All my Omegas are running on ATP wishbones, track rods and drop links. A set lasts me about 30K miles, and costs £80. If a car of mine lasts 3 years I am pleased, and am happy to fit it with new wishbones. What with rust in the rear shock turrets, rust in the cills, plus other nasty surprises, I run them from year to year, MOT to MOT.
In the past I have spent £70 on one wishbone, only to have it fail within a year. I don't know how ATP do them at the price.
My own personal preference is, if you still have the original GM or the earlier Lemforder (the later ones are poor), refurb them. Poly the front, then you never have to worry about that again, and about every 2-3yrs, rebush the rear with GM bushes. GM balljoints seem to last forever - I have only ever once had to change them (and not for MOT, which it passed, but because I felt there was play in them). Thus, my wishbone bill comes to about £20 every 3yrs, not including alignment which I do more frequent due to driving style.
I made a promise to myself to only use GM TRE's, following trying some cheapies (which all started with falling for the Autovaux "genuine" parts), which simply do not last. If they go within warranty, you still have the £70 realignment charge. Just does not make financial sense, as the £25 for the genuine TRE is good for over 100k miles. Trying to save £10 on a TRE ended up costing me a whole load more.
By following the (better) advice on this very forum, and its predecessor, I was able to make my Omegas very, very cheap to run, with the suspension and steering as tight as a drum (without the usual sloppiness I feel when driving many of the other Omegas that used to turn up here), and reliable - crank sensors not withstanding! And I never had to spend every weekend out tinkering with the car either, in fact, I was always looking for jobs to do to it, or anybody elses - working in IT, staring into screens all day long, its really therapeutic to do some real work!
And all thanks to the guidance I've had from
all the members here, and a special call out to those that I have repeatedly had physically help me on multiple occasions, including Marks DTM Calib (all round good egg), Darth Loo-knee (all round good egg), chrisgixer (suspension guru), tunnie (useless student, but useful gadget hands
), LFF (engine transplanter - 3 times in 2 weeks
), Lazydocker (LPG guru) and Kevin Wood (LPG and general engine management guru). Plus countless others, including JamesV6CDX who helped out when I was feeling too gay to change a K series HG (having never previously changed a HG), and the tractor engine swap posse - that's a day I remember with much fondness, despite the miserable weather.
Maybe because of all this help, or maybe just because of a desire to assist, I spend as much time on here as I can, and want members to learn from the mistakes I've made
*, and advice I've been given that works for me, not to mention the extensive knowledge I've built up in my 14yrs of Omega ownership, probably 12 of those with full Tech2 access. It frustrates me when I see people post something as fact when clearly they haven't even tried it themselves. And I know I am the king of one word answers, something I'm constantly trying to change. If that comes across as arrogant or egotistical, that is certainly not my intention, all I want to do is keep members' Omegas on the road for as long as possible, and as cost effectively as possible.
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Topic: THOSE wishbones..... (Read 3750 times)