Installed new control arms and A/R lowering springs at the very end of last driving season. Alignment wasn't done right by a shop in December, but I knew I would address it at the beginning of this year in March/April. Also decided to get Koni Yellows and install them before the revised alignment.
Unfortunately a control arm mounting bracket failed because of a bad weld. This was immediately addressed by Auto Ricambi and very professionally handled. Could not ask for more!
A day after picking up the car from the control arm repair and the new alignment job a control arm mounting bolt failed (where it attaches to the cross member). Not sure if it was because the mech hadn't left enough thread through the bolt, or if it was it's time anyway. Thankfully it happened at a stop sign. Had it happened under braking at highway speed it could have been catastrophic, sheering off the rear bolt, too.
I had to put in longer mounting bolts. I will probably do the same for the right side later this summer to allow for more camber adjustment. Now that I know what I am doing I could probably perform it much more quickly and not actually take off the lower control arm like I did the first time.
Vid of the failure
Vid of my repair
Eating pasta during a break while reassembling:
Thanks to my lovely daughter that brought it out to me and snapped the pic.
Did the alignment on my own by hand. Totally don't trust the shop to do it right after their work the last time. Not sure if it's right, but it generally drives straight and steering doesn't feel too light or heavy. Might have it re-examined by a different shop if I put on longer bolts on the other control arm, too.
Next project: new header. I could feel a draft under the old one, it was loud in the engine bay, and I could hear valve ticking from the exhaust leak.
New unit is now installed. It definitely gives greater power. Maybe it's because it's less restrictive, or mainly because the old one was clearly not efficient any more because of the leak (exhaust pulse would be all wrong). I was also was getting an overheating problem with the old unit (head must have been getting too hot for some reason). I was thinking about chasing down rad issues, but it immediately went away with the new header installed.
New sound is very different (less pops and bangs on lift-off which were an awful sign of the leak, but fun anway) and is much growlier. It sounds especially good when opened up under throttle, even at highway speed.
Things are finally right enough that I could spend time adjusting headlight beam angles rather than major issues. That's a good sign.
Tried to paint the rear boot with Plasti-dip as a colour test. Bad idea. Slightly uneven, not really the colour I was hoping for, and the product left some bubbles which look awful. Will try and rip off tomorrow.
Cheers,
phaetn
