BenF

Ah... I have but have not even opened it yet, still got Private Eye and Viz to finish first (not joking)

Peanut gallery To be fair to James: you inputs on aero stuff are always interesting, was not meant to be a personal pop at you. With regards to camber variation on the limit: I can only answer, as someone who had to define kinematics for various racing cars in the last years (but no longer, I work with something more ridiculous than racing cars). Lack of driveability/traction is often blamed on suspension kinematics. However, the first order effects on car handling are due to the global car balance, which is defined by the tyre size front to rear, the weight distribution, the aero balance and the mechanical balance. With a 7, you don't have to worry about aero balance and weight distribution is fixed, unless you are planning on running with ballast, which would be silly. Tyre size is also fixed (ok, you can choose different rears...) If you get these basics right, then you cannot go too far wrong, as long as the basic kinematics are in a sensible range. On the limit, when a car starts to slide, the kinematics have remarkably little effect, because in the 0.2-0.5s when the car is starting to slide, the attitude of the car is not that different, so there is not much of a chance for the kinematics to affect the controllablilty on the limit. When you move from racing cars, with very high roll and heave stiffness, to road cars, which have much lower roll and heave stiffness, it could be that these kinematics start to have more of an effect. However, I doubt these are first-order effects and from my own personal experience, traction problems have usually been solved by a global shift in car balance (or downforce... not possible in this case). Hence, going from De Dion to IRS, I would have no doubts. The first-order effect I would want to know about, is that the mechanical balance of the car is more or less maintained when switching from De Dion to IRS. I would be interested in knowing what the camber gain (camber change with wheel travel), but as long as it's within some sensible limits, there is not much to worry about. The final part is knowing the compliance of the suspension. Usually this is defined in a K&C test but I am pretty sure this has never been done for a 7 and if the design work was done correctly, they will have an idea about values anyway. I'd be interested in knowing who did the design work on the IRS, but I can understand that Simon @ Meteor is not in a position to say... there are lots of ex-F1 designers who have set up design studios doing this kind of work and I would trust them completely.

Is there a term for an expert in one field (e.g. aerospace engineering) automatically assuming that they must then be an expert in a slightly related field? They then explain the subject to someone who is actually a leader in the field at the highest level, who has been paid for said job for many years and is using their expertise to keep a roof over their heads (and buy a 7...)

At least I was second, as Buzz Aldrin says, second comes straight after first

Hi, have you tried toggling the hazard light a few times? I cannot remember why this works, but I think it might solve the problem.

Hello, I need to remove my CSR's front wheelarch stays. Apart from removing the repeater, I need to undo two bolts, one of which attaches the top wishbone to the upright (yellow box) and the other which appears to attach the hub spindle to the upright (blue box). I only have metric sockets and a 22mm fits to the wishbone nut and a 19mm to the hub spindle nut, however there is a bit of play so I am assuming these are imperial. Can anyone confirm the imperial socket sizes? I assume 7/8" for the wishbone nut and 3/4" for the hub spindle nut? Does anyone know the recommended tightening torque for these?

Also if I remember correctly, the diff oil (like gearbox oil) has a very specific smell and it is nothing like engine oil

Hi Anthony, When my R300K had a leaky diff, there was no such evidence on the chassis, I only saw this from drops on the garage floor. Ben

Thanks Ian! Much appreciated.

That is exactly what happened - I'd just filled up and the auto-stop on the pump did not work and sprayed fuel all over the light. I then drove the short distance home and the lens was no longer there when I got home. A lesson learned!

This looks like a great car for the money, surprised there has been no interest

Such a quick response! Thanks SM25T

On getting back from a blat today, I saw that the lens had fallen off my rear fog lamp (broken at the screws) Is this item the same as a Land Rover Defender? I found this here: Land Rover Defender Lens on eBay Which I believe is the same. I'm aware the official product is available elsewehere, but by ordering on eBay I can do Click and Collect and don't have to work from home to receive the package.

Very well said John.

Beagler, people aren't being rude - you asked for advice and but then appear to be dismissing the majority of advice which is: don't both changing your dampers if your Bilsteins are in good condition and you are looking at comfort/road use. If you go to any damper supplier and ask them for advice, I doubt they will tell you to keep your current dampers. This is not a dig at damper suppliers - it's the way sales work. The vast majority of 7 owners keep their standard dampers, hardly ever service them (if ever) and are generally happy.

Beagler - possibly, but bear in mind that firms selling these products will not necessarily give the best advice in the interests of the customer. They are also trying to make a living. They can always say that a damper change will improve performance but it is difficult to prove unless you actually do some kind of objective measurement, which is beyond the scope of almost any 7 owner. If some damper specialists are proposing an upgrade, ask to see some results from a 4 poster test or a ride simulation. They should be able to demonstrate a significant difference in the contact patch load variation from the standard Bilsteins to their proposal. If they aren't able to do that or at least are able to explain why their proposed damper characteristic is better, then the change could be completely arbitrary.

It is your money to spend, but if someone has found an upgrade from the standard Bilsteins, you also need to be asking them about their spring rates - as the best ride performance is found by optimising the dampers for a given spring rate. I assume the Bilsteins are set with a generic characteristic which is optimum for a specific spring rate. When/how this was defined is a mystery. If your springs you are using are +/-10% stiffness from this standard rate, there will be no noticeable ride performance benefit by fitting dampers with re-optimised characteristics. If your car has much stiffer springs fitted (>20% difference in spring rate from the matched damper optimum), road Bilsteins should then be under-damped, but even then the ride quality will not be signficantly affected, you're just losing a bit of peak performance.

I suspect that when people found improvement in damper upgrades, they were replacing dampers which were knackered. If your Bilsteins were set up correctly for your spring rates, there should not be much to gain from fitting new dampers. The cost of a refurb at Bilstein used to be 75 quid per unit, which is a lot cheaper than new dampers all round although still with the inconvenience of having to remove them. I speak as someone who used to work professionally in this field for 20+ years: we were regularly courted by damper manufacturers, with promises of improved performance. However, from objective performance evaluation (ride models, rig tests and simulator), we found that once the damping was in the ballpark, there is very little to gain from further tuning. I suspect most damper "upgrades" done on performance cars are placebos.

Paul YHM

Silencer off a 2003 R300 K, probably needs repacking, used but in good condition. Yours for a donation to PCR. Can be collected from near Buckingham eves/weekends or Brackley during workdays. Mail me if you need specific dimensions. Regards Ben

My solution is to have steel wheels on a daily driver - not fashionable but are less prone to kerbing and damage.

Piers, did you get any further in resolving this?

Hi Piers, how old is the car? I had exactly this problem years ago, with alloys which were 15 years old. Refurbishing the wheels is probably the cheapest solution, maybe someone here can give some recommendations.

Thanks Jonathan, that's a huge weight saving!

Hi David, do you know what the weight saving was compared to a Banner? Regards Ben