Vauxhall Astra LS1.4i - How Can I Improve My Car's Handling?

Hi All,

My problem is this; I have an Astra LS1.4i, which is a nice reliable motor, with a little bit of poke, but doesn't handle particularly well. It's fine around town (except roundabouts!), but hammering around country roads - within the speed limit of course - it feels decidedly 'sloppy' and I'm always finding that I have to 'brace' myself when cornering. Now I know the answer to this would be to invest in a nice set of rally seats with 5 point harnesses (or a motorbike!), but was wondering what I can do to improve the handling (apparently Astra's are noted for their poor handling) There seem to be a lot of products out there claiming to improve handling, but as they're is a fair bit of experience here I'm hoping you guys can offer some advice. Thanks in advance

Dan Ricketts

Reply to
Dan Ricketts
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Lower, stiffer suspension helps, makes it less comfy over speedbumps, but if you can live with that go for it. They'll be loads of kits available for the Astra, pick one :) My mate has Spax suspension all round on his Nova (yes yes, he owns a nova...) and seems very happy with it. Cost about £250 if i recall correctly.

Maybe some wider wheels/tyres? I changed to 205 width tyres on my 405, and it made a LOT of difference to the amount of grip i have. Its supposed to mean you have less wet grip when you have wider tyres, but i found that as all tyres in the size i needed (205/45/16) are all top speed rated (VR or whatever it is) they're all decent tyres anyway, better than the 175 michelins i had on, so wet grip seemed to actually improve :)

Reply to
Dan405

No. *Older* Atra's are noted for their bad handling. The Mk3 was passable, the the Mk4's are fettled by Lotus (I'm assuming your's is a Mk3).

Most obvious answer is lower it. You'll get less lean through the bends, but with a trade off against general ride comfort.

You say you're always having to 'brace' yourself, what about fitting a decent set of Recaro bucket seats from a sportier Astra...

Reply to
Lordy

But simply improving grip will make the problem of needing to hang on rather worse!

Reply to
DervMan

Put 17's on and slam it. Wikkid!

Abo

Dan Ricketts raved thus:

:: Hi All, :: :: My problem is this; I have an Astra LS1.4i, which is a nice reliable :: motor, with a little bit of poke, but doesn't handle particularly :: well. :: It's fine around town (except roundabouts!), but hammering around :: country roads - within the speed limit of course - it feels :: decidedly 'sloppy' and I'm always finding that I have to 'brace' :: myself when cornering. Now I know the answer to this would be to :: invest in a nice set of rally seats with 5 point harnesses (or a :: motorbike!), but was wondering what I can do to improve the handling :: (apparently Astra's are noted for their poor handling) There seem to :: be a lot of products out there claiming to improve handling, but as :: they're is a fair bit of experience here I'm hoping you guys can :: offer some advice. :: Thanks in advance :: :: Dan Ricketts

Reply to
Abo

Dan Ricketts waffled on in a quite bewildering manner to produce...

It's an Astra, if it's a Mk3 it'll never handle as well as, for example, a Yugo.

Best advice I can offer is, don't lower it too far (30mm is about right), fit a decent set of aftermaket springs and shocks to it. I tend to use PI springs because they're well made and well matched for corner weights, and a set of decent adjustable shocks. Spax should do the trick, but don't just bolt 'em on and whack 'em up to 10. That will just make it snappy, horrible to drive, and pretty awful to be in. Start off soft and turn them up notch by notch until you get a good ride / handling balance. When the balance is right the car will be comfortable, and when you hit a pothole for example you'll hear it more than feel it. Change all the suspension bushes for decent polyurethane ones, this should sharpen up steering response a bit, and get the geometry checked once it's done. Your local rally specialists will normally set up the geometry for about £75.

Reply to
Pete M

First off, what age? Presumably it's the previous generation - the current Astra handles very well for what it is.

/image forming in my mind that's probably not quite what you had in mind! :) /

The simple answer is to replace the car, since you can change what you already have, and quite often any improvement in one respect is met with more compromise somewhere else.

First off, the general golden rule is that the lower and stiffer the suspension, the better it handles - but note that this is only to a point, and in any event is subject to the proviso that you use matching springs and dampers. Usually, some lowering and stiffening helps matters, but there are some cars where you'll ruin the blend with just a small change. But I'm quite certain the Astra isn't one of these so we'll discount this, heh! :)

Some lowering and stiffening will help matters, but it will depend on the health of the current suspension on there - specifically the shockers / dampers*. If you've covered 75,000 miles on the original equipment, you've had the car from new, and it's been thrown about in twisty stuff since new, then they're going to be well past their best. Simply replacing them for new Vauxhall ones is likely to make a _significant_ difference to the ride and handling. Or, if the previous owners enjoyed hooning over speed bumps at 45 mph, and fitted cheapo shockers, again replacing them with the genuine articles should improve matters. Okay, so you'll bring it up to the manufacturer's specifications, but you ought to notice the difference.

