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Another. Zeemeride Super Spec Suspension Question


geordie40

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Hi all

Just wondering how many "threads" or inches of thread are visable on people using the zeemeride suspension.

 

I know I probably need to change them out, Ive already got a quote of £400 from dampertech but its a bit steep to sneak past the missus at the moment.

 

Just looking for a rough guide to see how mine compare.

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Dave at Dampertech knows his stuff, got mine from him and they changed the car totally. I bought the front 2 within a month of getting mine on the road, then changed the rears the following year.

I took my Missus out in mine and made sure it bottomed out, which scared her, she asked how I could fix it... my reply was to throw £200 at the front of the car, she said to do it. I didn't argue.

Nick

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As with our discussion about the seats I would think carefully before spending £400 replacing the Zimmers. Mine have done nearly 20,000 miles and are still working perfectly. They are very soft and would be useless on high speed cornering, but for normal touring I find them perfectly acceptable, giving me a very comfortable ride. You might want to ask AndyW what he thinks as he has the Gaz shocks fitted.

 

Mine originally had very little thread showing when I bought the car but as with all Superspecs the sump clearance was useless. So I wound them up about an inch to increase the ride height. And did the same at the back to keep the profile the same.

 

You will also have to compress the springs to get them off. Normal compressors will not fit between the springs. You might have to try ratchet straps.

Edited by alanrichey
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As usual thanks Al, my fronts are wound up about an inch at the moment (haven't checked rears), I was only thinking about it as I think at last MOT there were a couple of advisories regarding suspension but it may only be bushes worn or something, will check mot certificate. Are the bushes an easy change and will i still need to compress the springs if changing just bushes.

 

Another thing i noticed are the 4 mounting holes in the bottom wishbone(if thats the right terminology!!) where are yours fixed? mine are in the 2nd from the car (so 3rd from wheel).

 

Ive only just got a secondhand trolley jack and axle stands so going to have a poke around underneath and get wheels off for first time :help:

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If you search back through the forum youll find lots of posts about the Zeemerride coil overs and people changing them either because they had failed or because they didnt like the road response.

 

Ive briefly driven Als Superspec which still has its original Zeemers, and in comparison with mine which has Gaz coil overs, it rides much softer and has more body roll. His has more suspension travel and you can see his front suspension working and moving far more in relation to the body. My front suspension barely moves which makes for quite a firm ride. There is virtually no compression of the springs over bumps and the front suspension ride is generally very hard and jittery and I've got no body roll at all!

 

Apart from the ride height I dont think you can adjust the damping response of the Zeemers but on the Gaz youve got a range of clicks for the damper response from soft to hard. I probably need to do more adjusting on mine to get a better ride.

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To complicate this has further i,m not a fan of Gaz the damping settings aren't right for light cars, too hard, I had them on my 2b they started leaking after 3k and corroded badly in no time at all. I use protech coilovers which are set accordingly and have been faultless for 4yrs. Similar price to Gaz

Edited by DanE
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As usual thanks Al, my fronts are wound up about an inch at the moment (haven't checked rears), I was only thinking about it as I think at last MOT there were a couple of advisories regarding suspension but it may only be bushes worn or something, will check mot certificate. Are the bushes an easy change and will i still need to compress the springs if changing just bushes.

 

Another thing i noticed are the 4 mounting holes in the bottom wishbone(if thats the right terminology!!) where are yours fixed? mine are in the 2nd from the car (so 3rd from wheel).

 

 

Mine are 3rd from the car/2nd from the wheel. So that means you will have a better ride height. Having said that there was a discussion on here about moving them and I was advised against it as the more angle the bottom wishbone is away from the horizontal the more likely you are to bend a wishbone if you hit a pothole.

 

As for bushes, I have only had to change the lower rear bushes and that is easy. Changing any of the front ones would again require you to compress the springs to remove the shocks and although cb750 is correct that motorcycles ones should work I haven't found any narrow enough to fit.

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I had the springs on my Zimmers loose tension so the ride height dropped and the car bottomed out. With just a month left of the season I brought replacement springs for a quick fix. When changing them I found the Zimmer dampers had very little bump damping and a lot of rebound damping, which meant if you went down a rough road the ride height would drop. Needless to say the dampers went over the winter, and they only had 1500 mile on them.

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