Ferrari Mailing List: Re: Heard back on the self-levelling suspension...

[Rick Lindsay (rolindsay]

Hey B.H.D.,

The answer needs to be based in what you want to do, not what is simply 
practical.  

1) The practical solution seems to be to do the conversion and continue to 
drive the car.  Even if you dropped a couple of grand on the conversion, you're 
much better off financially than buying something new.  New cars are like 
pouring money in the toilet.

2) The less practical solution is to just buy whatever you please, new or used. 
 It's what money was invented for.

Option one is always cheaper than option two, as long as the car is adequately 
safe.  Option two may be more fun than option one.  I chose a soft, comfee car 
for my daily driver and raw, fun cars for other times.

Two cents please, added to your account. :-)

rick

--- On Tue, 12/16/08, Dennis Liu <bigheaddennis [at] gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Dennis Liu <bigheaddennis [at] gmail.com>
> Subject: [Ferrari] Heard back on the self-levelling suspension...
> To: "rolindsay" <rolindsay [at] yahoo.com>
> Cc: "The FerrariList" <ferrari [at] ferrarilist.com>
> Date: Tuesday, December 16, 2008, 3:03 PM
> Howdy.  First off, thanks to the great advice from lots of
> folks - very much
> appreciated!
> 
> Spoke with the shop where the car ('95 740iL) is at
> right now.  Asked him
> about the suggestion to just cut off the corroded part of
> the line, and
> flare in a bit.  "Every bit of that line is as rotted
> as what you saw; there
> is nothing at the leaking end that I could flare onto.  And
> the other end of
> the line is just as bad, so if we tried to replace the
> line, we'd almost
> certainly have to replace the blocks on each end. 
> That's why I wanted to
> warn you that it could get really expensive." 
> (I'm paraphrasing, but I
> think that's mostly right.)  
> 
> I then asked him about plan B - going with a conventional
> rear suspension
> setup.  He said that he's done them on earlier Bimmer,
> no problem, but
> hadn't done it on an E38.  The concern is how/where to
> plug the hydraulic
> system, so it doesn't affect the power steering.  He
> added that he knew that
> Bavarian used to sell a kit, for the older cars, but did
> not know what would
> work on the E38.
> 
> So then, at Bob Alexander's suggestion, I called up
> Steve Haygood, who was
> *very* friendly and helpful.  Said that NEW parts (shocks,
> springs, mounts,
> a couple of bitsas) would probably total somewhere between
> $400-$525, which
> isn't too bad.  He thought that labor would be anywhere
> between 3-4 hours,
> given that I was up in Boston (ahem :-).  As for how to
> deal with the
> hydraulics, Steve suggested that a simple brass plug with
> some teflon tape
> right at the power steering pump should do the trick.
> 
> So...  My options:
> 
> (a) spend the $700-$900 for the conventional suspension,
> and run the car for
> as long as it keeps running (or I hit the next stumbling
> block).
> 
> (b) Do the same as (a), but try a couple of boneyards to
> save a couple of
> hundred on the parts (it's got 200k miles, so any used
> parts are almost
> certainly newer, right?), but is it worth it?  
> 
> (c)  Sell it to the next guy with $2k in cash (or best
> offer!) and the skill
> to do the work himself, then go buy something from that
> long, endlessly
> debated but entertaining list....
> 
> Again, all thoughts are welcome!
> 
> Grazie,
> 
> --Dennis
> (the wife weighed in prefering an E61 or E39 Wagon... I got
> the hint...)
> Bostonish
> 
> 
> 
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