The dreaded front wishbones... what's a good price
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conaero
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£700 plus vat in parts and a morning to replace so either you can do it or a villiage garage can do it for £150.
It's a simple job just need a jack, axle stands, socket set and a large spanner for the ballpoint but.
Another £150 to get the alignment done (optional but recommended) and your all done for a grand plus vat.
Feel better about that?
It's a simple job just need a jack, axle stands, socket set and a large spanner for the ballpoint but.
Another £150 to get the alignment done (optional but recommended) and your all done for a grand plus vat.
Feel better about that?
voicey
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Alignment is not optional on this job at all, even more so if you're using the ES pattern bones. £150 is cheap for alignment if it's done properly - here's what I posted recently about aligning a 4200....
You've got 20 mins getting the car onto the ramp and establishing a baseline (if you do it properly and measure the ride height and perform a full castor swing).
Rear toe and camber about 30 mins - depending on how many camber shims need to be inserted or removed (don't forget the shims cost extra).
The front is a lot more involved. First of all the toe needs to be set - say 15 mins. Then the castor - this involves spacing the lower wishbone mounting bolts which is at least 30 mins. If you can't recover the castor at the bottom then you need to go to the top wishbone - a wheel off job which then means you have to get the baseline again. If you need to adjust the castor from the top on both sides you've got about 1.5 hours in it.
The front camber is just as involved - the adjustment is via shims on the top wishbone which means wheel off... so a new baseline every time you make an adjustment. At least another 1.5 hours for adjusting both sides.
Then once the camber is done you need to redo the toe (15 mins).
It can easily turn into a 5 hour job if the car is badly out of whack or if new arms have been fitting all round.
You've got 20 mins getting the car onto the ramp and establishing a baseline (if you do it properly and measure the ride height and perform a full castor swing).
Rear toe and camber about 30 mins - depending on how many camber shims need to be inserted or removed (don't forget the shims cost extra).
The front is a lot more involved. First of all the toe needs to be set - say 15 mins. Then the castor - this involves spacing the lower wishbone mounting bolts which is at least 30 mins. If you can't recover the castor at the bottom then you need to go to the top wishbone - a wheel off job which then means you have to get the baseline again. If you need to adjust the castor from the top on both sides you've got about 1.5 hours in it.
The front camber is just as involved - the adjustment is via shims on the top wishbone which means wheel off... so a new baseline every time you make an adjustment. At least another 1.5 hours for adjusting both sides.
Then once the camber is done you need to redo the toe (15 mins).
It can easily turn into a 5 hour job if the car is badly out of whack or if new arms have been fitting all round.
I got Giallo to replace the bushings in all four corners, repair and true the wheels, and replace one wishbone with an OEM part (at his recomendation). Got the car back a couple of weeks ago and took it out for my first drive today - it is driving beautifully and feels like new.
Matt if you're reading this - thanks! To everyone else can I recommend Matt at Giallo for great work at less than 1/3 of the price quoted to me by HR Owen.
Matt if you're reading this - thanks! To everyone else can I recommend Matt at Giallo for great work at less than 1/3 of the price quoted to me by HR Owen.
Wack61
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Is there a reason nobody wants to repair the wishbones , one of mine had a crack before I bought the car , I was shown pictures of the repair , initially I was worried about it but when I had the car MOTd they said it was fine , I've read Conearo's car has a repaired one as well
Matt told me he's seen the Eurospares part fail. Not a big enough sample to show that they're sub-standard, but enough for me to say sod it and pay a bit extra for the OEM part. The total price was really not too bad considering the huge amount of work involved so I'm happy.
mchristyuk
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Isn't the Eurospares part made by the same company as the OEM.. and therefore the same part, just without the Maserati tax applied??
Mark
Mark
Trev Latter
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That would explain why the pattern ones fail too. The genuine rear upper that I changed last year was quite different to the original fitted apart and was much more substantial in it's construction though.
CatmanV2
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mchristyuk
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Trev,
I believe the later rear arms were more substantial and that the pattern parts (sudo OEM) are based on the same tooling.. well if it's all coming from the same factory it would be mad to make different parts for different people.. but then these are Maseratis so who knows!
Mark
conaero
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All the wishbones, aftermarket and OEM are made by the same supplier, OPAC.
The original wishbone were made by an Italian company that went bust. I believe there was a court case to get the tooling from the liquidator due to intellectual property belonging to Maserati.
Wether they succeeded or not I don't know but if casting have changed then I would have though not and OPAC retooled them, hence the difference to the original fitment and the new much higher price.
The original wishbone were made by an Italian company that went bust. I believe there was a court case to get the tooling from the liquidator due to intellectual property belonging to Maserati.
Wether they succeeded or not I don't know but if casting have changed then I would have though not and OPAC retooled them, hence the difference to the original fitment and the new much higher price.