Exige suspension woes

[Edinburgh 111s]

Just a little advice needed.

My current car is an 07 Exige S, with 8,500 miles on the clock. The car is not tracked but is used as a second car, mainly for weekend fast B road blasts.

Last year whilst having rear tyres replaced i was informed that the rear inner tow ball joints needed replaced. This was duly carried out. Whilst the car was receiving its annual service this week, the front track rod ends and front drop links had to be replaced due to excess play. On both occasions i of course had a full geo check carried out.

Is this level of suspension components replacement normal on a three year old car, with only 8,500 miles on the clock? I appreciate that these items are consumable parts, but i guess i am just a little surprised at how quickly the have been consumed!

Grateful for your opinion

[robin]

Is it garaged?

And no, that's not typical. Inboard rear toe links might be a weak spot for the Exige S due to exposure to excessive heat (do you have a standard exhaust and associated heat shielding?).

The rest, shouldn't really wear out in such a low mileage if the car isn't thumped over kerbs on a race track.

I have never replaced drop links on any Elise-type car I have ever owned.

Cheers,
Robin

[Lazydonkey]

My VX has done 74k, is 7 years ago and i've only replaced the drop links in the last year and a bit.

So yes that does sound excessive.

Who is doign the servicing ?

[Modena Scotland]

Sounds like a very fast wear rate. I've done 14,000 miles in 2.5 years with toooooo many track miles. Just replacing the inner toe link joints for the first time.

[Edinburgh 111s]

Robin, car is not garaged, and it has a lotus stage 3 exhaust. no heat sheilds have been removed.

I thought the wear was exsessive. Murray's do the servicing, and completed the work. Could this level of wear be put down to the shocking state of Edinburgh's roads?

[robin]

A single pot hole could maybe do for a track rod end.

The inboard toe links are a week spot as I said before - I don't know if the stage 3 makes it any hotter, but heat is what normally kills them prematurely I believe. Again, pot holes might also wear them, but you would need a lot of bad luck and pot holes to go through the pair of toe links and the track rod end in 8,500 miles. I just finished 5,000 miles in mine with mountains, tracks plus our motorways and France's B roads and I haven't heard or felt any knocks or clunks. That's not to say I haven't bust every ball joint in the car, but I doubt it.

If it sits for periods of time outdoors then maybe damage from breaking free accumulated corrosion could be the cause, but the standard drop links should have rubber boots protecting the ball joints which should be lubricated (non serviceable- they're grease packed when they're made I think), so it just doesn't sound all that likely.

It may just be bad luck - these things do happen!

I might be inclined to take the old drop links (which do f*ck all most of the time) and cut off the rubber boots to find out why they've failed (even Lotus themselves might be interested).

I imagine that if it's corrosion the ball and/or joint surfaces will be dried out and pitted; if it's shock impact something will be distorted - like the casing; if it's normal wear and tear then the ball and socket will be smooth and clean and just loose.

Cheers,
Robin

[BiggestNizzy]

Speed bumps kill anti roll bar drop links especially those bus friendly ones.

[Nig The Stig]

I had to replace toe links on mine at 16k with the car only 18 months old. Lotus said they usually go about the 12-14k mark.

[robin]

Speed bumps, if approached square, shouldn't load the drop links - both sides will move up and down together ... of course if you only ride one side of the bump, I suppose they might, but how fast can you be going - cannot see the load on the drop link being more than say at oulton park or the ring of which my various cars have done 1,000's of laps without failure of a drop link ... and I drive over plenty of speed bumps in Edinburgh too.

12-14K is not acceptable for a car that hasn't been tracked. For a lot of cars that would be 18 months into ownership, well before an MOT was due, possibly still in warranty period. Sure, it's a service item they'll say, but surely it's not fit for purpose with such a low life expectancy. Of course all bets are off if the car is tracked.

Cheers,
Robin

[BiggestNizzy]

Speed bumps, if approached square, shouldn't load the drop links - both sides will move up and down together ... of course if you only ride one side of the bump, I suppose they might, but how fast can you be going - cannot see the load on the drop link being more than say at oulton park or the ring of which my various cars have done 1,000's of laps without failure of a drop link ... and I drive over plenty of speed bumps in Edinburgh too.

Cheers,
Robin

From what I am told women (mainly but guys do it too) seem to be the biggest culprit in not slowing down and riding the passenger side only over the speed hump and this is what causes them to fail, My mechanic friend has told me there has been a marked increase in breakages since the split bus friendly speed bumps where introduced

[robin]

Hmm. Could be true I suppose ... if that were the case, the wear pattern should be pretty easy to spot - the driver's side one will fail in the stretch direction, while the pax side one will fail in compression. I would like to see some with the boots off and perhaps sectioned - would need to mark the threaded stud and ball housing before removal, though, to preserve the alignment.

Cheers,
Robin