Can front shocks be reconditioned?

On Wed, 28 May 2008 16:57:39 +0100, "GT"
wrote:

>The tray does not prevent direct damage to the engine caused by contact with
>the road - if you ground the car enough to hit the bottom of the engine on
>the road, the repair bill will be large with or without a plastic tray!

All I can say is that my (now ex) main dealer said that they only had
experienced ripped sumps on cars with the tray removed or where most
of it was missing. You're also ignoring the fact that the tray *will*
help disperse a point impact (e.g. from a stone) giving the sump a
much better chance of survival.

>The
>front exhaust pipes are lower than the tray (even a saggy one), so a
>grounding which plonks the engine on the ground would have to go through all
>4 exhaust downpipes first (ouch).

The hit points on my car go from the tip of the front valence all the
way back beyond the engine compartment. There are a lot of factors
governing what part of the car will be struck. It may be that the
exhausts don't often get hit where they are. Nevertheless, it's a
matter of record with Alfa UK that sumps have been ripped on vehicles
without trays..

> This indicates that the tray's purpose is
>only to stop dirt and objects (maybe water?) from flying into the engine bay
>and causing damage.

...also noise reduction (esp. on the diesels).

>Repair bill to replace the tray would probably be more than £80 too as the
>parts of bodywork that the undertray bolts on to tend to break off along
>with the tray.

Not by much though. All that was missing on mine was two captive nuts
- fixed with bits I had in stock from B&Q. Still fine after 3 years.

In my 7 years with the mine, I've had lots of bad scrapes (Ireland,
Scottish Highlands and Fife typically) and one very severe set of high
speed road impacts while overtaking fully laden in Fife! Yes there are
lots of scrapes on the bottom of my car but there's no damage worth
mentioning. Everything's all present and correct.

--
Z
Scotland
Alfa Romeo 156 2.4JTD Veloce Leather
'Oil' be seeing you..
(Email without 'Alfa' in subject will be auto-deleted..sorry!)

"Zathras" wrote in message

> On Wed, 28 May 2008 16:57:39 +0100, "GT"
> wrote:
[snip]
> In my 7 years with the mine, I've had lots of bad scrapes (Ireland,
> Scottish Highlands and Fife typically) and one very severe set of high
> speed road impacts while overtaking fully laden in Fife!

Is that Bin's brother?