International Lancia Forums

hello,

happy new year to all Lancisti !

I have a problem with a Lancia Thema : (not tuned, 195/60/14)
Althouth it has almost new shock absorbers the handling is the road
is not as good as i thought:
(Even my former Dedra had a better handling on the road, i am surprised !)
First of all i should explain that i am interested in having a sporty car
but without missing much of comfort !
Thatswhy I felt the Kayaba shock absorbers to be hard and now the car
has Boge shock absorbers.
The problem is that the cars front is going "up" when driven fast over
bad roads. This problem was with Kayaba shock absorbers the same,
now nothing changed. If i push down with the hands to "test" the shock
absorbers the car seems to have good absorbers (no wipping)
Maybe should i take lowered springs ?
and has anybody expirience with Monroe Shock-absorbers?

Thanks,
Dakis (dakis@web.de)

this does not answer your quetion on shock absorbers but have you had the 4 wheel tracking checked? if the tracking is out (remember you have adjustment front and rear I believe as per Beta) you may well experience bizzare handling and poor stability.

Hi Dakis and Alan
I have a 1994 Thema 2.0ie 16v VIS, It had boring soggy suspension and those standard 15" wheel with 195 60 15 tyres, so I was fed up with the suspension being so soggy that I thought I was in an American car. I bought a set of springs from L&M www.l-m.co.uk for £65 + Vat & Carriage and had them put on, the fronts were quite easy to do by myself but the rears were seized so £50 at a garage done the trick. The result is was that the car did not rise up and down like a boat in rough weather - during braking and accelerating, no more problems with side winds and the car sits 35mm lower. the next step was to get rid of the boring whells and put on some s/h Momo arrows which were 17" x 7.5j, shod with 215 45 17- these are the nearest circumference to 195 60 15. Ok the car looks very sexy low but the cars handling is much improved but the back end twitchy at high speed, I had the F + R tracking checked by Mike Stokes Garage in Poole but they said the tracking is fine. What next?
Shah

I´m not an expert but i read in Auto Italia that the rear anti roll-bar in the Thema are not wery efficiant. Maybe an upgrade could do the trick for you?. If you find out any more please let us know.
best wishes
Villads

The best set up i have had so far has been koni top adjustable shocks with spax lowered and stiffened springs. the koni's allow to adjust for differant suspension requirements front to back and for those days when you feel like fast driving. Unfortunatly i had the need to have all my koni's replaced after 4 years and due to money or lack of it, i had fitted standard 16v turbo shocks to the spax lowered springs. the car still sits low and still handles very well on fast curves and maintaines the ride height when starting / stopping at speed, however when at speed over long dips or highs the car does float a bit, saying that it is due to have all its front and back suspension bushes changed in two weeks so that may change.