Alan C

I have a set of the AST Sportlines on a 04 T20. After a good 18 months of ownership I've played about with the settings many many times and have now dialed the fronts nearly all the up to the hardest setting..

Now, in the past, my teeth would have fallen out and it would have been practically undriveable over Yorkshire's 'not so smooth' tarmac..

Have I got used to them or do they need a service to get back the firmness?

What's inside? Are they Gas (air), oil or something else?

I'll call Powerstation in a few weeks after I return back from a business trip, but any help now will be gratefully received..

Andy S.

Curtis will happily rebuild them for you. How many miles have yours done?

they are filled with nitrogen gas

911

I would be surprised if they need help unless the gas has escaped?
Curtis has just done my 3 ways as i had a small prob with an adjuster shaft now all done.

What spring rates do you have as i never ran max damping on my 60/50 on the sportlines i first had befor the 3 ways.
My 3 ways have covered 6000 mile on UK roads and about 60 hillclimb runs without fuss except for the adjuster.

Graham.

Red Man

Hi Al,

I have the reverse problem - my 3 ways seem to suffer from stiction after about 6 months, i.e. the ride progressively gets fidgety and sticky (only way I can describe it)

From discussions with Curtis the suggested solution is to lubricate with silicone based lube, but you need to get the wheels off and clean the shocks first. I just did all 4 last weekend and the car is better.

At the time of purchase I asked Curtis about the need for overhaul and he said they should not need it - they are designed not too loose gas (nitrogen) - but would be happy to service them should I ever have problems.


Try lubing them first with a £5 can of silicone lube from any motor factors - as Powerstation are not on our doorstep.

Dave

911

Mine are older than that, about 18 months and all is well, but i do not use the car between october and march.

TimH

iTrader: (11)

Interesting. I dialled mine up to fully hard at the front and 2 clicks off fully hard at the rear for a track day. A full 2 weeks later I realised I hadn't turned them back to being softer, and I, too, was surprised that it had not been teeth-damagingly hard.

I've put them but to 7/5 now, and it feels really soft, and has lost a lot of the precision.

See my earlier post about crashing noises too. Still does it, and I'm still not really happy...

I will be back up at PS later this month for other reasons...I will have another chat with Curtis and drive it out with him I think.

Alan C

911. The units have done a few more than Tim's, about 22 months ~26k.

Funny thing is, I've backed off the rears to about 7 and let the fronts stay the same on 10 and the ride seems overall firmer

I can only equate this to the car's overall balance with too firm a ride on the rears unsettling the car quite a lot. Possibly by the rears (with less weight) taking the majority of the harshness from the road, leaving the fronts to handle less of the road impact. I definitely felt odd and I didn't like the balance..

I'm no tuner, so I can only assume that you should have rears softer because they have less weight to deal with and are less prone to the diving and lifting stresses... whereas the fronts have the weight and all the aggressive work to deal with that I (in my particular driving style) put through them...

Dave.. It's not stiction mate.. just that they didn't seem as firm.. But a good tip on the lube front...

So, 7-10 seems firm.. I'll try bringing them back two more to 5-10 and see what happens.. would be really interesting to hear about other settings people use... on;

Fast, dry road... RE070's.

911

Spring rates are a clue to damping:

My classic is now 50 on the front, 40 on the rear, so rears are 80% of the fronts.
The damping should therefore follow 'roughly' the same proportion, 10 clicks front = 8 clicks rear.

Rule of thumb.

Graham