New front shocks

[Cotswold Pete]

Just had new fronts shocks fitted by Omega in Newport.  Only one day driving so far, but amazed at the difference.  No tramlining and the car does not crash about like a knackered old Land Rover when it traverse that great British institution - the lesser and larger spotted pothole.

Also corners without trying to dive into the tarmac, and the bounce from putting on parking brake has gone.

Not sure whether to get the rears done, as that is another wad of cash, but I suspect changing them will make the car even better.

Need to give it a proper try out on a trip down to cornwall in a few weeks, and see if I can persuade wife to let me part with some more cash.

[The-Acre]

2 hours ago, Cotswold Pete said:

Just had new fronts shocks fitted by Omega in Newport.  Only one day driving so far, but amazed at the difference.  No tramlining and the car does not crash about like a knackered old Land Rover when it traverse that great British institution - the lesser and larger spotted pothole.

Also corners without trying to dive into the tarmac, and the bounce from putting on parking brake has gone.

Not sure whether to get the rears done, as that is another wad of cash, but I suspect changing them will make the car even better.

Need to give it a proper try out on a trip down to cornwall in a few weeks, and see if I can persuade wife to let me part with some more cash.

Will we be enlightened as to the cost?

[Farqui]

Excellent news Pete.

Were they OEM or aftermarket dampers?

[Cotswold Pete]

I believe they are OEM, and I recall when I took car for inspection a few weeks back, they said having had LS400 with KYB shocks on is never the same as going for original and they have replaced a number of aftermarket shocks when quite new because they made ride not at all good..  They did say it is not cheap to do it right.

So bill was £735 - that also included fitting of new stabiliser bushes, which were starting to go.

Each shock was £202 + VAT.

Not cheap, but with suspension and control arms my preference is for OEM. 

On way home tonight I could feel the back end shocks as being not too good (on some speed humps), but I think I can live with that for rest of year, and then look at what needs to be done.

Also asked about the cambelt (now on 60K) and was told not to worry about that for a while yet.

One other thing with new shocks was noticeable lowering of road noise on some of the cruddier motorway surfaces along the M4, not as quite as being in a field with only the noise of butterflies and whispering grass, but will allow my wife to make herself heard more clearly when telling off for undertaking (as i was filtering left off the M5 coming south to go towards Wales last weekend), DOH!

[Malc]

and what is your mileage ?

Malc

[GrahamG]

Pete, I wish my LS430 had your 'non air' suspension. Drove my Mk III for 15 years and was perfectly happy with every mile.

Can imagine how pleased you are now and interesting the specific improvements experienced particularly the absence of tramlining.

Like you when it comes to suspension I would only fit OEM parts. 

[Cotswold Pete]

7 hours ago, Malc said:

and what is your mileage ?

199800 - I have 3 full-road-width speed ramps I need to traverse every day on way to work and then back.  One of them is quite severe in incline and at 15-20mph will put shocks under stress, so I assume after 5 years of these they helped create earlier failure. 

I assume the people who hit them at 30mph either have company cars, or are not aware of how shocks hate these beasrts of the road.

1 hour ago, GrahamG said:

 I wish my LS430 had your 'non air' suspension. Drove my Mk III for 15 years and was perfectly happy with every mile.

 

Was out with a mate of mine for beer last friday, he traded his Mk4 for a 430 2 years back, and now he has saggy air suspension (goes down over about 1 hour).  Suggested he goes for coilovers, as he only wanted a 430 for the cooler cabinet.  He is also fidning out that not having stainless steel exhaust is another pain.

Having been in brand new 430 when they came out and 400 when new, the 430 was a different experience, but a tight 400 IMHO is a perfectly acceptable ride, and mechanically more robust over 20 years.

 

There is one other thing I noticed last night.  This is that up until Monday if I parked up and then after that drove off with full lock, the car felt like the car was sliding in direction opposite to lock.  That problem is no longer, so I guess the car felt like it was sliding as the spring compressed with no absorbtion of pressure to protect it.  It was a really weird feeling, almost like the wheel was going to come off it's bearing.  Maybe that is one way to test if shocks are completely shot. Not expecting to have this problem for the lifetime of my ownership of the car.

[Malc]

35 minutes ago, Cotswold Pete said:

199800

you can probably safely take it to 240k miles before doing the cambelt and waterpump again then  .........  or a few more years whatever 😉

Malc

[Cotswold Pete]

39 minutes ago, Malc said:

you can probably safely take it to 240k miles before doing the cambelt and waterpump again then  .........  or a few more years whatever 😉

 

Still on original water pump which surprises me, but it sounds fine, a very very slight whine, but been like that for the last 30K, so may not get to 240,000 which is only about 3 years away.

Still amazes me how ruddy good these cars are at this age and mileage.  Getting a few niggly rattles at slow speed on some roads, so need to work out where they are coming from, but at 70mph on the motorway as quite as a dragonfly fart.

[Newbie1]

I've recently purchased a UCF21 Celsior with air suspension, replacing a 80k miles LS400. OK, I know I'll be up for an expensive bill at some point but wow, I'm sold. No diving on hard breaking, much less roll and wallow around corners than shocks/springs and of course the smoother ride on shocking London streets. I can fly around those corners at greater speed utilising the surprising amount of grip the car has as the car has a greater propensity to stay level than on steel springs.

I priced up replacement OEM standard shocks/springs/spring seats/top mounts and it came to about £400 per corner, and the air shocks are £700, so I'll probably stick with air when the time comes for the sake of £1200. The enhancement to the ride and handling of the car is well worth it IMO, and the car is a keeper.

[The-Acre]

3 hours ago, Newbie1 said:

I've recently purchased a UCF21 Celsior with air suspension, replacing a 80k miles LS400. OK, I know I'll be up for an expensive bill at some point but wow, I'm sold. No diving on hard breaking, much less roll and wallow around corners than shocks/springs and of course the smoother ride on shocking London streets. I can fly around those corners at greater speed utilising the surprising amount of grip the car has as the car has a greater propensity to stay level than on steel springs.

I priced up replacement OEM standard shocks/springs/spring seats/top mounts and it came to about £400 per corner, and the air shocks are £700, so I'll probably stick with air when the time comes for the sake of £1200. The enhancement to the ride and handling of the car is well worth it IMO, and the car is a keeper.

Good man, let's not be put off having air, and I agree, it does corner better than springs. I've recently driven 1500 miles in mine to Austria and the ride was just superb.  Listen to comments made by those that have had air suspension, but many that haven't had it comment without personal experience.

[Cotswold Pete]

14 hours ago, Greer said:

I did not know a 240k was safe Ive seen some posts on here saying about 60k??

 

240K for cam belt is madness, but not sure what the recommendation for water pump is.  

[The-Acre]

1 hour ago, Cotswold Pete said:

240K for cam belt is madness, but not sure what the recommendation for water pump is.  

When I was speaking to the mechanic that another member introduced me to, we were discussing cam belt change.  Insanely he said he loves doing it on the LS!  The part of the conversation that really got my attention was his comment about water pump failure destroying the cam belt.  For that reason I would never have a belt change without replacing the pump.  

[Malc]

On 6/4/2019 at 6:42 PM, Cotswold Pete said:

the cambelt (now on 60K)

 

On 6/5/2019 at 2:01 PM, Cotswold Pete said:

199800

 

On 6/15/2019 at 7:59 PM, Greer said:

I did not know a 240k was safe Ive seen some posts on here saying about 60k??

car now on 199800 + 40k more is about 240k for the next cambelt change ..............  but only if the waterpump survives that long 

Malc