Rex

My sump used to scrape and occasionally the car  would bottom out. I got coil-overs for  the front and cranked them as high as they would go. No more scraping-no more bottoming out.

I live in Pennsylvania , where the winters are pretty tough. I have driven my 2002 SV all winter long for 20 years. I avoid driving it on bad weather days. There is no visible rust on any painted surface, including the black painted headlights. If I crawl under the car, I"m sure I can find some surface rust in spots.  

I lived near the sea in Los Angeles where there  was little precipitation and no salt on the roads. All of the chrome bits on my Honda bike were destroyed by rust within a couple of years.

My car is a 2002 with 45,000 miles. The left side stone guard still looks good. The one on the right side is hopeless. I finally replaced it. There does seem to be a difference in quality of the CF pieces.

There does seem to be a difference in the quality of the Carbon products. ''''The left side stone guard still looks good. The one on the right side has never been any good. I finally replaced it with a new one. My car is a 2002 with 45,000 miles.

My Zetec engined Seven has a lightened flywheel. I really like it on the way up, but it does have a tendency to stall on the way down. I hooked up a very crude cruise control which pretty well solves the problem. If I have to brake suddenly, I can feed in the proper revs by hand while keeping my foot on the brake.

My SV came with fasteners on the top only. Never had a problem but one of the fasteners eventually wore out after 20 years. I now use a nylon bolt and wing nut on both sides.  Works great.

I had to replace mine some years ago. I got it from Redline.

Does anyone know the weight of these wheels from CC?  I assume they are alloy. I have the 13" Apollos now, and they weigh about 9 pounds each.

Thanks for the advice guys. Most garages in the states know a lot about pick-up trucks and SUV's, but zero about  sevens.  Blatchat has been a life=saver for me. I managed to get the bottom collar loose, so hopefully I can finish the job.

I have a new pair of adjustable Bilsteins on my 2002 SV, but I don't seem to be able to adjust them. Right now the clearance under the sump is less than it was with the original non-adjustable Bilsteins. Do these shocks have to come off the car to adjust/raise the ride height?  I can't seem to turn the collars with the spanners I am using, though I've tried jacking up the car and removing the wheel. The local Ford garage says they know nothing about adjustable shocks. (I believe them)

Thanks for all the great advice, guys.  I think I'll be giving Chris a call at Redline.

My car is a U.S. built Zetec.  The 3 1/4" measurement is at the lowest part of the skid plate. With me aboard it is 2 3/4". It has Bilstein non-adjustable shocks. They are the original shocks from 2002.

Well when I look under the car, it appears to be hitting on the aluminum sump plate which is welded to the bottom of the sump. The dirt road I live on is sort of crown shaped, ie higher in the middle. I didn't  realize that 3 1/4" is already considered to be higher than most. I also hear it hitting on paved roads if there is any debris present. It doesn't sound very good when it hits something, but I must say that it doesn't seem to be hurting anything.

My 2002 SV has always scraped on dirt roads like the one I live on. I have a skid plate and my clearance without me aboard is 3 1/4 inches. I was just wondering if I bought some adjustable shocks would it be feasible to raise the ride height a bit?

I have the 5 3/4 ones in stainless steel with the original brackets. I think they look more streamlined.

Forgot to say that my car is already equipped with a master switch

I would rather have it connected if it would work as intended. It took me years before I had had enough of it malfunctioning.

My switch gave me trouble over the years, though my car came new with a Zetec engine. I finally bypassed that switch and have had no problems since. Sometimes the slightest thing would make it malfunction.

When I switched from 205/45/16 to 185/70/13 I did not notice any difference in the ride height--much lighter feel though.

When I made the change I used 185/70/13 on the front and rear. As far as I can tell, the ride height is unchanged. It feels like power steering with the lighter wheels.

Does anyone know if they are still in business?  I have been trying to contact them without success.

I fixed my problem by pulling off the wire connector--then cleaning the terminal and the connecting wire--then re-connecting the wire and this time clamping it really tight with a vise grip. It used to drop to zero periodically, but hasn't done it for five years. You do have to clamp the connecting wire very tightly.

My stoneguards were CF (came new with the car) One was milky, and one was not. I tried  a number of things including scraping off what ever clearcoat was on originally and applying a new clear coat. Nothing worked. The car is now 20 years old. Recently, I scraped everything off both stoneguards to get back to whatever was the original finish. Now they look fine. It is not a deep finish as I have seen on some, but it still looks like CF. I also have CF mirrors which were on the doors. I have never had to do anything to them. Again, they do not have a deep finish but still look good.

Mine is also a 2002 SV with no bottom fasteners. It has always worked great but the new one I just got from Redline is different. It still has no bottom fasteners, but also no Zsus fasteners on top--just a couple of holes. I am just using some nylon bolts with wing nuts. Also, I had to cut some grooves in the bottom on each side so it would be notched correctly.