Front End Problem

[brad]

Fulcrum is very good, but exxy. Pedders, unless you know the person can be dogey as.... Quoting work that doesn't need doing etc. They are franchises, so some are good and honest, some are terrible. I'd go fulcrum personally. They cost a bit, but do top notch work.

Agree. Some Pedders are great, some are crap.

Forgot, Accurate Suspension in BNE come highly recomended

[i286]

At 36 K it is unlikely your shocks are worn. Bouncing the car will tell you nothing. We did it in the eighties and it sort of worked on hydraulic shocks, good for nothing on today's cars with gas filled shocks.
Squeaking sound will be your polyurethane bushes. Are you aware they need to be greased on a regular basis? About once a year will do it, use lithium based grease.
Who installed control arms? Is it convenient for you to go back to them so they can check front end. How long since last wheel alignment?
Nuts and bolts should be checked for tightness as well as excessive movement in bushes.
Also, it is to early for engine mounts to be worn, are you rough with the clutch. You accelerate hard I believe.
Have you checked tyre pressure to eliminate possibility of puncture? What pressure do you pump your tyres anyway? Do you have aftermarket wheels and wider tyres ? What size wheels and tyres?
Don't know if you rotate wheels on a regular basis or at all, if not, your rear tyres will have more profile so swap them with the fronts and se if that changes anything.
Did you have heavy load in the boot when noticed floatiness? Guessing not. Was it wet?
It is quite normal for the car to wander a little when it gets to longitudinal roots.
Without seeing the car it is hard to diagnose the problem. These are some guidelines you can follow to narrow the search.

Heard many complaints about Pedders, but in the end it all comes which one you get to. Not all of them are dodgy.

[dArK5HaD0w]

^^^ what he said ^^^

[donweather]

At 36 K it is unlikely your shocks are worn. Bouncing the car will tell you nothing. We did it in the eighties and it sort of worked on hydraulic shocks, good for nothing on today's cars with gas filled shocks.
Squeaking sound will be your polyurethane bushes. Are you aware they need to be greased on a regular basis? About once a year will do it, use lithium based grease.

No I wasn’t aware they had to be greased.

Who installed control arms? Is it convenient for you to go back to them so they can check front end.

Yeah reasonably convenient so I could take it back to them, although as Martin said if it was a problem with the LCAs I’d have more than floatey suspension problems

How long since last wheel alignment? Nuts and bolts should be checked for tightness as well as excessive movement in bushes.

Not that long. Maybe 7500-10000ks ago. I regularly get wheel alignment and tyre rotations done to try and evenly wear the tyres. Front left appears to be wearing more than front right so perhaps a wheel alignment is due. My tyres are low on tread so I was just waiting for new tyres before I get the new alignment.

Also, it is to early for engine mounts to be worn, are you rough with the clutch. You accelerate hard I believe.

Yes I drive the car hard sometimes, but not WOT all the time. Isn’t that what a car is for? To drive it as it was designed. I don’t ride the clutch.

Have you checked tyre pressure to eliminate possibility of puncture? What pressure do you pump your tyres anyway? Do you have aftermarket wheels and wider tyres ? What size wheels and tyres?

Will check, but regularly check tyre pressures anyway. Normally up around 38PSI. Stock wheels and tyres (for now). Soon to be 18*8 rims with 225 tyres.

Don't know if you rotate wheels on a regular basis or at all, if not, your rear tyres will have more profile so swap them with the fronts and se if that changes anything.

See above

Did you have heavy load in the boot when noticed floatiness? Guessing not. Was it wet?

No and No it wasn’t wet.

It is quite normal for the car to wander a little when it gets to longitudinal roots.

Yep, I realise that with a front wheel high performance car, but it’s wandering is getting severely worse!!!

Without seeing the car it is hard to diagnose the problem. These are some guidelines you can follow to narrow the search.

Thanks for your detailed response. It’s greatly appreciated.

Heard many complaints about Pedders, but in the end it all comes which one you get to. Not all of them are dodgy.

Peddars are taking a look at it tomorrow. I don’t intend to get them to do any work on it if they find something wrong. Just using them as an independent check before I take it back to the dealer for an under warranty check of the front end problems.

[i286]

Well, if everything underneath is tight my number one suspect would be the shocks. As I said, it is way to early for them to be worn out but it is not impossible.
By mentioning to go back to a place where control arms were installed I did not suggest that they did something wrong, just that they could check complete front end for you.
Do you often carry heavy loads or tow something at all? Doing that will shorten life of rear shocks and springs.
Try 36 psi pressure and see how that goes.

Mrs does not like when I accelerate. Apparently it hurts her neck or something and I am running out of excuses why I had to do it every time I do it.

Let us know what happens at Pedders tomorrow.

[donweather]

I tow a jetski but that's hardly heavy and I don't tow it that often.

If the steering and front end feels odd wouldn't the problem be at the front and not the rears?

[i286]

You would expect it to be at the front, but if rear shocks are cactus then rear end will bounce on the springs and that will affect the front.
It is a newish car with 36K, driven on sealed roads and it is simply to early for anything in the suspension or steering department to wear out to that extent that it will give you feeling you are experiencing.
Shocks wear over long period of time, we get used to it and adjust our driving accordingly to compensate for it. Unless something is loose or broken you should not have these symptoms.
You would mention if you hit some big pothole or kerb, so I ruled that out. Anyway, you will find out what is wrong a bit later today.

[donweather]

I did hit a hump at speed. You know where a street perpendicular to the one you are travelling on intersects the street you are travelling on but that's when I first noticed the car behaved erratically in the front end. It's just been getting progressively worse since then. If it is the front shocks gone is this something usually replaced under warranty. Noting I have the supaloy LCA and bluefin.

[brad]

they'll do warranty if they are leaking or have a manufacturing fault but not if they are soft. They'll only want to change the faulty unit.

Bluefin shouldn't affect it.
LCAs will depend on the service guy & if he wants to be a nob.

A mate of mine can't get warranty on his steering rack because he has Koni Yellows. McGrath's Sutherland want him to put the OEM dampers back in before they'll consider warranty. They also say he's had the engine out & has replaced an engine mount (neither has happened). This is the same dealer that when they fixed his DSG7 they left wiring hanging loose in the engine bay & left the undertray off.

[donweather]

Well turns out my lefthand front Supaloy LCA bushes are stuffed. Have about 15-20mm forward/backward movement in the bushes. Also have some in the righthand side Supaloy LCA, although nowhere near as bad (around 5mm). But there should be no movement yeah?

Back to prestige and performance I go again on Monday. This is the 2nd time I've had to have the Supaloy LCAs rectified/replaced. They're normally a good product aren't they? Just checked and the LCA's are 12mths old almost to the exact day/date!!!

BTW, can highly recommend Peddars at Moorooka. Very thorough and excellent service and was keen to chat to me for a while about the LCA problem. Would recommend them with respect to good service that's for sure, particularly considering they knew they weren't getting any more current work from me at present for the LCA problem etc.