Racing Red Shocks

[Buckers3]

I'm rebuilding my car and have a set of racing reds on there (installed by previous owner), which appear to be in really quite good condition and I know haven't done many miles. I did contact Nitron about a rebuild but they have now stopped working on these items.

I am considering putting new springs on them and running them until they die, then just replace the whole lot. Does anyone know the spring rates used on them? Presumably I can drop the springs out by unwinding the preload and unclipping the bottoms - I had another set of Nitrons on an elise that had a circlip type thing on the bottom.

Can anyone recommend a 3rd party that could perhaps service these units? A rebuild and regas would probably be beneficial after all these years.

[GreenV8S]

Buckers3 said:

Does anyone know the spring rates used on them?

Nobody can have any clue. If you'd mentioned what the car was you might find people willing to tell you what range of spring rates would be considered typical, but there's no reason to assume yours was using typical spring rates.

Buckers3 said:

Presumably I can drop the springs out by unwinding the preload and unclipping the bottoms.

Whether that works will depend on the spring rates and amount of droop travel. You have nothing to lose by trying.

Is there something wrong with the existing springs?

[Basil Brush]

Buckers3 said:

Can anyone recommend a 3rd party that could perhaps service these units? A rebuild and regas would probably be beneficial after all these years.

You could try Raceshocks but if anything like the Nitron service cost (150 quid each) then I'm not sure it'll be worth it.

[Buckers3]

Ah yes, It's a 2001 Tuscan. Given that these are a "budget" Nitron I would expect most installations would have kept the standard spring rates. The issue I have is that, aside from some old posts on here, I can't find any information on these shocks at all, it's as though they never existed.

There's nothing especially wrong with the springs, however they must be 12-15 years old now and they have some surface rust in a few places. Given that I am rebuilding the car, and I have the units in my hand, and everything else will be shiny and clean, it seems like a reasonable time to pop some new springs on there.

The damper bodies themselves after a wipe down look like they came out of the factory yesterday. And while a refurb might seem as though it's not cost effective I can't see any real difference between the look, feel and quality of these dampers when compared to the "proper" nitrons on my elise. Given a new set would be £2000, if I could get these refurbed for under a grand that doesn't feel too bad.

I could of course go for some fit and forget yellow bilsteins, but I like the idea of saving what I can on the car, refurbing and re-using.

[softtop]

it's a few years ago now, I had a set of Racing Reds fitted in 2008. They needed replacing in about 2016, I did enquire about refurbishment and it was not worth it so bought new Gaz golds for a similar budget price.

Edited by softtop on Friday 27th December 12:02

[Byker28i]

I've had my nitrons refurbished twice, both times coming back as new, byt then I had new springs fitted last time as they had gone rusty. Not bad in 17 years.

Springs were 400 front, 350 rear. It was on the invoice.
Product code 0900-225-0400S and 0900-225-0350SS 2.25" springs

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

[Buckers3]

Byker28i said:

I've had my nitrons refurbished twice, both times coming back as new, byt then I had new springs fitted last time as they had gone rusty. Not bad in 17 years.

Springs were 400 front, 350 rear. It was on the invoice.
Product code 0900-225-0400S and 0900-225-0350SS 2.25" springs

https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&...

This does give me a ball park but my shocks are Racing Reds whereas yours seem to be "proper" nitrons. I am unsure if the spring sizes and rates are the same.