New member and owner in Surrey

[davef]

Recently took delivery of my first e-type a silver series 3 roadster, been wanting one for years and finally found the funds to make the dream come true. In the second week of ownership, still finding every excuse to drive her, experienced my first breakdown but still smiling. I have to say the even during a breakdown other drivers seem to warm to the car, was offered water by another motorist whilst waiting for the car to cool down. Can?t believe that would happen in any other vehicle.

Have a number of questions regarding various aspects of the vehicle, there may be articles somewhere on the forum but as yet have not been able to find them.

Is there anyway of improving the ride height or stopping the dropping of the car when going over speed humps, maybe some form of modification to the shocks etc. Can?t even seem to traverse then at slow speed without bottoming the exhaust and have to be very careful as the front wheels drop back to road level. Been finding routes around the local area to avoid them, however it often means a longer drive so not all bad.

Are there standard routes for getting wiring between various areas, i.e. from the engine into the cabin, or cabin to boot? There seems to be limited routes available without removing large amounts of trim. Need to get power to the rear of the cabin along with an aerial cable to the rear of the radio, it appears that during the rebuild of the vehicle some years ago the aerial was not routed all the way back.

How are the panels to the rear of the doors, (speaker location) removed, it appears that the whole storage box needs to be removed. I have not been able to find instructions in the workshop manual for this area.
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[MarekH]

Dear Dave,

As a fellow s3 owner, I can answer all of those. Just pop round and I'll go through the whole list for you. I am near Guildford. PM me for details.

kind regards
Marek

[Alty Ian]

Hi Dave. Welcome and what a lovely car.

Your rear ride height looks about right, but you need to measure the ride height first, from the bottom plate of the IRS to the floor, should be around 200mm.

If its OK then check how well and high your exhaust is fixed. Often the rubber bands slip off and the rear rubber support sags and the exhaust can drop. If so replace the rubber bands. The rear box has a metal bar which goes into the rear mount and this bar can be bent which has the effect of raising the exhaust height at the back. Another trick is to clamp the 4 rubber bands tight using wire ties (which also prevents them jumping off the hooks which can happen when going over speed bumps).

Basically get your exhaust as high as possible without the pipes hitting the IRS.

If all that fails, then you can get spacers which are fitted at the top of the rear springs which will lift the ride height, did this on my car and it never hits speed bumps anymore. However, there is a downside as the car when sitting higher up doesnt quite have the same "feel" at speed round corners as it doesnt sit low enough. Not an issue if you are driving normally.

Enjoy it

cheers Ian

[Gfhug]

Dave, welcome to the forum. An E Type and an XF? If so the same combination as me and a very happy combination. As Ian and Marek have said there's lots of help here, something I've made good use of.
Enjoy yourself, but that goes without saying.
Geoff

[davef]

thanks for the reply.

gfhug your right an etype for fun days and an xf for the long runs and every day use is a good mix.

alty Ian will check the ride height as suggested, if ok the mod may be an option to make the car that much more useable.

[malcolm]

Car looks great! I'm an E Type and XF owner too.
I test drove an E before I got mine that also bottomed the exhaust over every hump. Turned out the wrong exhaust hangers had been fitted, and the exhaust was too low. If not, then the dampers could be shot allowing the car to bottom out after humps - rider height at rest might still look ok?
Nothing that can't be sorted, so enjoy.