Topic

Hi

I have been reading a lot of threads on shock absorbers and can't find any details on Spax shock absorbers in terms of ride comfort. It seems that people fit Bilstein for comfort and spax for performance and discuss them accordingly!

I would like to improve the ride in the TF, I feel it is too firm and unsettles the car on our bumpy roads.

I know the Bilstein option is recomended for comfort, but at £700 for 4 shocks, I can't justify it with TF values at what they are now! Spax work out at closer to £400 which is still a lot, but far more managable.

I think spax shock absorbers, adjusted almost right off, should provide the improvement I am looking for.

My is a 2005 TF, but built in 2004, so has the firm springs!

Any experiences would be much appreciated.

Considered MY2005/LE500 shocks and springs?

I had the same dilemma,went for Bilsteins in the end after taking advice from those that work on MG's for their livelihood.Ride is much improved as now properly controlled by having effective damping.
It is still very firm,but you don't find yourself heading for the nearest hedge after bouncing out of a pot hole,overall comfort is improved a fair bit,but could still not be described as comfortable.
I did consider the Spax set up with Eibach springs,but this would lower the car too much for my drive,and can cause problems with insurance as some of the cheaper mainstream providers don't like fitting
lowering springs.(If I had the Spax,I would spend all my time adjusting the settings trying to find the optimum one )
If you want a much softer ride then talking cars might be right with the LE 500 shocks and springs,but this will induce a bit more body roll as they had bigger arb's fitted as well.

Please remember the springs give you the comfort [ with 50 series tyres Ha ] the DAMPERS only control the spring. OK the dampers do give a bit

Or you could be the first TF to switch over to F subframes

I have just fitted spax with h&r springs with the dampers set to soft they are way too bouncy so I would suggest not fitting the spax for comfort. It will be difficult to achieve comfort with short travel struts such as fitted to the TF so my advice would be to fit the bilstein as a compromise

I had fitted MY05 kit to my 160 & found it great for better comfort & no real detriment to road holding.
Still over £400 though

I am about to fit the Bilsteins I picked up super cheap - putting new lower bushes on them and giving them a repaint/new stickers first - been out in a car fitted with them and it's much nicer. As Felix is a Sunstorm and has the 'sportier' setup apparently from the factory, the improvement should be quite obvious when they are fitted..

Thanks for the replies. I have not considered the LE500 setup - tbh i thought it was considered inferior with softer springs???

I am led to believe the springs are not the issue - everyone raves about bilsteins whilst using the standard springs, so the shocks must be the issue. If the shocks are the problem, surely, with an adjustable shock like the spax, I should be able to get close to the bilsteins just by messing with the settings? Everyone seems to use spax with a stiffer aftermarket spring so its hard to judge.

I appreciate I will never get 'comfort' suspension with the tf setup, and i am not looking for it, but atm when you hit a bump it feels like somethings going to break! That's what I want to stop.

My daily driver has sports suspension and 20" alloys with very low profile tyres. That is a very FIRM ride, you feel every bump, but it doesn't feel like its about to fall apart! It still soaks them up better than the tf...

I had fitted my05 shocks. to my Tf160 & it transformed the ride.
Still handled well, but cost around £425.

The trouble I have with the spax set too soft is they become really bouncy there is probably a happy medium but they are at the cheaper end of the market which seems to effect there adjustability ie anything under halfway adjustment towards soft and there is too much bounce