R11t Torsion bar issues?

[Tredge]

The rear suspension on my newly acquired R11 turbo has collapsed and its decked at the rear as you can sort of see!



Now ive never really had much experiance with torsion bars. Does anybody know what could have failed to cause this? ( Apart from the fact its been sat for 6 years!) And are there any improvements or upgrades to be made on the original set up?

Any info would be great,

 

[Neal R19]

Have they definitely collapsed or has it just been lowered?

 

[Tredge]

It was taken of the road in 2005 for this reason and a few other minor bits and never got fixed. It was at standard ride height and not lowered before it happened.

 

[Neal R19]

You can fit an entire rear beam from a 19 16V as one solution.

 

[Prickley]

As long as the torsion bar did not snap(never seen or heard of this happening) you will be able to adjust it.

You have to pull both torsion bars though, hayes says with a sliding hammer but I found a homemade puller to work much easier.

Put the back end of the car on axle stands, take off the wheels, remove both shocks, then measure the distance from the bottom shock mounting to the top shock mounting hole, I will have to go have a look up what the spec/measurement should be if you want to know.

 

[hooverphonique]

if it happened on its own, trying to raise it won't help much.. The beam fixing points on the body probably rotted away..

 

[Prickley]

if it happened on its own, trying to raise it won't help much.. The beam fixing points on the body probably rotted away..

Yes you will have to investigate that possibility

 

[Tredge]

Cheers for the info guys, I'll take a look this weekend with those points in mind to try and find exactly whats failed then.

Neal you mentioned the R19 16v rear beam should fit, the nearest breakers only seem to have R19 Cabriolet's in at the moment. Is the rear beam the same as that of the normal 19 16v?

Thanks

 

[Neal R19]

Erm, not sure on that. It *may* differ very slightly in terms of spring rate of the actual torsion bars but the beam will be the same in all other ways.

But a 16V beam is completely different to a non-16V beam. Either will fit, but you want the 16V one.

 

[Tredge]

Cheers Neal i'll let you know how i get on!

 

[Chris H]

snapped torsion bars are very common.

Ok fair enough not generally on lightly loaded passenger cars, front ones on 4x4's snap all the time, rear ones on kangoos etc all the time as well.

As mentioned key points to check are where the brackets bolt to the chassis often they rot and collapse which means extensive welding/re-shell.

Snapped torsion bar is easy to see with an open rear axle, if not immediately obvious try to pry the bar a bit, it shouldn't move.

The torsion bar splines have stripped

the bracket splines have stripped (never seen it) or cracked housing (seen that)

get it up have a look and then you can see what you need to do.