club.liberty.asn.au

very tidy engine bay tim

Looks sweet as ever Tim.

Oooh it's so dark in there once you had the cooler back on that I couldn't see a shield... good job then!

Car has been running really well after major service and all that has happened since then is a tune update from Matt to clean up my LV a bit as my latest tune was showing some low load knock but this was explained elsewhere by Matt in the LV thread. I rarely give it much stick around town but the other night I raced someone off the lights and the clutch was definitely slipping into 2nd due to power so I am guessing a slightly heavier clutch would be required to overcome this. It was against a turbo six banger and stayed in front despite the slipping. Will need to look into this in the future but not a priority as I rarely drive like that.

I will be putting a bit of focus on undercarriage noise. I have noticed things are getting a bit noisy down there and I am not sure why. Perhaps my shocks are wearing out but it just feels like 'things' are loose as you can hear movement and some knocking with very little suspension travel. Last two mechanics that worked on the car (John French and AMAuto) said everything looked fine but to be honest as much as I respect these guys, they don't seem to pay a lot of attention to that stuff unless you specifically took the car in there for that purpose. I have been considering finding a local suspension specialist who can give all of the suspension and bushings a good going over and see where that leaves me. If I do need to upgrade shocks I will be looking for a new shock spring combo rather than coil-overs despite how awesome the Shockworks sound. I am looking to keep the vehicle as original as possible from here out.

Shaheenis wrote:Car has been running really well after major service and all that has happened since then is a tune update from Matt to clean up my LV a bit as my latest tune was showing some low load knock but this was explained elsewhere by Matt in the LV thread. I rarely give it much stick around town but the other night I raced someone off the lights and the clutch was definitely slipping into 2nd due to power so I am guessing a slightly heavier clutch would be required to overcome this. It was against a turbo six banger and stayed in front despite the slipping. Will need to look into this in the future but not a priority as I rarely drive like that.

I will be putting a bit of focus on undercarriage noise. I have noticed things are getting a bit noisy down there and I am not sure why. Perhaps my shocks are wearing out but it just feels like 'things' are loose as you can hear movement and some knocking with very little suspension travel. Last two mechanics that worked on the car (John French and AMAuto) said everything looked fine but to be honest as much as I respect these guys, they don't seem to pay a lot of attention to that stuff unless you specifically took the car in there for that purpose. I have been considering finding a local suspension specialist who can give all of the suspension and bushings a good going over and see where that leaves me. If I do need to upgrade shocks I will be looking for a new shock spring combo rather than coil-overs despite how awesome the Shockworks sound. I am looking to keep the vehicle as original as possible from here out.

Sounds like things are progressing Tim. Im like you with some mechanics, yes they are good at major stuff, but rarely do they consider the smaller things that irk you at the same time and it's this level of attention that I prefer to get sorted. Finding a good spring/shock combo will be the tester. I think you'll find anything decent will cost nearly as much as coilovers. For me, coilovers are illegal in SA unless I spend extra on engineering and not touch the coilover height once set. Kind of defeats the purpose of coilovers in my opinion. If I were to head down this path again, I'd go STi pinks and fork out for Koni's. The price would easily match a set of BC BR's but at least I'd know I was legal and wouldnt have to fork out for engineers certificates.

I recommend STI pinks, I'm quite happy with my ride comfort and handling. Much better than BC BR on my old 04 GT imo

Dan, do you have any under carriage noise? Knocks, rattles etc?

I would want to get out of suspension upgrade for $1500 or less and for that I would want to be pretty happy. My requirements are pretty simple, have to handle as good as the stock Bilstein setup and be no harsher in terms of ride comfort. From what I have read I am assuming Bilsteins or Koni's would be best with H&R or STI Pink springs. I would like to go a touch lower than STI pinks but not as low as RSR. Also not sure where the best place to buy Koni's to get the best deal.

http://www.hrsprings.com/products/springs/

Shaheenis wrote:Dan, do you have any under carriage noise? Knocks, rattles etc?

I would want to get out of suspension upgrade for $1500 or less and for that I would want to be pretty happy. My requirements are pretty simple, have to handle as good as the stock Bilstein setup and be no harsher in terms of ride comfort. From what I have read I am assuming Bilsteins or Koni's would be best with H&R or STI Pink springs. I would like to go a touch lower than STI pinks but not as low as RSR. Also not sure where the best place to buy Koni's to get the best deal.

http://www.hrsprings.com/products/springs/

No annoying under carriage noise really. I have a lot of road noise which I'm assuming is my tyres are a bit old and probably need replacing... I'm either swapping for a set of S001 or RE003 in the near future

I'd say they are probably less comfortable than the stock springs although I don't know for sure, but if you want a slight drop and decent ride comfort I think they do pretty well.

