Time to fix the lean?

[J46 MAV]

Having been pictured at Donington with a pretty alarming lean to the right on the rear suspension I thought it may be time to address this. The car has always had a bit of a lean and I think its fair to say there are plenty of other M100s with this issue as well.

Has anyone had a go at rectifying it or know the cause of the problem?

I can see that the nearside rear wheel is pretty vertical whereas the offside rear has a bit of angle to it (toe-in/toe-out?)

Any suggestions on where to start would be most welcome.

Elan Lean.jpg

[Rambo]

According to Big Erch, mine does that as well but in my instance it's probably due to the weight of the driver

[DavidEJM]

Mine does it too. I tried swapping the springs dampers with another (used) set but it doesn't seem to have had any difference.
There doesn't seem to be anything wrong when it is up on the lift and looking around underneath.
Any advice welcomed

[m100sandra]

when i had the hassle last year with the brake bleeding, i noticed the lean on mine while it was on the garage ramps, ill mention it to Simon at cornering force next week to see if he as a answer why, mines booked in for the Nitrons fitted and a full geo set-up, so i might get a answer to the lean

[whippit]

Is it any thing to do with with the bmw mini wheels , when me and rob P where wandering around the carpark before the Donington convoy we both noticed two elans with the drivers side rear wheel slightly tucked in the arch compared to the passenger side , strange coincidence]

[DavidEJM]

Probably just a coincidence. Mine seemed go be leaning before I put the wheels on.

[J46 MAV]

Yes, the lean has always been there and the MINI wheels have only been on 2 or 3 years. I measured the height difference today at 20mm which is not as bad as it looks in the photo but still a bit too much .

[chrisP]

I would go for a full geometry set up, and see how things look.
But it is also worth considering checking the clearance with the road is with-in specifications (see manual)
One last thing is when setting up the suspension, you should have all the bolts attaching the wishbone to the chassis loose. They should be only torqued up with the vehicle weight on the wheels (plus half a tank of gas and a weight in the drivers seat) this is so the bushes are not pre-stressed.

[Brit-Car-Nut]

It is also important to have the alignment shop understand the added weight requirements. They can not set the geometry correctly without the driver's weight in the car and the road height set correctly.

ChrisP's warning about tightening up the suspension pivot nuts and bolts should be heeded. The rotation of the suspension arms occurs inside the rubber in the bushings in a lot of the pivots. If you tighten those while in full droop (jacked up or on jack stands), the rubber will have to twist well beyond the normal range to just get the car back on it's wheels, even more as the car oscillates up and down while driving on uneven roads. This will seriously damage the bushings and also act like a spring which will change the feel the Elan is so well noted for.

Some pivots are created by sleeves inside bronze bushes so don't have this issue, but it is still best to settle the car back on it's wheels and bounce it a few times before climbing under it to tighten all of the pivot bolts or nuts.

Can't fit under the car while it is on it's tires? Jack the car up sufficiently to place a ramp made out of concrete building blocks and planks of lumber placed under all 4 tires. Let the car down on the ramp and bounce it a few times and then tighten. You must keep the car level to do this correctly, thus the ramp must be under all 4 tires.

Be careful and KEEP SAFE. Be sure your ramp is stable and the car can't roll or fall off while you are working on it. Chock the wheels. Do everything you can to be safe.

[DavidEJM]

One last thing is when setting up the suspension, you should have all the bolts attaching the wishbone to the chassis loose. They should be only torqued up with the vehicle weight on the wheels (plus half a tank of gas and a weight in the drivers seat) this is so the bushes are not pre-stressed.

That would be my guess. I have had that problem with other cars ive bought. things been changed and a quick jack up replace and retighten resulted in rubbers under stress and premature failure.

[chris.t]

Mine does it too; I thought it was to take account of the camber of the road

[Rusty Wishbone]

How do you actually adjust the ride height? I can't see anything in the manual on this.

I have been measuring the camber of my rear wheels this evening - something I have never done before. A bit of Trig gives me a camber angle of about 0.2 deg with the top of the wheel leaning inwards. The manual says 1/2 deg; +/- 1/4. I assume that this is the same for all versions of the Elan, in which case, I need to dial a bit more camber in so that the bottom of my 16in rims are 37mm further out than the top.

Can anyone see a flaw in this?

[ashm]

Mine definitely has the lean... I've got a few mm clearance to get my jack under the nearside, but on the offside I have to lift the car with my left hand and slide the jack under with my right
Only maybe 10mm in it really, but noticeable.
Adam

[Rusty Wishbone]

I've just set the ride height on my Elan - using the adjustable Gaz shocks that I recently fitted. I can't see any way to set the height with non-adjustable shocks other than to replace saggy springs.