Hi,
I have been on this forum for ages now, but rarely post as I'm busy with work all the time.
I am hoping some people can offer up advice on some upgrades for my 2011 standard ape, i have just had the 5th year service - the one with the belt change done - my car is on 22k.
During the service, some issues have come up related to the brakes and suspension.
The advice i have from the garage is to have the front springs replaced as both were snapped, including the front top mounts as they are rusting; to have the rear brake calipers and handbrake mechanisms replaced as they are seizing, to strip the front brakes to clean them, grease them etc.
At the moment, the two front springs are an MOT fail, so i will address them before anything else, but would like some advice on what route i should go down.
Do i just get 2 new front springs, quoted at £169 each from the dealer, so that the MOT will pass, and get my car back and sort the remaining things myself/at an independent garage or would it be better to just upgrade to koni fsds and red esseesse springs instead of getting two standard springs just to get the MOT pass.
I do about 2k a year in the car, so it is not used that often - for this reason I'm reluctant to get the full koni and esseesse spring set up done immediately - especially at dealer prices. I do have an independent garage which i trust to do the work but its a 50 mile drive from where the car is just now (at the abarth dealer).
That is problem one - get the dealer to do the work including supplying the parts or go independent route.
The second problem i have is trying to find parts and part numbers for the following, so i can source the parts myself and make sure they are the correct ones:
Koni fsd shocks front and rear
Red esseesse springs front and rear
Rear brake calipers and handbrake mechanism both sides
Those are the items I am planning on sourcing initially and will do first.
The remaining things I'm looking to upgrade would be the brake disks and pads all round - the original disks and pads still have plenty of life left in them, and will be upgraded when the time comes - but I'm beginning my search now, and would like some ideas on whether remaining with the standard set up is sufficient, or is aftermarket a better route - I'm not too keen on the esseesse floating disks.
A final thing i would like to upgrade would be the exhaust - ideally to sound similar to the 500s with pops and bangs, but so far the majority of advice seems to be get a custom stainless steel built to the sound spec you like.
So if anyone has ideas or advice for the above, i would be very grateful. At the moment I'm not too interested in upping the bhp or power, so I haven't looked into TMC boxes, remaps or full on exhaust set ups etc.
Anyway cheers for reading and thank you in advance
Your Privacy Choices