Handling Deterioration VX I Clubsport

[Rack Bites]

Hi All,

I've got a VX I Clubsport with a problem. The steering has become less and less precise over time, the car wanders in the lane like an old Ford I use to drive, in short it has become unpleasant to drive.

The car has just came back from a service that set me back $800, they said the steering alignment had been well out, but had been repaired. I suspect the alignment had been knock a few days before on the drive over to the Clipsal 500 and back, the Hay plains are a goat track!

I usually get the alignment checked every two months or so. I check tyre pressures every week, I've mucked around with pressures since I bought the car, I found that higher pressures than the recommended seem to make it handle better.

I suspect the shock are involved as the ABS seems to engage more often when braking hard on corrugated surfaces. Car also seems to tram track more than it did.

I have lost all faith in the ability of Holden shops to service the cars properly, I have tried four in Sydney! I won't go into all the horror stories, except to say the worst service 40K involved a poor reconnection of the fuel return resulting in the car gushing 50 litres of fuel out on the way home, and a cold wait in the middle of winter for a tow truck whilst holding a fire extinguisher. The current holden dealer seems capable of reconnecting all the right hoses, and doing up the nuts, but likes to excessively lighten my wallet for the privilege.

As the car is now three years old, and has done 80K, I'd like to get the handling back to somewhere near as it was when new.

I'm not super handy with a spanner, so doing it myself would result in more problems! Does anyone know of a good steering suspension place that do good / honest work? What is the normal life of these sorts of component, replacement of bushes / shocks, etc, is 80K about the usual?

Do other owners of older HSV's have similar problems with the level of handling deterioration?

Thanks & Regards Rack

[ozemuscle1]

the shocks generally need to be replaced at around 75-85k.
if your warrrenty is finished, dont take it to the dealer, or a so called "factory approved" centre. they rarely give two tosses about your car, and its better to take it to a place like Auto Masters, and the like.
suspension, pedders is a great place, not sure about sydney locations, but it shouldnt be too hard to find.

[Andrew5]

i live in Syd, give me a call i'll locate someone from the motro sport fraternity to give you a hand avoid pedders they are over priced shit, t6ry king springs, koni or ohlin depending on your budget and what you are trying to achieve

cheers :D

[-HSV-]

i have pedders on my Vt and it holds the road so well. gives me a sense of security when driving it and because they are fairly firm the tyres dont scrub while driving it with a car load of ppl :)

[VXEXEC350]

I rekon it's your tyres. Sometimes seemingly roadworthy tyres can go off and handle like sponges. Maybe try rotating them and see if the car feels different.

[Rack Bites]

Thanks for all the suggestions.

I took the car along to HDT, and got their one of their suspension update packages. New Koni gas shocks and springs. Also had brakes serviced, rotors machined and new pads. Car now handles very well again, and sits lower, looks more aggressive. Although I get more "driveway scraping" :-).

The steering is also more neutral, perhaps tending to understeer, as opposed to the original setup from the factory.

They also suggested getting a camber/castor kit for the rear to bring it back to neutral, apparently current camber is 2 degrees, which they reckon is excessive. Any thoughts as to how this would effect handling?

[white_lie]

More camber will make the car stick to the road like the preverbial to a blanket, but will chew out the insides of your tyres like there's no tomorrow. All IRS cars do this when you lower them, especially commodores. A camber/castor kit will help bring it back to where it should be or with a little bit of camber so it still handles really well but doesnt chew tyres quite so much.

Is there any adjustment in your shocks? If so, it might be worth playing around with them so it doesnt understeer quite so much

[-HSV-]

id just like to add that, if your car sits pretty low after getting a new suspension setup be prepared for bigger tyre bills. the VT's and latter mainly (IRS) are really really bad for inside tyre wear at the rear. there will be a section that wears down about 1" wide on the very inside of the tyre near the wall. had this happen to me and you could see the wires on the back tyres. what i recomend, is, if you want to save some $$$ is to get non-directional tyres. this way you can rotate the tyres easily without taking tyres off of the rims etc. with the directional tyres you have to take tyres off of the rims and change them all around because they are only made to travel in one direction (at speed).

the only real advantage with directional is that the yprovide some extra grip for performance espec. in the wet. i got some 235/45R17's the other day, some falken's. normal price is about $200 and i got them for $169 each. bloody bargain if you ask me.

[Rack Bites]

Thanks for the advice, what's your suggestion for the camber angle for the rears, currently on 2 deg, HDT suggested 0, For performance / tyre chewing balance split it at 1 deg?. It is currently cornering again like it was on rails. I've had it jump on really hard cornering with big undulations, put it just comes down and sticks, doesn't bounce AT ALL, before i'd get wheel spin and it would want to go all over the place.

Shocks are adjustable, but apparently a bit of work is needed to get it done for the fronts. I'll inquire when I get the 90K service at HDT. I would like a little less understeer, with trailing throttle. HDT quoted camber kit at roughly equal in price to just one S03 tyre! I'll check the wear every week - 700km to get an idea what's happening since it's been lowered.

Yeah tyres, I've been pretty nice to them, got 45K out of the first set, and almost up to 45K on the second set now. First set went down to the wires too. I've been getting them pulled off the rim and moved either side and then front to back every 5K. I rotate the spare into the equation too. I found on previous vehicle that the rubber on the spare goes off, and gives weird effects, particularly noticable in the wet - lotsa wheel spin. I like the stick power of the Bridgestones - I think good rubber is worth the $$$.

Like your car -HSV- no spoiler - my VX Clubby's the same and I definitely prefer it, also 5kg weight saving. :-)

Question: Do the spoilers have any performance value at all? Was wondering as I took the Clubbie up to the Territory a few Xmas' ago so I could legally drive up the Sturt at 200kph+ for hours on end before the "kill joys in power" ban that too. Road is bumpy in places, but the rear seemed to get "noticably lighter" above 170kph especially when cornering and with xwinds? Above 170kph required high levels of concentrations that I couldn't do it for more than an hour. I've drive European cars down Autobahn's on several occassions faster than that and it was much easier driving, admittedly so where the German roads. Maybe it's just me getting old too :-)

[Andrew5]

45,000 km out of a set of tyres i wish! 25,000 is about as good as i can get, just got pricing for set of Pzero Rosso for the Coupe $710 each, Ouch, must stop spinning the wheels changing 1st to 2nd and 2nd to 3rd, good fun though, cheers :D

[-HSV-]

na, dont think the spoiler has any performance upgrade, only cosmetic.

gee, over 700bux for tyres, i thought $190 per tyre was heaps lol!