Page 1 of 2

Broken rear springs :(

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:08 pm
by les
Hi Guys,

So after the winter recess, my little ol' s1 got dusted off in preparation for its MOT and at a friends garage in Rutherglen (who happens to do MOTS :) ). Driving it through there was a new rattle on the undertray and it turns out that the rear springs have snapped Its the original red konis on the car, so my question is, what are my options on this :( guess that the springs aren't able to be replaced

any thoughts?

Re: Broken rear springs :(

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:11 pm
by Shug
Original red Konis will be beyond fubared by this stage. I think your most cost effective method would be to go down the S2 suspension upgrade via either a dealer (see what monies Craig at MMC would do them for, or B&C or the like darn sarf) or the usual Eliseparts/shop etc route.

You could probably bodge through with a 2nd hand damper, but an Elise with no damping kinda defeats the purpose of an Elise :(

Re: Broken rear springs :(

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:27 pm
by Rich H
What he said.

If it's mostly road then S2 billies and eibachs are around the £500 mark. Vast improvement on the Red Koni's and I'd get a geo done to as your suspension will have taken a kicking.

Re: Broken rear springs :(

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 1:29 pm
by Sanjøy
Just had ANOTHER front spring in the barge let go, damn pot holes.

Re: Broken rear springs :(

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 2:29 pm
by les
Thanks Shug, thats what I thought :( Just off the phone with MMC and B&C trying to source parts. Looks like the spring are still available but are £207 + vat and del each. Rich, think the S2 Billies are coming in at around £800 :roll: from B&C. Called SLS for prices also and will contact Eliseparts/shop to get further options

Re: Broken rear springs :(

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 2:40 pm
by Rich H
My S2 billies came from Steve Butts (IIRC) on SELOC but that was a fair number of years ago!

Re: Broken rear springs :(

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 3:21 pm
by BiggestNizzy
ISn't there a cheap nitron option nowadays ?

Re: Broken rear springs :(

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 3:23 pm
by Andy G
yup there is a cheap Nitron and a way better shout :thumbsup

ps - if you email emma@carlimits.com, and tell her i sent you they might even be able to get you a deal :wink:

Re: Broken rear springs :(

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 3:34 pm
by woody
Yep, Nitron streets are available again at about £700 for the set.

Re: Broken rear springs :(

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 4:11 pm
by les
Andy,

Is there a phrase that pays??? other than please ;) when I email Emma

Re: Broken rear springs :(

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 4:14 pm
by Shug
No, the pain of knowing Mr G is usually a pass to getting sympathy discount :mrgreen:

Re: Broken rear springs :(

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 10:27 pm
by Corranga
Could you fit these s2 Exige Billys :
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LOTUS-EXIGE-BILST ... 45f0abc989
assuming they still have rears as well

With the 111s converter here:
http://www.eliseparts.com/products/show ... er-mounts/

Anyone?

We paid something like 320-330 for a set of S2 Exige Bilstiens from The Lotus Centre that we fitted to Erica's Vx.

Apparently they come off new Exiges that were converted to nitrons or something.
Either way, they looked shiny and new when they arrived.

Chris

Re: Broken rear springs :(

Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2011 11:38 pm
by sls
Mind if you do go down the S2 route you'll require the mounting brackets too..

Mark

Re: Broken rear springs :(

Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 12:58 am
by robin
If you just want to replace the springs I probably have some koni springs here that you can have for nothing, but that assumes it is the spring that has failed and not the spring platform, which would need welding to fix. Let me know if interested and I'll go see whether or not I've got any. They are probably attached to shagged Koni dampers too, so you could just replace the whole unit and then take your time finding the right compromise between shininess, cost and complexity ... there are certainly quite a few options out there.

Cheers,
Robin

Re: Broken rear springs :(

Posted: Fri Mar 25, 2011 1:00 am
by robin
The mounting brackets are actually not a bad idea anyway; these do fail, particularly on earlier S1s where the rear bracket isn't strong enough. Later cars had a strengthened gusset .... oooerr.

Cheers,
Robin