Classic Alloy Lower wishbones

[Red Baron]

Following today's MOT there was an advisory on the condition of the front steel wishbones, anybody know what's involved in switching to the alloy STI ones and does anyone have any? Replacement steel ones are about £70 each from ICP but if I can swap to a set of second hand STI ones for a similar price I might consider it.

[scotty]

I would think it to be a straight swap and fit ball joint droplinks .

[asperformance]

make sure you have the steel "cone" to enable the std ball joint to fit correctly in the alloy arm

[Red Baron]

Is that the small black cone in this picture? Are the ball joints the same just needing the cone to fit the alloy arms?

[scotty]

Yes that is the cone in the pic

[boggissimo]

I picked up a pair of alloy ones from MattyB for £70, so you should easily be able to beat the ICP price. Haven't actually fitted them yet as for a wagon (non-widetrack) it might not have the geometry to fit them without having the wheels at silly camber. Not sure exactly what I can do about it though!

[555_Si]

I had saloon newage arms on newage wagon and was fine. Should be same on classic i think. Infact i think classic wagon and saloon arms are same dimensions.

[Red Baron]

Seems New age arms are readily available, classic ones seem to be a little more scarce, no rush as only an advisory so will keep my eye out for a pair and fit new ball joints while I'm there.

[555_Si]

I’ll measure them at weekend as i have alloy newage alloy classic arms and some steel classic arms i can measure.

[boggissimo]

Originally Posted by 555_Si

I had saloon newage arms on newage wagon and was fine. Should be same on classic i think. Infact i think classic wagon and saloon arms are same dimensions.

I've seen some information that all the alloy arms are the same dimensions, and some that the classic and newage ones are different.



Between the newage steel and alloy arms, I think the alloy arms are ~20mm wider, although I can't remember if that's 20mm each side or in total. I've got coilovers fitted so have a pretty good range of adjustment, and it's currently set at about the maximum negative camber it can give, so if having wider control arms pushes the bottom out and makes it more negative, it probably means I can adjust it to be a bit less negative again. Or am I getting this mixed up?

[555_Si]

just for reference, I believe that all classic (both alloy and steel) saloon and wagon front arms are all the same dimensions.

Newage: The wagon steel arms are same dimensions as classic arms. Saloon newage (both steel and alloy) are a wider track than the classic saloon/wagon and the newage wagon.

Then you have the newage widetrack (pcd 114) which are different yet again I believe though not 100%.

so:

classic saloon: narrow arms
classic wagon: narrow arms
newage saloon: wide arms
newage wagon: narrow arms
newage widetrack saloon: not sure but I think possibly even wider arms.

[Red Baron]

Still not fitted mine, waiting for warmer weather, I did start but the split pins were so rusted into the ball joints that I just went and ordered new ball joints and pinch bolts as well, ideally I'll fit the STI shocks and springs that I have at the same time, need to finish spraying them up and buy new top mounts for the fronts as well.

[scooby doo]

having just swapped mine recently, I'd get new ball joints , pinch bolts and front arm nut/bolt and drop links .use loads of wd40 days before let it all soak.

[Red Baron]

Got everything except the nut and bolt for the front wishbone mount, had to change the droplinks as my solid whiteline ones won't work without an extra spacer and longer bolts. Did you order the nut and bolt from ICP or Culverwells?

[scooby doo]

Icp had that one fella.