Just imparting a bit of advice here, having had to deal with seized coilovers recently. Don't take them out of the box, and assume the nice shine will remain, slap them on the car and drive around in winter: they'll seize. Advice (from Dave Walker in CCC some years ago, IIRC) is to grease the threads, top to bottom with liberal amounts. Then put gaffer tape tightly round the stem threads (one and a half turns) which wraps round and sticks on itself ie doesn't try just to stick to the grease. Cover all of the threads visible. Do this certainly below the spring platform. Also inside the coils if you can, either by taking the strut of, post ride height setting to add the tape, or if you can get the tape through the coils. The tape stops road gunk getting into the grease and/or washing the grease off. Come the time you want to adjust them, the whole lot will be nice and free, and a rapid, non-swearing job awaits you . Show car owners may think the gaffer tape looks crap, but that's a personal choice. Preserve your investment! HTH
a tip i heard on here was spray on bike chain lube, apparently it wont come off easy and isn't sticky so road gunk doesn't stick to it. We put a ton of this on my mates coilovers, only time will tell Oh and be very carefull with the stuff, the guy who sold us it was saying that if you get it on your discs its so luby n sticky you'll probably have to bin em and fit another set! This was referring to bike discs, dunno bout car discs. Better safe than sorry anyway
Apparently the FKs come with a lube when originally supplied, and this was fitted to the set I have - evidently it's not as hard wearing as it needs to be, since it comes off, and they seize anyway. Did you ever get your set moving again Gary? If so, how did you free them? Dare put heat near them?
thats quite mad. how long did it take for them to end up like that gary? im suprised no body makes 'socks' for them
Have used Waxoyl on the Mk1`s Ledas, though it`s not left the garage yet ! Eibachs on the Mk2 came in a matt black finish, have only used WD40 on these and after six months use they`re like new. Will check before the Winter and possible retreat with Waxoyl. My previous experience of treating & wrapping equipment for protection, although not on vehicles (but in industry) is poor, unless you have a really air tight seal it will still come out corroded.
I stripped them down to the bare bodies and heated the adjusters up with the blue hot spanner, the adjusters were alloy so no wonder they seized on a steel casing No doubt they're seized again, even if I did use Bostik never-seez on the threads
try motorbike chain wax - this is a lot more sticky than regular chain lube and is recommended for bike chains for the winter, kind of white waxy stuff that sprays from a can
i heard wrapping them in cling film after greasing was meant to work? that will certainly keep the grease on, and should be easier to put on and get off than gaffer tape.
I used to swear by chain wax on my bike - kept my rear wheel a lot cleaner than normal chain lube did. Mind you - i've also got a 25 litre tub of gun preservative wax sat at work that i think will do the job - I know it stays on well as it's an absolute ar5e to get off a gun that's been in 5 year storage...
I know when I bought this golf the coilovers had been wound right down at the front for a couple of years at least. I had to soak them in WD40 several times and use a hammer on a long screwdriver (and swear lots! ) to get them to eventually move. I've replaced them with gaz coilies now, although I haven't waxoyled them like I was planning to as the car won't see all that much road use, particularly not in winter as it's mainly a track car. Also the gaz's have quite thick threads compared to the fine thread you normally get on coilovers, so it should make moving them a bit easier.
JC5 is the stuff, cromate based aircraft stuff, I have seen examples of WWII aircraft parts draged out of the sea with this on them-no corrosion. I used it on my coil overs two years ago still perfect. Beware don't get it on your skin!
JC5 is the best but most expensive, i havn't tried the other stuff http://www.lasaero.com/las/55?id=11
I have also seen neoprane(sp) covers that go over the whole lot before fitting ,from top to bottom they should help keep them cleen.
