Pajero Owners Club of South Africa

Hi

I have a Gen 3 3.2DiD LWB with 160k on the clock. I fitted Stofpad spacers and an air suspension just more than 2 years ago. Got a nice lift from the spacers and the air bags work like a charm.

At the moment I'm experiencing a fair bit of body-roll (side ways around corners and forwards when breaking)and there is a knocking noise from the front when driving on un-even terrain.

I'm not sure whether this is due to worn shocks (still the originals) or whether it is the spacers. Someone's suggested that the knocking noise could be due to worn out anti-roll bars.

My current theory is that the spacers give a nice lift, but that there is a compromise in handling. There is more body-roll on tar and on off-road the bumps are accentuated. Any expert views out there? Keeping the spacers is obviously the cheapest option.

I reckon I have a two options here:
1. Replace old shocks (what with? Can I fit Tough Dog / Bilstein with my OEM coils?). Perhaps get the current rear coils reconditioned - where around Joburg?
2. Do a full conversion to OME / Tough Dog / EFS. Go for light / medium option so ride is still acceptable and keep air suspension at the back for heavy loads.

I'm having the suspension checked out at DEKRA tomorrow

Any other ideas?

Cheers!
Chris

I would not do spacers plus suspension coil lift. I had that and it ate cv boots constantly! Spacers definately compromise the ride quality, you get what you pay for, proper uprated suspension will give you good ride plus lift but it is way more expensive.

Only doing shocks and leaving coils? I dont know. I found that you need harder coils when you fit harder, off road biased shocks like OME, EFS etc, otherwise the ride seem a bit sloppy.

Difficult question. Money no object? I would go full uprated sudpension and take out the spacers. On a budget? I would fit standard shocks, which incidentally are not bad quality at all, and get net coils from a place like Van Zyls springworks.

CATS