Powerflex 16V & GT Wishbone up-grade

I've just completed the up-grade of my lower wishbones to a complete Powerflex set-up, this includes the wishbone bushes and drop link - this is only for the 16V & GT.

The wishbones have been nylon coated and the new bushes had to be pressed in place (I've got a 6 ton press so not a problem) The overall benefit is to remove the flex in the bush which these and other Renault vehicles suffer with (Clio 182 etc)

Both kits come from a Renault Clio 2 182, which I have also added the benefit of high tensile cap bolts for the wishbone and stainless steel bolt and washers for the drop link, the overal cost is £90 for the wishbone kit and £24 for the drop llink plus the bolting and coating which came to a further £20.

There was a slight change to the drop link connection on the wishbone with the actual hole diameter increasing and a nylon insert being used on the facelift models, which means there is a small adjustment to make on one of the Powerflex bushes to help centralize the bush in the nylon insert.

So they are not fitted yet, this will be next week, but this is what they look like prior to fitting:





This is the old bush against the new one fitted:



This is the drop link fitted:



Here is a comparison between the old and new drop link:



I'll take some photo's of the installation when I've done it, one thing this new bushes will remove is the pretension you have when you torque up the wishbone bolts with the suspension fully extended, really you should torque your bolts with the car on the ground but Renault do not advise this in their manuals.

Hope you like and trust is OK in this section - if not remove to correct one.

Thanks
Rob

you are a prince amongst men rob, i always knew they'd fit but knowing my luck i'd only remove all the bushes to find out they didn't fit and i'd throw a hissy fit and not be bothered to rebuild them and end up having to take the nissan almera workhorse to work out of stubborness.

they look spot on, i can see the adjustment you need to make doesn't look like it will be too much bother. by any chance do you have the red clarke hydraulic press? i've had that in my garage for a while now, picked it up 2nd hand from a garage that went out of business.

good job rob.

oscar":3kuk7cp7 said:

you are a prince amongst men rob, i always knew they'd fit but knowing my luck i'd only remove all the bushes to find out they didn't fit and i'd throw a hissy fit and not be bothered to rebuild them and end up having to take the nissan almera workhorse to work out of stubborness.

they look spot on, i can see the adjustment you need to make doesn't look like it will be too much bother. by any chance do you have the red clarke hydraulic press? i've had that in my garage for a while now, picked it up 2nd hand from a garage that went out of business.

good job rob.

Click to expand...

It was a calculated risk but eventually I managed to get the dimensions from Powerflex so I was nearly certain :lol:

No it's a cheapo from flea bay, but it's got a good throat depth and a thin spindle so it fit's through the middle of the bush for a pretty central push, the steel bush is tough at first but I did leave the coating on to get a very tight fit, which should be better than the original one.

I'm off next week so once I completed my other jobs :roll: :roll: I'll fit these and get it checked again at Tweek's.

Rob

Well I've managed to fit the new wishbones, took a lot longer than I thought as I had an issue with the inner face to face dimension (between the bushes), I think the nylon coating was a little thicker than standard so the Powerflex steel insert was not in as far as it should be, in the end with a little brute force they went in

So this is the old wishbone in position:



Comparison between old and newly refurbished:



And this is the new wishbone fitted:




Took it for it's first spin this morning, I thought I had got in a different car the difference was so big, very similar feel to my old MR2 Roadster which had Tein Monoflex fitted to it. (Inverted Monotube - same as the B14 Bilsteins that are fitted) It just shows how soft those bushes are / were, the shock is actually working as it should.

Is it a worth while mod - Oh yes for sure, one of the biggest improvements I've made to the car.

Rob. :lol: :lol:

very firm suspension feel now rob? no excessive travel now? you'll need to pm me the exact parts you ordered if you've got a spare five minutes

oscar":st5hrjk8 said:

very firm suspension feel now rob? no excessive travel now? you'll need to pm me the exact parts you ordered if you've got a spare five minutes

Click to expand...

