FK Coilovers broken nut

Hello all

My car when I purchased it had FK Coilovers fitted. Not sure on how good they are? My garage today tried to adjust them to raise the ride height unfortunately one of the red nuts snapped. Still save to drive I have been told.

FK website seems to be a bit of a mare to find anything. Has anyone else had this problem and what did you buy to replace the nuts.

http://www.fiatcoupeclub.org/forum/imagepopup.php?image=http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r235/leicester_lad_2002/P4030096.jpg

The link above is a pic when they were installed. One of the red nuts pictured is the culprit!

FK website has a Coilover accessories page but doesn't seem to list anything

Have you tried emailing them. They are utterly useful at least they were when I dealt with them in the past.

PS the locknuts can be found on their website - http://www.fk-shop.de/en/Suspension-Tuning/Coilovers-Accessories/

I've found the locknuts but when you click on the link nothing happens. I have now emailed them. Which isn't easy hopefully they will help

cheers

I had the rear locknuts seize on mine (although I believe they were seized when I purchased them second hand cause I did not check at the time), luckily I found someone selling some rear seats separately at the time I was fitting them, cause I doubt I would have budged the locknut without damaging them.

I know that does not help, but your not alone

Ninja

Richie, I think your problem is going to be fitting the new locking ring, if I remember correctly you will have to remove the cap that holds the damper insert inside the damper before you can remove the rings. If you thought removing the corroded rings was a nightmare then just wait until you try removing that cap! It was difficult enough on a brand new set of stainless steel FKs never mind some corroded old ones.

The lower of the two rings (which I believe is the one that has broken on yours) is just a locking ring so you will be fine and I doubt it's going to move if they are corroded anyway.
Good luck.

Hi Jimbo, I think it is the lower of the two of the locking rings. Would you not bother then. I was trying to adjust them as the car is very and can bottom out on ruff roads when the suspension is on full travel. And on certain speed bumps.

The Coilovers have been on for around 3 years but in that time the car has only done 5000miles. Do you think the cap will be that bad?

It has to be the lower of the two Richie, the upper one is the spring seat so your spring would no longer fit if this had snapped.
I would replace the locking ring if possible as it has a purpose but I wouldn't say it was vital to do it.

The trouble with the spring seat and locking ring is that top cap which is screwed on to the damper body, it needs a special tool to remove it, it is a C shaped peg spanner which needs to go around the damper piston and into two small holes in the top of the damper cap.

You will see what I mean when you look at it once it's removed from the car.

I used a combination of a peg spanner and a strap wrench around the cap with the damper held securely in a vice. They were the stainless steel FKs with no corrosion on them and it was still a bitch to get it off, you may need to apply some heat carefully to the cap and then try the above method.

Mileage isn't really an issue, it's the condition of the damper and the amount of corrosion on them, a set of Bilsteins just sold on here which were advertised as only having done 8k miles, they had a lot of corrosion on them for such low mileage!

Looking at the picture, yours look like the stainless steel body so the top cap may be easier.
Stainless steel corrodes very slowly as does alloy but put the two together and you're going to get some galvanic corrosion and that's probably what happened to your threads of the locking ring.
When you get round to doing this job, make sure you use some grease on the threads to prevent it happening again.

Should I buy a Spring seat and a lock ring for both sides just in case!? I thought the C peg Spanner was used to adjust the lock ring and Spring seat. So I would also need this tool to take of the Top Cap once the coilover is removed from the car.

I thought from looking at images on Google that the cap sat on top of the damper with a nut securing it in place


cheers for your help with this!

The C-spanner is used to adjust the ride height, the PEG spanner is used on top of the damper body as if you were removing the insert from the body of the damper, it is a metal cap which screws over the top of the damper body, on top of this is two holes, those two holes are where the pegs of the peg spanner will fit to undo it.

I think you're thinking of the top nut which secures the damper piston into the top mount?

Maybe they have changed the design now to make it a nut but it was a battle when I did this job.

Jack your car up, and have a look on top of the damper, it should be quite clear then.

Will do cheers for your help. But I don't think its urgent to do it yet but basically I need to a buy the C spanner, Peg spanner and the locking nuts before I can do anything

It may be better to let a workshop do it unless you have a heavy duty work bench and a vice?