Warning!

[Evo Cymru]

Just checked mine today. Passenger side seems fine - no visible cracks and bolts move freely. Drivers side seized solid though! Have been able to free the rear bolt but the front one is moving the whole bush in the wishbone! No visible cracks as yet but look more closely when I manage to remove it.

Olly

 

[mchristyuk]

Hi Olly,

Will be interesting to see what you find when you get it off. I'm pretty certain it's the moving of the bush in the arm which is the major culprit. The cracked 4200 arm I have needed a good clean before spotting the crack as it was a proper hairline which had just started to develop. The pictures of the 3200 arm I posted was much easier to spot without any cleaning!

Fingers crossed yours is ok and all you need is a new bolt and tub of copper grease!

Cheers

Mark

 

[2b1ask1]

As I've not taken one off the Maserati before, do you need to use spring compressors or are they maxed out on the shock/coilover? Basically I don't want a shock when I take the bolts out to check mine...

 

[conaero]

As I've not taken one off the Maserati before, do you need to use spring compressors or are they maxed out on the shock/coilover? Basically I don't want a shock when I take the bolts out to check mine...

No, from memory on full droop you can remove the lower wishbone.

 

[2b1ask1]

Cheers, I didn't want a nasty surprise like you do with standard coils!

 

[DPS20K]

Guys, please forgive me if this is a stupid question as I'm not a mechanic or an engineer but are you suggesting that in normal use the bush should be free to rotate on the mounting bolt?
This doesn't make sense to me as surely when the bolt is tightened it is supposed to lock the inner part of the bush tightly in place. If it doesn't, and the bush should rotate, then what keeps the adjustment shims in place? They would just work their way out over time if the whole assembly wasn't bolted up tight without movement! If you look at the photo of the bush via the link below surely the design intent is that the inner metal part should be locked by the bolt, the outer part should be pressed solidly into the arm and the two pieces rotate relative to each other because the rubber between them is bonded to one but free to rotate on the other - see the superformance description on their website which describes how the rubber is bonded to the non rotating part. This would then suggest that the scoring and wear on the inner part of the suspension arm was a consequence of the crack not the cause of it - the crack making the bush loose in the arm so it can rotate. Alternatively perhaps the bushes can seize and cause the crack but I don't see how it can be the bolt seizing.

http://www.superformancemaserati.co.uk/acatalog/186494.jpg

http://www.superformancemaserati.co.uk/acatalog/Online_Catalogue_Wishbone___Hub_88.html

 

[2b1ask1]

The bush should absorb all of the movement not the bolt or arm.

 

[AndyG]

Ok this is my take on this issue,

All engineered components are manufactured with an upper and lower tolerance, so take a wishbone bush that is made up of two steel tubes with a rubber in fill bonded to both (a metalastic bush) if the the outer sleeve is manufactured to its maximum tolerance (oversize) and the wishbone machined to its lowest tolerance (undersized) when the bush is pushed into the wishbone we have what's called an interference fit. Now when this happens you can end up stretching the arm to fit the bush, don't forget it is only a light alloy arm so it may even crack while the bush is being fitted (worst case scenario) in reality you may never know.

Going onto the mounting, the bolt seizing in the inner bush will never cause this kind of failure, it's only an issue when you need to remove it, don't forget when this arm is fitted to the car, shimmed and torqued up the inner tube is clamped tight by the chassis mounting tags, when the suspension moves through its travel (compression and droop) both the inner and outer metal sleeves of the bush do not move, but the rubber twists giving a damping effect and also stopping the transmission of noise and stress to the chassis.

Now consider what this wishbone has to contend with, we are dealing with a high performance sports car that will have fairly stiff suspension set up, so every time you hit poor road surfaces all the hard jolt is being transferred through the wishbone into the bush (which absorbs some of the shock) and then into the chassis structure, now this over sometime I feel could be the cause of these cracks, I would also say that poor finishing of the casting in the factory may also contribute, as an engineer I was always taught not to Leave sharp edges on anything as this can lead to a weak point that stress then could lead to cracking.

Over the years my hobby has been off-road Motorsport, and in the early days of running cars with independant suspension with 12" to 14" of travel we had many issues with wishbones bending and cracking due to the rough terrain we race over, the rule of thumb now is to run very strong t45 tube wishbones with 2 piece slide in nylon bushes (rose joints fail) and light weight chassis tags, this way if anything fails it will be the chassis tag (a very simple fabrication) and not the wishbone or upright.