I would say it's firm, but that's what it should be like any way - certainly with Bilsteins fitted plus the other bits I've got fitted, travel is less but the feeling of the wheels being stretched - almost like be held together with an elastic band as gone, so now you can push it around the bends with confidence.

I went to Tweeks today as well to get the alignment checked and the front toe put right, everything is within spec now (had an issue with the passengers caster angle), plus the camber never altered which I'm pleased about as I'm running just over -2 deg on the front which the car likes.

I'll PM you the full part numbers plus the bolting I up-graded to tomorrow if that's OK.

Not sure if I should start a project thread as I'm losing track what I've done so far, the next item will be a front top strut brace, I'm wondering if the Clio has the same centre to centre as the Twingo for the front struts, I'm looking at the K-Tec Clio 182 strut brace, as it's adjustable plus I've got the K-tec top mounts fitted so I know they fit there ????

Rob

Please can you send me info and cost for all this please when you have time of course I really like what you've done good job pal

Sorry for the delay in getting back to you on this - Easter with the family etc.

The parts needed are as follows:

Wishbone bush kit is - Powerflex Part No PFF60-301 - Cost on Fleabay £90.00
Along with this I replaced the standard bolts with the following bolts:

1 off M12 Allen Head Bolt - Grade 12.9 Tensile strength x 70mm Long (Rear Bolt nearest the bulkhead)
1 off M12 Allen Head Bolt - As above x 100mm Long (Front of wishbone)
2 off M12 Flanged Nyloc Nuts
2 off M12 A4 (Stainless) Thick washer (For Bolt head)

All the above purchased of Ebay for about £10 - 12 for both sides.

I re-used the 2 bolts / nuts which secure the lower ball joint to the wishbone (the front one is splined) and also there is a plain M12 nut & washer used on the front bolt (used with the 100mm bolt above).

To replace the wishbone bush you will need to push the old bush out by force (hammer etc) but you will need a press to refit the new bush, you have to make sure the insert is square or it will knacker the wishbone (I have a press if anyone wants this doing) So bascially you can see the difference below:



I did have my original wishbones nylon coated at a cost of £10 for both sides, it's a great finish and will out last the car, you just have to make sure you remove the coating from the bush area and also the holes for the lower ball joint.

A few tips to watch out for:

1. Take several measurement of the half shaft which is referenced to the body (use the end of the threaded part of the half shaft), this will ensure you set the suspension back to the correct setting as there is a bit of adjustment when you secure the bottom ball joint.
2. Be prepared to adjust the inner face of each side of the wishbone chassis bracket, I suggest a length of all thread secured through the brackets to pull the face in a little - not much but it maybe required.

Replacing the Anti Roll bar drop link:

The parts needed are as follows:

Anti Roll bar Drop Link Kit - Powerflex Part No PFF60-205 (Std Purple Bushes) £25.00

I did replace the bolts with stainless steel as the ones that come with the kit are zinc plates and corrode, the sizes are:

2 off A4 M8 x 75mm Allen Head Bolts
2 off A4 M8 Nyloc nuts
6 off A4 M8 x 30mm Dia x 1.5mm thk washers

Cost for the above £5 - 6 from Ebay.

Basically you are removing the often seized and soft drop link with an up-rated bush which can be fitted without the use of a special compression tool.

I've up-graded to stainless bolting plus added a washer between the two sets of bushes - it just seemed right to me (I can explain in detail if any one needs to understand this more) The only thing you need to do is trim the top bush flush as that needs to sit flat against the wishbone, on the later models (2011 on-wards) there is a change to the wishbone hole size which means you have to retain the blue nylon insert which is fitted to the wishbone and trim the bushes to suit this bush (I'll post up the changes so you can see that I'm talking about later)

This is the up-graded drop link against a standard one:



Here's them fitted into the wishbone



I hope this makes sense, any questions please come back to me.

Thanks
Rob

Think this might be on my Christmas list for this year!
Does anyone know how much new wishbones cost? As id need to do this off the car, then move all the parts onto it as I use it daily :/