Q45a Suspension Blues

[lotadogs]

My wife and I purchased a 1991 Q45a about 13 years ago. I thought it would be as good as my Datson 510. It was a fast and beautiful friend for about 100,000 miles then the active suspension went sour. It's down on the snubbers now and the dealer wanted $10,000 to fix it. Can it be economically repaired? Can the standard suspension replace the active stuff? Should we send it to the crusher?

[maxnix]

You prefer your 510?

Try a search for all posts by texasoil.

It is expensive to maintain when maintenance is foregone, like any other system on the car.

How are your chain guides?

http://www.q45asuspension.com

Welcome to the board! Search and read and you can awaken your injured beauty.

[96Qowner]

Here's a thread where texasoil gives some costs, as of last November:

zerothread?id=144385

And no, no crusher! Several people would be willing to buy it for a rehab. I'm guessing (no idea of your maintenance habits) something around $5000 to bring it back fully, including replacing the chain guides. Not bad for a car with low mileage - several years of good performance left in it. Just a rough guess.
Modified by 96Qowner at 11:03 AM 4/10/2006

[Cathode]

I would be interested in buying it but only at a nice discount because restoring the car is WAY more than it is worth. Imagine I spend 6 k on it and it gets totalled the insurance company wont give a crap how nice the car was. Also to get back the money you put in you'll need classic, exotic, or modified insurance and that's kinda a rip off for a 1991 anything not made in itally.

[Q45tech]

T3 [ATL] charges $1500 for a simple conversion or $2,000 if all the accum, etc are removed..........that is with a pump loop back. If you wanted to replace the PS/Active pump and pullies belts etc add another $500-$1000.Only the shocks and belt would be new parts.............

A slammed active Q is worth $500 unless there is a new transmission or new major parts that can be salvaged. Have the chain guides been replaced in engine if not a time bomb!

[silver2k2]

Q45Tech

Could you please eleborate on the parts needed for the full conversionDo you need new power steering lines as well

So far I think a person doing this would need

Non A Power Steering pumpNon A Power Steering pump pullyNon A Power Steering pump beltNon A Power Crank PulleyNon A Power Water Pump pulley

[silver2k2]

Are these the Two Power steering lines needed?

[maxnix]

Could you please eleborate on the parts needed for the full conversion

Look at http://www.infinitpartsusa.com conversion (which it is not really) kit. It's more just replacing some active suspension parts with standard parts and leaving the rest on making the car worse than either a bad active or a proper standard.

NICO motto: If you can't restore it, sell it to someone who will. Don't cobble it.

[silver2k2]

I know the complete conversion is more then what is sold in the kit. Thats is why I am asking for more information.

Joe says the active lines "should" work for the non active pump but he doesnt stock any to compare. He said everyone just loops the pump, I was hoping that q45tech has seen a full complete conversion done and could enlighten me

How is a complete conversion worse then a base? If you actually remove everything the only thing left should be the actsus label on the dash. Then you will already have the bigger rear sway.

No one even wants actives anymore, no one looked at the car no one called on car the car I bought and it had perfect maint records 16k spent in the last 5 years documented, and before that a fully stamped dealer maint book. Still no one even wanted to touch

I have posted for help trying to get it back on the road, and my posts go unanswered. I took the car to get a consult diagnostic and even though the light is on the system check says its fine. I cant drive the car like this. What do you expect a guy to do. I tried to save it, tried to figure out what is wrong. I am not just going to spend 1200 of accums and hope it sorts itself out

However just to give people a chance to put thier money where thier mouth is I will sell it for 3500. 1994 Pearl 121k flat actsus light on, wont self diagnosis , need actuator boots.

Everybody just wants to say keep it active, how about offereing information about how to do a CLEAN conversion instead of a hack job
Modified by silver2k2 at 9:25 AM 4/28/2007

[3Q Jay]

i love the active and i own two, and that said, they are the biggest pain in the a$$ for a perfectionist like me. i don't consider myself an expert on the active, but aside from Keith, i'd put money on my spending more hours than anyone else here on understanding it. if you believe your car will be a show car/museum piece, then keep it as original as possible. if you just want to drive it, then conversion is a viable alternative (in spite of what I or anyone else might think--it is YOUR car).

Now, if you are stripping the active, please let me know, so i can poach parts and keep mine on the road for as long as possible.

the loopback is for the active hose.afik, the power steering hose is the same (might have a slightly different x,y,z mounting point). If you just loopback, you don't have to do anything to the ps hose. if you swap pumps, pulleys, etc. then i *think* you can use your active ps hose on a non-active PS pump. of course, worst case, you just buy that hi-press hose for a non-active.

one more thing. black is a bit harsh when the fail-safe has engaged. the system (so-far) restores on every restart, and then after say 10 min/miles or so of driving, it is back to 'normal' active status. they truly are amazing cars when working properly.

[silver2k2]

Thanks Jay, I just want to have all the parts on hand. You have first dibs on the parts.

I am a perfectionist too so I just knew it was going to drive me nuts. I already have a vehicle (SVT lightning) that is a 100% stock garage queen. This car needs to get me too and from work. That said it will be maintained perfectly. I have no problem with predictable maint ie shocks, plugs etc.

It has been my experience that if parts are replaced at suggested intervals you will not have many if any breakdowns. On the other hand from reading posts on here it seem that the active system breaks, makes noise, come off and on etc. Maybe its only because people only post when they have problems. Texasoil seems to be the only one that has good trouble free experience.

If I had the garage space and time to tinker on it I would have loved to keep it active. Looks at the bright side now everyone elses active is more rare

Regards I know that a std suspension will be less work,less cost and less hassle in the long run. I looked for 9 weeks, I avoided A cars but this was the only one I found will perfect records. Trust me I would have bought a T or a Base given the chance but I wasnt going to pass up a good deal (even after the costs of conversion)

[Q45tech]

Almost everything is predicatable about a Q. We used software long ago to come up with average lifetimes [base on mileage and age] of the most common components to control our inventory stocks based on history.

Where I got the 30k for upper links, and 60k for shocks, tension rods, transmission mounts; 90k for plenum, valve covers, and O2; 150k for KS and the first fuel pump. etc.

We know from history that every Active needs recharged accumulators frequently. 60-90k.

The Q is a very expensive car to maintain as new with retail parts almost as expensive as a Lexus LS400.

The mileages are based on 15k per year and Atlanta.

[silver2k2]

What about the parts needed for full conversion. Does anyone know?

[texasoil]

need full strut set-springs, mounts, rebound bumpers, shocks; new standard PS pump, need standard PS hoses, new crank pulley, standard susp PS belt.

Remove active struts, 4 height sensors, 5 G-sensors front and rear pressure control valves, multi-valve, oil cooler, combo active/ps pump and hoses, active reservoir, pump output accumulator, lots of heavy high pressure active flex hoses and steel tubing& connectors, active computer, H/H switch need new std ECU, new std instrument cluster, new console insert.Then there is the main wiring harnesses.

Really impossible to do a COMPLETE conversion.