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MG MGF Technical - Uprated Bushes

After my fiasco with the bushes on my damper at the weekend I've ordered a set of poly ones from mike satur.

Does anyone else have these on their cars and if so, will I notice a difference?

Also can anyone recommend the cheapest place to get a K&N panel filter?
Bob

Poly bushes make a little bit of difference, but bearing in mind the shocks are pretty shocking anyway you may not notice it too much.

One tip for fitting the lower bushes..... A vice is very handy (no, not the kind of vice which involves dressing in leather....etc) a workbench vice....

You can find my instruction on Rob's Web site.
tim woolcott

Yeh I've got a vice in the garage. I had to refit a rear one on Sunday after it came away from the bottom of the damper so time for an upgrade all round.

I was looking at uprated dampers on the Brown & Gammons website. A set of Konis was £200 - £250 but a set of trophy dampers was only £100. Are they a substantial improvement over the standard F dampers or is it worth spending the extra on the Konis. Also will the standard F accept the Trophy parts.
Bob

There was a long thread on this recently....Don't bother with the Trophy dampers, although claimed to be 'up-rated' Pah! they are still very soggy when compared to any decent shock..... You tend to get what you pay for.... Koni's have a good reputation, however, I plumped for the Bilstiens frome Techspeed albeit that they are a little bit more expensive still.... but they're superb. The Bilstiens altough not ajustable have been 'tuned' for the MGF with different dampers for the front and rear. Of course if you go for new dampers you won't need the poly bushes, then the ride would be a little hard.
tim woolcott

How do you know when the damper bushes are worn-out ? Can you see it, feel it, hear it when driving ?

The reason I ask this, is because since a few weeks I hear a strange noise in the right rear suspension while driving over bumps in the road. Also when I pull the car up and down by the right rear wheel, it sounds like something is hitting to something.
I had the same problem about a year ago on the left rear wheel. I went to my garage to fix it and saw them working on the damper. They told :" a rubber part had moved a little and a screw was touching the chassis (or something like that...), we putted it back in place and the problem should now be solved"

After the starting troubles recently I had and the pretty expensive bills that followed it, I would prefer to do some DIY and replacing the bushes seems fairly easy to do. But I need to be sure that I replace the right things ! :-)

I'm planning to take of the wheel this week and have a closer look to the suspension, so it would be helpfull if I know what to look for.

Thanks in advance.

Geert
Geert Maes

> How do you know when the damper bushes are worn-out ? Can you see it, feel it, hear it when driving ?

Geert it sounds like you have the same problem I had. The bush on the bottom of the damper had worked its way out and the bottom of the damper was banging against the bolt that holds it in place. This was causing a knocking sound while I was driving.

Apparently the later cars dampers were fitted with bigger washers that wouldnt allow the bush to work its way out the damper. The washers on my 97 F are very small. Certainly a lot smaller than the diameter of the bottom of the damper.
Bob

Geert,

If you have a look at the bottom of the shock absorber you will see the offending black rubber bush. If this is past its sell by date it will look deformed and/or cracked. If you lookk on Rob's site there are som pics of the worn bushes
tim woolcott

Here's a link to a photo of a worn bush and a poly replacement: http://community.webshots.com/photo/16461713/49912632hzWjKq

... and to Rob's page: http://www.mgf.ultimatemg.com/suspension_upgrades.htm

You can see how deformed the old one was!

I used the two washers from the bottom of the shock absorber and a bolt to get the new bushes in. I did not replace the upper bushes, as I did not have any metric spanners.

Ralph
Ralph

Bob

Another source of adjustables for the F is MGOC Spares. Enjoying MG July 2003 Page 8 shows Spax at £59.95 each. I have not used Spax dampers in over 30 years so this is not a recommendation, merely a pointer.

Has anybody else had Spax adjustable damper experience recently with an F?
John Ponting

Thank you all for the advice !

Bob,
What was your "fiasco with the bushes on your damper at the weekend" ? Something bad happend?
Is it dangerous to keep on driving with worn-out bushes ? I was going to replace them during my summer holidays in 2 weeks but maybe I must do it earlier. I use my car on a daily basis to go to work (about 14km).

Kind regards,
Geert
Geert Maes

> What was your "fiasco with the bushes on your damper at the weekend" ?

Geert, I went out for my usual Saturday fiddle with the car and discovered the bush failure whilst looking for the source of a coolant leak that had suddenly appeared!!! A planned half hour of work turned into 8 hours!
Bob

This thread was discussed between 01/07/2003 and 02/07/2003

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