absorber mounts

anyone who has saga iswara and had changed to adjustable coilovers will understand how it feels having your absorber top mount bush to go bust in under 6 months... that is only on normal careful driving... if u drive around like a maniac, it will not even last 4 months...



unlike other more popular chassis-based cars, saga iswara strut towers design does not allow the use of camber plates or pillowball mounts... well, at least its not plug and play without and drilling works done to the chassis... the only choice so far is actually no choice but to change the mounts more regularly... this wouldnt be an issue because this involves removal of the whole coilover assembly... which means readjusting the camber angle is compulsory...



i took initiative and headed down to the local warehouse if i can find any polyurethane block which i can machine it to be exact fitment of the original mounts... little that i know, polyurethane material in larger block form can be rather expensive... due to some budget constrain and machining difficulties, i opt for a smaller diameter bush... and this is what i came out with...



comparison with original mount...



first trial fitment... the mounts are slightly thick although i machined it to the exact same height with original ones... after installed, the top metal plate was scratching against my strut tower as i turn my steering... had it removed and lathe it shorter by 2cm... it fits snugly now...



after installation and alignment, i took a quick test drive round the neighbourhood... had a couple of high speed hard braking, no wavy or unsettle feelings... going over bumpy roads feels slightly stiffer compare to brand new oem rubber bush... high speed cruise is also stable...

the downside is, only one or two issue... first, it creates some knocking sound whenever i accelerate or brakes... second, turning any corner more than 90 degrees (U-turn for example) will also emit knocking sound... which is weird because it only emits sound from the right side... suspect the mounts freeplay to be the fault of it because it is not a tight fit into the D-shaped strut tower... currently still using it as i'm still working on the design of it to get the best cost-efficient design... hopefully... cross-fingers light bulb will appear in my brain soon...