BEWARE!! dealing with CalOffroad

[christofurry Member Find all posts View Profile Close christofurry]

Rim to guard 810mm wheel on the ground
Rim to guard 915mm wheel off the ground

[zerosecta Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zerosecta]

Rim to guard 810mm wheel on the ground
Rim to guard 915mm wheel off the ground

Exactly as it should be - you clearly got sent the right length struts for your 3" lift in the first place :-)

[zerosecta Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zerosecta]

Un Believable.....

I literally just had to go and find a little quite corner at work to have a cry... No Kidding, a Grown man Cry.... Proper....

Struts arrived back this afternoon and my wife kindly agreed to take them along with the springs to Pedders to get them reassembled for me as she hahs seen how cut I have been...

Get a call 10minutes ago from pedders.... One is done ok, on the other one however - The circlip that holds the spring seat failed and its now wedged down the body of the strut..... So one screwed strut I guess?? Fair enough as its not thier kit they are not prepared to go further.

So where does that leave me??? I was so looking forward to getting all dirty under the car tonight getting it all back together and going for a drive....

Heading to Sydney tomorrow morning for a week so I'll have to just try and forget about this and deal with it next week..... Seriously though, WTF.....

Any suspension guys near western suburbs willing to give me some time next week Friday when I am back I would great appreciate it and to be honest if it means getting my car back on the road I will pay you my Organs if thats what it takes..
Guessing theres going to be some man handling to try and get the Seat and circlip free and perhaps new circlip if its damaged??

BTW: not suggesting this is caloffraod or pedders fault - probably just my own bad luck i guess :-( :-( think i am just going to go have another cry now before i get on the train to go home and see it for my self

[Guest Close Guest]

The circlip arrangement is quite simple. (if they can) Get the shop to press the seat in the other direction to release it. Then assess the condition of the circlip and go from there. Or hopefully a few blows with the mallet will release it.

[photoprado Avid PP Poster! Find all posts View Profile Close photoprado]

Better it failed at assembly than on the road.

Doesn't look like much of a channel for the circlip there. Is that normal?

[Guest Close Guest]

It looks normal. A more detailed look is required to see if the groove has been damaged to allow the circlip to jump out or one end of the circlip wasn't seated properly to begin with.

[christofurry Member Find all posts View Profile Close christofurry]

Oh that sucks... Wow yep that plain sucks...

Fingers crossed this all works out for you Gavin.

[zerosecta Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zerosecta]

Right... When all else fails... And figured at this point I got nothing more to lose.... apart perhaps from a few fingers but if it means getting my car back together then so be it

So as soon as I got home I started on the strut - Just took a bit of hammering and managed to get it all free.. Circlip to a little massaging and got it good as new.

Decided to give the DIY method mentioned earlier a go to get the strut built. And wooala - Got it sorted :-)..... So fricken amped :-) So clearly it was simply a case of the circlip not being seated properly in the first place... Seriously.....

Any way - So take it for a drive and over the same bumps down the road - clearly a much smoother ride with the different spring and no topping out unless I really pushed it.

I am however still sitting to high at the front and a tad low in the rear so time to take a breather for a week or so and then I'm going to do some research and probably find some springs that will work. (Strut already on bottom circlip)

Rear - 840mm give or tale a few mm both sides.
Front - 845mm both sides (would like about 820mm) 890mm when lifted so only 45mm Droop but thats better than the 20mm I had before....

Happy to report that with the 575mm open length Struts and wheels off the ground they are still turning freely...

CalOffroad - You should be putting your tail between your legs and manning up to admit for everyone that you screwed up sending me the 555mm open length struts rather than making out that I have made some sort of custom outlandish request...

[mjrandom Out of control poster! Find all posts View Profile Close mjrandom]

Do you know the spring rate of the new springs?

[zerosecta Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zerosecta]

what if I just take the angle grinder to the coils and tak off 10 or 15mm off the end till I get the height I want??? Or is that a big no no for some reason??

[zerosecta Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zerosecta]

Do you know the spring rate of the new springs?

Nope

[Guest Close Guest]

Can you measure the wire diameter, free length, number of turns & outside diameter?

[zerosecta Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close zerosecta]

Will do, just about to leave for a few days off in NSW and will be back on Wedensday next week so I'll get onto it then. Cheers

[Whitey Shockie Maker of the Month Award Find all posts View Profile Close Whitey]

Hey zero,

Your front end at 845mm is obviously too high with still not enough droop, but give it a little driving time. The front end will typically settle much more than the rear, and dependent on the spring, the IFS can settle up to 30mm of ride height.

It may all work out, just drive the Prado for a couple of weeks, if it still hasn't settled, then it's new coils time!

Best

Mark

[Bushki Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Bushki]

I too had similar problems with a suspension package I ordered from Caloffroad.
Don't get me wrong I am happy with the combination and quality I have now but getting to this point was a hard and painful journey.

My tip if you purchase from Caloffroad is to pay them to do the fitting that way they can install and remove the struts countless times like I had to, to ensure you receive the end product as advertised on the website and only pay on the completion of the job.