Well, what an utter ******* of a day
The only thing I can say about it is that it
could have been worse...
I finally got the shocks ordered in to go with the RB springs, so booked the car in at a mate's garage to get it all swapped over. I know that's wimping out, but I thought like this; a) I really don't fancy lying on my drive in the torrential rain the drought's been treating us to trying to drop the rear axle while the car's on stands. b) I've got a really bad back at the moment. c) I didn't want to get to the point where one nut won't undo/I break something/a stud's welded itself to a bush insert with rust and then I can neither finish getting it apart nor put it back together and I'm trapped with the thing blocking my drive/garage. d) did I mention my bad back? e) haven't got any spring compressors for the front. f) my back, you see...
Thank God I took it to the garage. Just through Sod's law, every nut, bolt and stud came apart easily
The rear went together nice and sweet;
It was only when the guys got to the front it went Pete Tong. First thing they found was this;
Errrr, farrrrrrrrrrrrrk!
Where the smegging hell has the other half of my brake pad gone? Jeez, no wonder the brakes were inconsistent! Things got worse from there on in, though for comparison the springs at least look like they'll bang on do the job they're supposed to;
I reckon with the slightly smaller tyress up front the car's going to be scuffing its gusset over the speed humps on the way into the work car park 8) . This was where it went really weird. The stock strut that came off the front appparently has never been changed. It has a KYB part number on it, and so does the shock insert within the strut assembly. The OE KYB shock was oil only, which helpfully pissed itself when it was taken off
The ones I bought were cheapy ones, still KYB but now oil/gas, so essentially the same but slightly better. From here in fact:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1x-KYB-G-Shoc ... 3844017095 So far, so ordinary. Except the top of the shock is completely different. The "instructions" appear to show a special spacer that sits between the shock body and the large bottom nut, but this spacer wasn't in the kit I was sent
First diagram there. Without the spacer, the shock sits about 5mm too low in the strut, and rattles around, even when the spring and top mount are added. So, the garage rang KYB Europe to ask about htis. They were basically told that a) KYB don't approve of third parties selling their product, especially not on eBay and b) if there was a problem, it was down to me as customer to chase up the eBay firm I bought from, who should then contact KYB who would dispatch the missing parts to them, so they could send them to me. Even after I offered to buy the spacers direct from KYB just to get the car together and off the ramp, they refused point-blank.
So, I contacted the eBay firm, who fortunately actually have a phone number. They were good as gold, got hold of KYB and got straight back to me... with a completely different version. Apparently, the shocks were correct and didn't need a spacer. Once they were done up tight with spring and top mount they'd be fine and no movement would be possible. Ooooooo-kay. Back to the garage.
No, That's bollocks. Still rattle about.
By now I was incandescent with rage, but the shop manager calmed me down and said he'd try ringing around and see if he could make sense of it all. Mazda Rivervale (remember them from my gasket buying tragedy?) were no use, they say that they treat all RX-7s as imports, even ones that were UKDM originally, and therefore don't have detailed part catalogues for them. Eventually we found a rather more tame (and useful) Mazda dealer up north and their parts guy did grudgingly say after much hassle that he could sell complete strut assemblies...£220 plus VAT per side, five days from Belgium
When quoted the original parts numbers from the strut and the OE shock...
...which quite clearly state that they're KYB manufacture, he was unable to match it. KYB claimed there was no such part number, and it must be a mistake. They list one similar but essentially two digits different, and were not willing to supply one for comparison. Basically, their entire attitude is that "you must have made a mistake, it can't possibly be our fault and we ain't helping". Meanwhile, every single motor factor we could ring came up with the same part number as the eBay version that I had, spacer not included.
So, after much timewasting talking to surly, miserable, rude, obnoxious people over the phone, Dave the mechanic came up with this;
Yep, a humble O-ring around the threaded bottom nut is enough to seat the shock perfectly in the strut and stop it rattling. How long it lasts is moot, but at least the car'll be driveable and we can see. It might be fine.
However, if I had an Uzi you'd be reading about a next spree killing mass murder at a certain huge suspension manufacturer. I can't remember being so angry nor having such shocking "service" in a very long time. To summarise, KYB's stance is;
1. we never manufactured an item of the part number on your car, even though it's clearly OE
2. we refuse to offer any product support if you buy through a third party, even though you can't buy direct from them
3. our kits for this car are wrong, or at best are missing an important spacer and we refuse to even acknowledge there's an issue at all.
4. we will be as obstructive and unhelpful as possible in any dealing with us, even to the lengths of telling two parties completely conflicting information on the same issue.
I'd be interested in hearing whether anyone else has used these shocks before, and whether they've had similar (or any) problems? Yep, I think it's fair to say that KYB will not be getting my custom again. For what it's worth, they will be getting a very strongly worded email on the subject though...
...anyway, hopefully it's sorted now, no thanks to them. Now all I need is some brake pads. No doubt they'll be wrong when they arrive too