So I have found the source of the annoying undercarriage noise I have been referring to in some recent posts. I occasionally had a front sway bar knock since fitting the front whiteline adjustable but I was quite familiar with the sound and frequency and although annoying I put up with it. On the weekend I noticed a much more frequent knocking noise coming from the front end in all types of driving conditions but not consistent. The only thing that seemed consistent is that you would here the noise several times in a 10 second period of driving. On Sunday I decided to get under the car and do a visual check. Everything looked ok but I decided to regrease the swaybar bushes and remove one of the lateral locks (there isn't really room for one on the drivers side without making contact with the cross member anyway). This made absolutely no difference. I was stumped and contemplating taking it somewhere to have inspected and one of the guys I work with suggested I remove the swaybar all together to see if the noise went away. Bingo! . No more swaybar, no more noise. The car has never been so quiet. Although very drive-able there is noticeably more oversteer so will probably re-fit the stock bar or if I can be bothered the whiteline without lateral locks to test. Either way quite pleased I know the source.

I re-fitted the factory swaybar to the front with the original rubber bushes and grease. I can't believe how much quieter the car is, feels much better. The handling is slightly better with the heavier bar but it is not enough of an improvement to warrant in my opinion, especially considering the noise that comes with it. I will probably refresh the D bushes with some new rubber ones when I get a chance but doesn't really need it. The factory ones are a touch on the soft side but the polyurethane ones are just too noisy IMO.

I won't have much time to play with the car in the near future but next planned works are to change over the springs to H&R or Swift and re-grease the billies while I am there.

It has been a long time since I have posted something and my almost 6mth old daughter has something to do with that .

My brakes have been squealing for a while now so I finally decided to sort it out. I bought myself some QFM HPX front and rear pads for around the $200 mark. 1ltr of Brakes Direct high temp brake fluid for a full flush and booked in the mobile lathe - $88 per pair for machining rotors. I also had the swift springs kicking around that I bought from Nixwrx ages ago and decided to fit the fronts while I had the brakes off even though I am waiting on some saggy butt spacers so I can fit the rears. My old Supercrap trolley jack went to the dump a while ago so I decided to splurge and get myself a new Bahco 2T from Trade Tools (link below).

Top be honest I was expecting the front pads to be metal on metal but no they weren't. The rotors were a bit glazed and had a lip though. I stripped the front gear off, disassembled the calipers and cleaned them down, blocked all the holes, masked off the necessary bits and painted them in 4 coats of Duplicolour silver. I only did the fronts but the can still feels half full so the rears will get done later. Once they were dry I cleaned all the pins and inside the boots and holes etc and regreased with synthetic brake lube (STA Lube). I cleaned the pad retaining clips and shims with IronX and a toothbrush, came up pretty clean.

When I pulled out the old Billies, I noticed that the strut top bearings were rough compared with the nice smooth ones in the replacement billies so hopefully that is an indication the shocks are newer too .

I have only fitted the fronts and the brakes are still bedding in but overall very happy with a nice little improvement to the wags. The swift springs feel really good, no harsher than the stockies but firmer and a bit lower. I also did a test to see whether my rotating clunk was still there and it seems to be gone so fingers crossed. I did spray a bit of silicon lube under the strut dust boots just as some extra insurance .

Links to products etc.
http://qfm.com.au/page/13/Products
http://brakesdirect.com.au/aus/brake-fl ... fluid.html
https://www.tradetools.com/product-rang ... olley-jack
http://www.carid.com/images/sta-lube/oi ... sl3303.jpg

Not the best photo I know but here is a picture of the wags with Swift springs fitted to the front (standard Billies) and still the OEM springs on the rear (albeit with some saggy butt). Once I fit the swifts to the rear (next weekend) I am hoping it will look pretty similar to this photo but with a touch more low at the rear. So far this feels like a perfect ride height but I am glad I don't have a front lip or I reckon I would lose it pretty quick.

Springs are 4F008 (sedan) so I will be fitting butt spacers to the rear. The springs apparently drop the front by 30mm and rear by 25mm. Spring rates are 4.3 and 6.6 respectively.

http://forum.liberty.asn.au/viewtopic.php?f=68&t=32316



Here is a copy with the brightness turned up so you can see the gap.

Nice, thats a perfect height Tim

Your thread is a good and relevant read to me although I have a Spec-B 3.0R. I am going to seriously look at the same radiator replacement if I get the same issue. I never thought i would say I get excited about a radiator, but love the look of the replacement you fitted.

Last service they told me that my gearbox mount bushes needed replacing soon and I am getting a shudder from still. The clutch is solid so I don't think it's that, so hoping that will fix it. I was thinking of the STI replacement you bought, but not sure i saw any comments in your thread about how it felt afterwards?

any updated pics of the swifts in the front and rear?