might be hard to work out if the brackets are "at fault". When you refit whatever you replace them with, check that on full droop it's the damper running out of travel that stops the movement, rather than the neck fouling the bracket (might also be worth checking for witness marks on the shrapnel).

Cheers,
Robin

Mikie711 · Post by **Mikie711** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 4:08 pm

Robin, interesting. As I am about to replace these with 2 way nitrons I would be more than interested in the wrong brackets you talk about. As far as I am aware the ones on my car are original. What I'll do is re-assemble one side that I haven't fully stripped yet and post a photo of it and if you can take a look and see what you think. When you talk of full droop do you me when the shock is fully compressed

Mikie711 · Post by **Mikie711** » Tue Jan 01, 2008 11:24 pm

Pictures of the top and bottom mounts when the shocker is in place. This is one of the damaged ones and as you can see the cracks are not visible. This make detection very difficult and unlikely with a cursory inspection.

robin · Post by **robin** » Wed Jan 02, 2008 8:18 pm

Full droop is when the car is jacked up and the wheel hangs as low as it will go. At this point, it should be the damper running out of travel that prevents further travel, rather than any mechanical contact between the moving parts.

In your top photo, there is a black collar on top of the spring, and then the flared section in the neck casting.

Depending on the exact shapes (varies from damper to damper) either the collar or the flare can jam against the bottom of the bracket, If you remove the damper again and look see whether there are witness marks where the collar is closest to the bracket. Another give away is that the top or bottom bolt is really hard to get in when on full droop. TBH, the photos look OK, so I suspect it's some sort of casting failure.

BUT, there is a suspicious line in the wishbone (to the right of the damper in the top picture). I hope this is just a shadow or other photo artifact rather than a crack or a chainsaw scar

You may need to replace those brackets to get the nitrons to fit - basically they are wider - you can get new brackets from Lotus, Steve Butts or Eliseparts - if you're changing everything else, you may as well just fit new brackets and have done with it.

You must be so glad this didn't fall apart on you while going through Duffus!!

Cheers,
Robin

Scottish Elises

Protech Suspesion Updated*

Protech Suspesion Updated*