Enthusiastic Driving

[robert_e_smart]

Afternoon chaps,

Yesterday I was driving a bit enthusiastically, so much so that the top part of my droplink has come out of the socket on the main droplink bar assembly!

I changed this one about 2k miles ago as well! Snag is that I am leaving France to drive home to Ireland on Friday morning, and it is a bank holiday here in France.

I do have the one that I removed. Do you think I could get away with drivig home the way it is, or should I just pop the old one back on?

Regards

Robert

[andmcit]

Purely from my personal experience here I'd say don't panic about it and keep driving it
the way it is until you're home and can sort it at your leisure without making a "distress
purchase" and have your eyes taken out!

What makes me say this is the discovery made with my newly purchased 24v v6 s1 a few
years back which was, as you would naturally expect,er, yes, being driven enthusiastically
with NO detrimental consequences and had a superb CX like wafty ride right up to the point
where it was noticed it had a droplink missing altogether!!

YEP, NOTHING FITTED ON ONE SIDE!!

No idea what the story behind that one was but by god it had a great ride (still has the
best Xm ride of all the Xm's I own) and a new droplink hardened the ride firmer - seemed
a retrograde step actually but hydractive bods will say it didn't have any real roll control
or input for the clever suspension to be effective!!

Just take the journey back a bit calmer!!

Andrew

[xmexclusive]

Hi Robert

Drop links are regularly on ebay usually about £16 plus p&p. I got a batch a couple of months ago that were £23 a pair post free I think. Will look up to see if the ad is still on.

John

[Peter.N.]

Hi Robert

Short droplink life has been a subject discussed on the French Car forum, only on Xantias, the reason is, I think, insufficient grease. Before fitting one I now take the boot off and fill it with grease, I havn't had another one fail lately.

Peter

Have a nice trip

[xmexclusive]

Hi Robert

Pair of new XM drop links, buy it now, £22.95 post free anywhere uk (recorded so needs to be signed for).
Ebay item 130304327971.

John

[robert_e_smart]

Hi Folks,

Thanks for the suggestions, in the end I took it off and put the old one back on.

It was hitting the drive shaft from time to time, and I didn't want it to damage anything else there.

Right pain in the ar*e. I'm just surprised that the ball came out of the cup/socket.

Thanks John for the e-bay link, I have a pair ordered now, and will fit a new one at my leisure when I return.

Robert

[DerekW]

Please forgive my ignorance, is this the link that joins the suspension leg to the anti-roll bar?

If so, Andrew's post brought forth an evil thought . With hydractive 2, is an anti-roll bar necessary? Won't the magic ball suppress any tendency to roll?

By decoupling the two sides of the suspension and taking the extra torsion bar out of the equation, the ride quality must benefit .

Do you think the MOT test stations would notice?

Derek

[Dean]

Hi Derek

Unfortunatly this would cause major problems as the body movement and height corrector are connected to the anti roll bar Derek, she would just sit on the deck!!!!!! you could disconnect the body movement sensor but beware that it would not switch to hard when crossing large bumps/sleeping policemen and would bottom out!! although that is part of the gain.

D

[DerekW]

"Unfortunatly this would cause major problems as the body movement and height corrector are connected to the anti roll bar Derek, she would just sit on the deck!!!!!"

Yes of course, Dean. I never thought of that!

Howabout just disconnecting one side front and rear?

Derek

[Dean]

Dont know really, im never a fan of this sort of thing or comfort spheres either so i will be a bit Bias im afraid. The way i see it is no matter how you drive, if you where ever on the motorway and had to take evasive action these sort of mods would seriously impair the handling and reactions, would make it softer though!!!

D