Bottoming out on sleeping policemen!

[arthur rayner]

What ho all

Is this a pretty common problem...how long is a piece of string?

I've started taking them really slowly indeed, but I wond what hits, not looked underneath yet, but is the floor/chassis, suspension points?

Any suitable remedies?

The wife and I drove into Sheffield Park NT garden last weekend, and some stiff old high humps there, it bottomed initially, but after the wife ejected, it was some 70kg lighter (!) maybe the remedy has just presented itself!

regards

Arthur

[Benton]

In my experience if you've got lowered floors/leather seats  the first point of contact is usually the seat retaining bolts, next the sump guard,  unless you've got a 620 in which case the side pipe leading to, and the rear exhaust usually wins the prize of trying to grind itself away first. I'm sure you could find some other parts as well!

[rkeywood]

The maximum legal height is 100mm. If typical NT or driveway stick-on hard rubber triangular things then they hit the chassis hoop below the gearbox and the bellhousing on my old live axle x-flow. If concrete jobs in the road surface then a quick diagonal shuffle to get front and back wheel on can help but does get some odd looks! Cushions are dealt with one side on and one side off. None of this applies in Islington who clearly have a different measuring stick and some very odd ideas!

[arthur rayner]

Oh yes, seat nuts and bolts, had forgotten those, will check, meant to say its a 160. I'm certain it has the lowered floors.

Arthur

[767andrew]

My VX was doing this when i first bought it. The sump would even catch cats eyes it was that low. New set of adjustable Nitron dampers all round sorted it. Not a cheap fix at around £1700 but its so nice to go out and not have to worry about every little bump in the road.

[SM25T]

If you go slowly, the front of the sump rises with the front suspension. The problem is often the rear of the engine or bellhousing which is midway between front and rear wheels.

[SLR No.77]

When I had my suspension set up I decided to opt for slightly more ride height than previously, it had been around 70mm under the sump and I was continually bottoming out on speed bumps, even getting onto my own drive caused scraping due to the change in angles. Underneath there's substantial marks on the sump, silencer, floors and seat bolts.

Following the setup the sump height is now 79mm and it rarely contacts anything, plus the car's gained more from a proper setup than it's lost through a few mm extra height. For reference my car is a dry sump K-Series with lowered floors.

My opinion now (and it's taken me 20 years to work it out!) is that on a predominately road 7 there's absolutely no reason to run the car so low to become impractical and stressful. Many years ago I saw a xflow sump trashed by a catseye on a road with quite defined crown, it's just not worth it.

Stu.

[arthur rayner]

Checked today, definitely lowered floor pans, daft thing is the bolts could be upside down and the nuts inside but might be tight to get a socket on as 8mm. I would have thought that 6 6mm bots would have sufficiently held the runners in rather than 4 x 8mm. Crud under the seat so well worth pulling out to clean.

[SM25T]

Just cut the thread off flush under the nut.

[John Vine]

Apologies for taking this slightly O/T. 

I've had the odd scrape from speed bumps, but after cracking my sump on a huge Dorset flint, I opted for some sump protection.

I knocked up a sump guard based on an idea from James B:

JV

 

[7 wonders of the world]

JV you need to be very good this year in the hope Santa will bring you a Raceline DS kit..... 

The Duratec front edge is vulnerable in road compressions but the bellhousing is the part i sometimes graze on bloody sleeping policemen   

[Golf Juliet Tango]

We need slimer police officers!

[John Vine]

Re #11:

Well, Neil, maybe I'll be tempted one day!  It would certainly help avoid the damage caused by that flint:

Having fitted my shiny new sump, what should happen in less than 18 months but a scrape inflicted by a particularly vicious speed bump approaching Kirtlington in Oxfordshire, which resulted in this:

JV

 

[arthur rayner]

Theoretically you are supposed to have 2 threads protruding even with nylocks. Will try inverting them anyway.

 

Arthur

[7 wonders of the world]

Quick squirt from the MIG welder turns plain nuts into captive ones in the runners - simply bolt from under neath then - job done.

[Brian Deacon]

I have a simple sump guard. Alloy plate rubber mounted to the chassis at the front and just tie wrapped at the back. 

Would put a picture here but cannot see how to!

[John Vine]

Would put a picture here but cannot see how to!

You'll find instructions in the Forum Guide.

JV

[Brian Deacon]

Front U bolts fit over the chassis and the rear "wings" are tie wrapped up.  Works a treat on my K series.

[Brian Deacon]

Picture in situ. 

[rayjackson1950]

Hi Brian

I would like to make a sump gaurd and your fixing method looks the easiest, so can you advise what you have used under the u-bolts? It looks like it might be a closed cell foam.

Also that looks like ally sheet, I'd guess at about 3 of 4mm thick

[Brian Deacon]

This was made a long time ago. The car is wintering in Staffs so not available to measure the plate thickness as I am in Bucks!

But from memory it was 4mm.  Difficult to bend and 3mm would probably have been just as effective.  The black material on the U bolts and front topside of the plate is rubber sheet, about 1cm thick. Just happened to have this in the garage.  

[rayjackson1950]

Thanks Brian, looks like that could be one of my projects this year when I finish creating and en-suite in the house.

[arthur rayner]

Just waiting for you to suggest that one! Marvellous, will do so! Even better then with socket button heads as rounded.

Arthur