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MG MGF Technical - How to lower & raise suspension

The other weekend, Andy and I raised my brother's F which was a little too 'slammed to the floor' for comfort (the sound of the car bottoming on every bump got a little bit, er, grating, if you know what I mean).

So we took a photo sequence of the work in progress - which I've now posted (http://www.mgf.ultimatemg.com Techie and DIY section, how to lower suspension, direct link http://www.mgf.ultimatemg.com/howto_lower.htm)

Hopefully will help those first timers out there ;o)

Cheers

Rob
Rob Bell

Nice one Rob, i'm famous! (glad i wore my X-Power T shirt!) :-)

Seriously though, well written instructions and good photographs. Well done.

SF
Scarlet Fever

Cheers Andy - I thought that was a pretty good pic of you too! LOL
Rob Bell

Rob
Your fitting details mention that standard ride height is 368 +/- 10mm. On checking mine, the front offside is 10mm lower than the front nearside.
Is this acceptable or should they both be as near as dammit equal- would this explain why my high speed breaking pulls to the left???
Kevin White

Hmmm, they certainly should be as equal as possible, whether this is cause of your braking phemomena i don't know, but it has been my experience that if this is happening, then the finger of blame usually points to tracking. Bearing in mind that changes in ride height can affect your tracking settings, there may be a connection here. Worth checking out in any case.

SF
SF

Thanks Andy, booked in for later this week.
Kevin (retired at 53, no need to skive but don't tell the wife or she will find me more jobs to do!!!)
Kevin White

Nice pics - maybe I should have a go at mine. I suppose a re-track is order after doing this, though?
David Bainbridge

David, absolutely right, you need to get the car retracked after any suspension height readjustment - perhaps I should make this clear at the end on the instructions?

Kevin, as Andy says, the ride height should be near as dammit identical. Different heights do odd things to bump-steer, not to mention tracking, so yes, this could very well be responsible for the poor brake stability that you report.
Rob Bell

Basically the the Hydragas spheres are interconnected front to rear, this menas that when you raise or lower the car you do a side at a time independantly of each other. When you adjust the tracking you take measurements along an axle, ie the other direction to the ride height adjustment. Raising and lowering the car therefore affects the tracking measurements.

SF
Scarlet Fever

Ride height should be level with driver in place - assuming usual mode is no passenger. Some extra height on drivers side when car is unladen is ok but it is just mm.
Derrick Rowe

...unlike mine which I noticed at the Luton meeting was higher on the passenger side. I've just measured it - driver's side 356, passenger side 362.

I might try lowering the passenger side, as per Rob's instructions.

Ralph
Ralph

Another tip when lowering suspension without a pump:

To avoid letting out too much fluid at once (it at 400 psi!) when pusshing the centre pin on the valve - use the dust cap turned round through 180 degrees. It has a small raised dimple on top which just pushes the centre pin enough to let fluid out, but only at a slow rate, perfect for small adjustments.
Jason H
Jason H

Nice one Jason! :o)

Must include your tip in the instructions! :o)

Cheers
Rob Bell

Tyre dust caps used to be like that BUT I notice these days they are just round or have a valve removal tool on the other end.

Ted
Ted Newman

>or have a valve removal tool on the other end

This has always confused me... how many people have EVER removed the centre of a car valve?
Will Munns

Will

Many moons ago - before all these modern synthetic this and thats the schrader valve had a rubber seat that would perish and so the valve had to be replaced every so often - most people kept a little tin of the inner valves and I in fact still have one.

Ted
Ted Newman

Ted - I've got a tin of valve cores somewhere in the shed as well.

Will - I'm have a recollection that you are ex Halfords? Surely you must have advised customers on the vagaries of Schrader valve cores and their removal? Perhaps you missed that Tuesday morning when "closed for staff training".
JohnP

Doh!!!!

Every tyre fitter will have removed the valve core - that's how they deflate the tyre before ripping us off with a new set.
JohnP

>are ex Halfords< only when I have left after buying something:-)

Ted
Ted Newman

BTW have you ever noticed how bewildering their displays are?

Is this designed to give you a headache?

If it is, it works AND of course it is then good business for their 'parent' Boots who can flog you some asprin.

Or of course if you have an original Gerry McGovern *F* they will oblige with the contents for the 'condom shelf'.



Ted
Ted Newman

Ted - you are far too erudite to be described as "ex Halfords". I was, of course, referring to Will.
JohnP

Mostly the bike departmant, but why do they still sell valve core removers on ALL of the metal dust caps?
Will Munns

Probably because the plastic caps would break:-)

Sorry JohnP misread the posting BTW isn't erudite something that Halfords sell for glueing your bits back on with.

Ted
Ted Newman

>>>This has always confused me... how many people have EVER removed the centre of a car valve? <<<

Not many up to now but those cars with the Dunlop IMS system need the valve to be replaced. If those who read Autocar cast their minds back a couple of weeks there was a piece about their long term ZT having a puncture and the supplied plastic valve tool breaking. Some of the old metal valve caps would not have failed so I see there is a potential market for these now! I have two metal valve removing caps with my cars that are using IMS.

Rog
Roger Parker

I've just been looking at Dieter's website (great site - lots of useful info). According to the information there the rear suspension should be 5mm lower than the front - is this correct? The reason I ask is that when I measured my suspension yesterday the rear was 10mm higher than the front.

Ralph
Ralph

Not sure about Dieter's measurements here, it is true that the rear wheel arch is a different (lower) profile to the front and therefore with the car level the rear should be marginally lower than the front when measured to the same points (ie centre wheel to u/s of wheel arch).

However, due to minor fluctuations in the upper Nitrogen sphere there will be some minor deviations to the rule. Also, Techspeed mill thier lowering knuckles to take this into account and they try to set the car a little nose down.

SF <--- Rear is 10mm lower than front!
SF

This thread was discussed between 18/08/2002 and 23/08/2002

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