Anyway this maybe completely wrong and it's purely down to poor Maserati components yet again.

Andy



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[zagatoes30]

Regardless of if this a common or rare issue it makes sense to get it checked at each service. I will be instructing my independent to have a look and report back just in case. I would like to know if I have a pending problem or not.

 

[nfm]

Checked mine today; no visible issues either side. My mot and annual are about 6 months apart so will be checked regularly (I will specifically flag to mot tester as doubt they will know what to look for as hens teeth over here).

 

[rs48635]

Just been out inspecting drivers side on mine, luckily not getting too stuck in.
The nuts come off drivers side, but bolts are reluctant to move. Sure I could move them if I took off air duct and steering arm ( front & rear) and used breaker bar with 1/2" drive 22mm impact socket.
Not sure I need put that much force into a bolt stuck in a bush in a (weak?) cast aluminium arm.

Now it all makes sense, with bush rigidly clamped, any seized bolt is not affecting the operation of the arm. Only affected attempts to replace or remove. I will re-assemble , torque and grease the affected parts. The bush has only a few degrees of twist movement, witnessed when I jacked up the arm with car on axle stands. Movement at inner end of wishbone is barely visible. I thought bush was acting as a bearing, but seems not.

Maybe this is a case of a little knowledge being a dangerous thing. (Was itching to use my new toolkit and spinners as well . H


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[conaero]

Remember the arm is under tension from the shock. Really you need to remove the outer ball joint and the lower shock fixing then you will be able to asses the rotation and extent of the seizure.

 

[dunnah01]

Don't forget thet the weight of the car should be on the arm before tightening the bolt - in practice this can be achieved by jacking up the hub to the middle point of travel before tightening.

 

[rs48635]

Remember the arm is under tension from the shock. Really you need to remove the outer ball joint and the lower shock fixing then you will be able to asses the rotation and extent of the seizure.

Sure - but the "normal" range of movement is available when it is all connected. When jacked up we see full droop, and by jacking up the arm we see full compression (well almost)

 

[rs48635]

Don't forget thet the weight of the car should be on the arm before tightening the bolt - in practice this can be achieved by jacking up the hub to the middle point of travel before tightening.

thanks - was wondering if I can apply the torque with "weight on wheels" (WOW).

Not easy without a proper ramp.

 

[2b1ask1]

I got mine up on a 4-post lift on it's wheels to check it all on Tuesday and....

All the wishbones are intact and appear free of any cracking but the bushes all look pretty rough so I think it is now on the cards to get them all changed. What I did find and it is likely to be the cause of my noises and handling issues was that the off side rear anti roll bar bush is non-existent!!!! got nearly 10mm of play in it! A bu99er to access and change but even worse on the near side... Better get them ordered, no point in changing just one side.

 

[conaero]

Bl00dy h3ll Newton, thats mad!

Probably laying in a Swiss tunnel I suppose.

 

[2b1ask1]

Noticeable deterioration during late November onwards, around the time I went back to my winters so I put it down to that mostly but lately it has been giving torque steer under hard acceleration which has been 'interesting'... At least I now know what it is so it cam be resolved and in the meantime a featherlight touch is in order

 

[Evo Cymru]

I got mine up on a 4-post lift on it's wheels to check it all on Tuesday and....

All the wishbones are intact and appear free of any cracking but the bushes all look pretty rough so I think it is now on the cards to get them all changed. What I did find and it is likely to be the cause of my noises and handling issues was that the off side rear anti roll bar bush is non-existent!!!! got nearly 10mm of play in it! A bu99er to access and change but even worse on the near side... Better get them ordered, no point in changing just one side.

Got round to removing mine this morning too. Both sides had no evidence of cracking that I could see, even the side that had the seized bolts. Similarly the bushes looked a bit knackered so now considering replacing these as the wishbones are off the car. Bottom ball joints look OK. Out of interest are the ball joints replaceable or do you have to get a new wishbone?

Olly

 

[rs48635]

Newton

My 3200 is due drop links for anti-roll bars, so guess ARB bushes would be a good idea too.
Might as well get the bar powder coated, "while I am in there".