Took a gamble on the weather today and all was fine, so decided to fit my upto 1060Kg Eibachs on to my CDTi SRi.
Took me nearly all day, but was on my own and not done veccy suspension before, so took my time and gave the parts a clean as I went along even gave the inner strut tops a good coat of wax-oil while the front struts were out.
Fortunately I had all the tools to the jobs and all went pretty smoothly, but slowly......
Eibach P/N 10-65-007-01-22 Fronts 966-1060Kg Rears upto 1035Kg
Before lowering.....
Fitting rears was pretty straight forward. I could be done by leaving wheel on but I decided the access was better with wheel off and they could be cleaned too. Removal and re-fit of the lower support bolt was a little awkward due to loads on suspensions parts and the fact the bolt was thread along its length. 2 jacks used. 1 for car and other to support lower support arm whilst swapping springs.
Fronts were more time consuming, was finding my way with the dis-assembly and the 2nd one was quicker and easier. Firstly disconnected brake hose clip and abs wire. Was a liitle unsure of drop link to start as I knew it would be under tension with the ant-roll bar. My solution was to use a second jack again under the lower control arm. I slckened off the top drop link bolt and then raised the jack until the drop link bolt sat level with the hole, removed nut anf the drop link just went back out of the way. Then lowered jack and continued to remove strut. 2 bolts from hub then the 3 under the bonnet holding it in place. Once the strut was out it was a matter of carefully compressing the springs before removing the 22mm top nut. I used a plug socket which was 22mm and had a 19mm hex for spanner around top edge of socket and a T50 key to hold the rod secure. All came apart fairly easily and swapped springs after cleaning some parts up and applying a bit of wax-oil here and there.
Everything was checked and torqued up before clean wheels re-fitted.
Very happy with the drop. I measured up before and after so I would know how much it lowered. As its an SRi, its already -15mm so the original -30mm is only effectively -15mm. I was too bothered about the rear as I think it sat nice already so was pleased its only lowered a further 8mm, but it may settle some more. The fronts have lowered 22mm and now the car looks a lot better with more even gaps in the wheel arches and after a short test drive feels pleasantly comfortable, even on 19's. Not harsh or overly firm, just nice a supple.
Pictures of the car after lowering.........
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