Of course, if you're going to the trouble of replacing the shockers, it's worth at least considering some higher performance replacement items. I can't help you with the Vauxhall choice here! But a lot of people recommend you replace the bushes with polyurethane ones whilst you're at it, and

*always* get the suspension geometry checked and adjusted afterwards!

For what it's worth, if you make it too low with too-soft suspension, the car will bottom out on a rough road, which will cause a nasty jolt to travel through the chassis. This can often be enough to cause a wheel or two to lose contact with the road, which of course is not what you want when cornering reasonably hard. If the suspension is too hard, you'll get wheels losing contact with the road anyway. Combine very low suspension, firm springs and big wheels wearing thin profile tyres, and you can get something that's very twitchy to drive and almost certainly slower than standard on a twisty, rough bit of road (despite what the driver will tell you, heh!).

Whilst you're at it, do check that there's nothing untoward with the suspension set up before you spend cash on upgrades! :)

Reply to
DervMan

DervMan waffled on in a quite bewildering manner to produce...

dearie me, is this Dervy agreeing with me? :O

Reply to
Pete M

Heh - we don't always disagree.

Do we? :->

Reply to
DervMan

Sounds like a good idea. I've always said that decent supportive seats do make a big difference to a car's handling. People have laughed and pointed when I've said this, but I do think it's true to a large extent - as far as the perceived handling goes anyway - i.e. you're not swaying from side to side of the car so much when taking a corner at a bit of speed.

Peter

Reply to
AstraVanMan

Exactly. Never driven one myself, but I'd imagine the seats in a 1.4 Astra are not designed with sports handling in mind :)

Reply to
Lordy

Lordy raved thus:

:: Exactly. Never driven one myself, but I'd imagine the seats in a 1.4 :: Astra are not designed with sports handling in mind :)

They're not. And if it's a mkIV Astra I can testify that the 1.4's seats are uncomfortable as f*ck after any reasonable time sat in them.

The seats in my mkIV Astra SRi are a different story though.

Abo

Reply to
Abo

On a SMOOTH surface.

On an average UK road, ESPECIALLY the country lanes he's referring to, he's not gonna get any improvement by lowering and stiffening his car.

I live in deepest North Yorkshire remember - the *stock* suspension on most cars, isn't really upto a top-speed blast on a lumpy road !

Reply to
Nom

It's an Astra LS1.4i, so it's never going to "handle particularly well".

Whilst you may be able to improve what you've got (nick the gear from a GSi for example, or buy a kit from the likes of Bilstein), at the end of the day, it'll still be a bit poop, and you'll have wasted a huge pile of cash :)

You now know from experience, that poverty-spec models are NOT a good buy, if you're concerned about the driving experience. You get a LOT more from a sporty model than just improved performance. Put your money into a pot for a new car, and do some research before you buy - you'll find that something like a 306 offers ride and handling leagues ahead of your current Astra. Go for an S16 or GTi6, and you get reasonable performance, excellent brakes, and a very good handling package, all thrown in for free.

Reply to
Nom

Nom waffled on in a quite bewildering manner to produce...

Agreed. One of the best handling everyday cars I've ever driven was a 306 S16. Looked like a diesel, wasn't as quick as the Mk5 RS2000 I had at the time, but it could certainly go round corners. Seats in them are crap though.

Reply to
Pete M

Posts like Dan's always amuse me :)

As someone who obviously cares about his cornering, he must have been on drugs to buy a 1.4 Astra ! Equally amusing are the "How do I get more power from my 1.3 Escort ?". If you want more power, then why did you buy a 1.3 Escort ?!?!?

Do people just buy the first car they see or something ?

Reply to
Nom

Yes, indeed, however the post was already getting quite long, so rather than discuss various conditions I simply put "the golden rule" and then "but note that this is only to a point, and in any event is subject to the proviso that you use matching springs and dampers."

However, one reason why the Ka is so puntable is that it's not very fast, the suspension is reasonably soft, so you can hoon along (without using the brakes much!*) on rough roads with scant regard** for bendy stuff.

*Heh heh heh! **Of course, this does depend on how quickly you're wanting to travel, I'm on about the "within the speed limit" stuff!
Reply to
DervMan

Glad I was able to bring a little sunshine into your day :-)

I bought the Astra 3 years ago as a first car, not realising just how much I was gonna get into the whole driving thing. Unfortunately, what with being a poor student, replacing the car isn't an option for the next 3 years (at which point I'll probably get a motorbike anyways), so I was just wondering what I could do to make it bearable. As for asking how I can get more power from my 1.3 Escort, I'd never dream of it, probably get flamed ;-)

Thanx for the advice so far!

Dan

Reply to
Dan Ricketts

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