The road Mirage has been doing road Mirage things, and generally being ignored beyond basic maintenance.
The coilover Bilsteins with 200lb/in springs were a good compromise between comfort and handling. The Ohlins rear shocks with slightly cut original rear springs were ok, but had a bit too much compression dampening to be great.
A couple of months ago, the LHF suspension got really harsh, like it was bottoming out over small bumps. Turns out that the lower spring seat had wound itself down, so I wound it back up and it was a lot better.
Then I barely drove the car, because I was playing with Magnas and the Verada and doing boring Falcon things.
Took the Mirage for a run again late last week, and it was TERRIBLE. I spent about three seconds thinking that it was just because I have been driving the bigger cars, but quickly realised that it was really bad.
I was expecting a bent or haemorrhaged strut, although there was no obvious reason why either of those things would have happened. So I slapped the original Mitsubishi struts back in.
Here’s where things get interesting.
If passed a quick bounce test with the spring on, so I went back to fitting the other struts.
That took longer than expected, when I discovered that the bump stops had glued themselves onto the strut shaft which then means they bind on the spring seat and make the steering heavier than it should be.
When I looked back at the Bilsteins, a literal drop of water was on the ground under the LH one, despite it being a bright, sunny day. Weird!
Removing the spring, turning the strut upside down and compressing it, revealed two things: firstly it pushed a few more drops of water out from the lower leg, and secondly the strut was not moving past about 1/3rd travel…
Turns out that the lower leg was half full of water, which was behaving like a bump stop!
No idea how it got full of water, but a 3mm hole drilled in the bottom of the lower leg will stop it happening again.
Considering how little I have been using the Mirage, I am seriously considering selling it.
To this end, I took the Ohlins and put the original rear shocks back in, and refitted the original steering wheel.
It will be driven to work a couple of times, and if/when Blagna passes rego, I’ll make a proper decision on the Mirage’s future in my life.
