I swear I posted this a couple of days ago, but it seems to have vanished...

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My dad spied some good used self-levellers on ebay which I won for £33. The seller was only in Northampton so he went to collect them after work one day. The seller was an enthusiast who was selling up all the bits from his twin plenum vitesse. Dad also came away with as new front and rear vitesse springs, a vitesse wheel and tyre (freebie ) and a set of proper SD1 workshop manuals - three large ring binders worth. They'll come into their own as the Haynes manual is often sketchy on details, and barely covers EFI models.

Today we decided to fit the rear self levellers and springs:



Here you can see the self levellers next to a(nother) pair of standard rear shocks that I bought off ebay (£20+post):



This one shows two self levelling springs: the one on the right is a vitesse one, and the left is a "police spec" one (another ebay find). As you can see the police spring is not only longer but the wire is quite a bit thicker.

Old suspension:



New suspension complete with new bushes at each end of the shock (another ebay buy)



When dropped to the floor it was immediately obvious that the car was lower as I could only just about get the trolley jack out from under the tow bar.

Here it is after a drive, although it didn't seem to settle any when driven:




The ride is now "interesting", or in other words it's worse! It drives ok, but the car (mostly the back end I think) bobs slightly following any disturbance to the road surface...

I think the car is nose-up now the back is a bit lower. I have also bought (ebay again) a pair of new front shock inserts, so with the vitesse springs hopefully this will improve things.

Rimmers list five different standard front springs:

Vitesse/Vanden Plas EFI
3500/2600/2300
2000
2400 DERV
air con models

The last one is a mystery to me!

I can see from the picture with the two springs the one on the right
has blue stripes - this is the Vitesse rear spring (double blue stripe).
Did you fit these double-blue stripe springs with the Nivomats?

The picture of the back of your car looks like the rear is a bit low.
The workshop manual says the Vitesse should measure 373mm
from wheel centre to arch. On loading the boot, the back end will
drop, but once the car is driven the Nivomats will pump up the
rear suspension back to 373mm approx.

Punx0r wrote:

Rimmers list five different standard front springs: Vitesse/Vanden Plas EFI 3500/2600/2300 2000 2400 DERV air con models The last one is a mystery to me!

In theory, air-con models have slightly heavier front ends, so models
with this fitted would have slightly heavier front springs to maintain
front ride-height. One error is the grouping of Vitesse and VDP
EFi springs - they MUST have had different springs as the ride
height is different between the two models (though this is disputed).

Yes, we fitted the springs with the blue stripes - thanks for confirming that they are indeed vitesse springs

I didn't realise that ride height information was available, I shall have to get the tape measure out

So, vitesse and VDP definitely have different front ride heights?

Something I forgot to post before is a photo of the vitesse springs next to the "police spec" ones I bought from ebay:



As you can see there's more than a bit of difference between them - an additional coil, thicker wire and a good bit longer. They feel stiffer when compressed by hand.

One other thing: Should you be able to compress a self-levelling unit using bodyweight? I found that I could, much like a standard damper, but that the self-leveller sprung back to it's fully extended position when released.

Considering the self-leveller is said to act partially as the spring carrying the vehicle's weight, I'm not sure if this is normal?

I've measured the car: 350mm N/S and 353mm O/S

Harrumph!

Has anyone any ideas why this may be?

I now have four different sets of dampers and five different sets of springs for this car!

I just measured the wheel centre to arch distance on my Vitesse.

Front, just over 370mm. Rear, just over 370mm This is, according
to the workshop manual, correct for a Vitesse.

However. I pumped up the Nivomats by bouncing the rear end of the
car. Luckily, the car is in the garage; I'd look a bit odd doing this outside
Before I did this, the rear was just over 360mm. Why? Well, the Nivomats
will settle a bit when the car is stood.

If your car has been stood and hasn't been run since fitting the Nivomats,
maybe it's just settled. Try bouncing the rear end and see if the ride-height
increases.

Punx0r wrote:

So, vitesse and VDP definitely have different front ride heights?

I believe so - the Vitesse was the only model with low (-1") suspension
(and this excluded some markets, e.g. Italy mentioned in the workshop
and parts manuals). There is some dispute over this though, some
people suggest the VDP EFi had the identical suspension to the Vitesse,
though owners of that model suggest it's standard ride-height.

I didn't realise that measurement applied to the front as well - I'll have to check it

I'll give the rear a bounce and remeasure that too. The tow bar is handy for this It doesn't look like it's dropped any since saturday when it was driven approx 10 miles.

I've checked the front and it's 380mm. My workshop manual states ta vitesse should be 383mm + 12mm at the front.

I gave the rear a damn good bouncing and if anything the car is upto 5mm lower. Definitely still no more than 350mm

No signs of leakage at all, the boots are in excellent condition with almost no signs of normal aging. Someone has given them a lick of paint at some point though, I've no idea how old they are.

Being used they were always a calculated risk which is why I wasn't prepared to bid too much for them.

The rimmers units are just far too expensive (£175 each!). Especially when they also sell Gaz adjustable shocks at £152 for a pair.

I'd like to find some more information about how the self-levellers fail. If I can test the ones I have and they're no good then I can waste no more time and bin them*

Looking at a .PDF on repairing them, I see the author using bathroom scales and a length of wood to test a unit. If I could find out what load the unit should support and in what manner (e.g. constant, progressive) then I could do this no problem...

Failling successful diagnosis the plan is to replace the front shocks/springs and see if it improves the car at all. If not I think trying the "police" springs is worth a go and see what happens. Failing that, it's back to normal shocks and springs!

It's a shame that there is no straight forward answer to replacing suspension on 2.6 onwards SD1's.

hi just a note im sure you are aware- fuel in tank can make a difference to how a car sits .also new springs would reflect a greater ride hight thany any second hand ones ,including rubber seats.
Went for a run today with a set of koni rear shox just fitted .They seem pretty good but operate better with more weight in the rear ie 40 quid of petrol keeps it more stable .Extra weights in rear quarters may be a help for loose corners!at full welly!

Thanks Chris, I'll give the ballast thing a go and see what happens. If it's not possible for a self leveller to fail in some way and yet still pass the above test then I have the definitive test I was looking for

I'm still waiting for an opportunity where I have two (semi)willing volunteers to act as human ballast. However, after using the car to drive to work and back (30 miles) I'm fairly convinced the dampers are shot.

During the journey it did pump itself up, but the ride height was still under spec.

It feels very unstable at speed - 70mph on the A14 was actually scary. When driving on back roads the up and down motion of the car was actually making me feel sick...

I don't think the shocks are providing anything like as much damping as they should.

To toss in another option, I picked up a pair of standard self levellers for buttons that are supposed to be in good condition. Would fitting these with the vitesse self-levelling springs cause problems? It wouldn't be my prefered option, but it may do as a stopgap.

From my experience every car with nivomats feels like the shocks are shot. But the ride height problem sounds wierd. The car in picture looks like theres no "lift" in the rear shocks at all and its just sitting all its weight on the too soft nivomat springs. See if it makes big difference if you just take out the shocks and try without them how it makes the car level... I know this can be bit of a job if you dont have proper tools to help you. The moon and earth arent aligned properly with the stars so the spiritual side of the nivomat shock-thingies have gone all wrong.

The nivomat shocks should be very stiff and you cant compress them by hand (or so I think?).