Fulvia 3 1.3S Ride quality.

[GG]

I'm right behind Chris on this. Just lovely is Lancia's supple ride. There are examples that ride poorly, but these are not up to snuff with bad rubber, or any one of a number of things that isn't right. Sometimes its as simple as tire pressures, which are often too high - consult the manual for those. Sounds silly, but it really does matter, especially on bumpy roads.

Agree with the recommendation of riding in another car. Something is likely amiss, although its possible that something just doesn't gel for you.

Did you ever do the front spring interleaves? 

[Caracad]

It’s good to hear from Fulvia drivers in praise of the way the cars ride.

I know that generally speaking the Fulvia is considered a very comfortable car.
This why I am so disappointed with the reality of driving mine.

I have tried different tyre pressures, but not found a compromise that works.

The rear has new original spec. Dampers. They seem too hard in bump but allow too sudden a rebound.

Front dampers are still the originals. I wish Bilstein did replacements, as they are generally excellent. I have heard the Konis tend to be too hard.

Not removed the front spring yet. Haven’t figured out a safe way of compressing it.
I was also thinking the condition of the lower control arm bushes might have an effect.

[lancialulu]

Riding high at the back is due the incorrect spring strength and or incorrect setting of the springs. On the former, there were replacement leaf springs made in the wrong steel specification (mostly in UK) and were too stiff. Re the setting, the rear leaf springs need to be compressed before tightening ALL the metalastic bushes. Compression spec is 80mm twixt bump stop and top of leaf spring mounting.

I think a forensic look at the rear spring could solve your issues.

[Caracad]

An update.
So I found some Bilstein B6 dampers for the Fulvia.
These were rather expensive but a Fiat Barchetta I used to own was transformed when I fitted a set of B4s (standard spec).

I didn’t think Bilstein made dampers for the Fulvia, but these seem completely genuine with the offset eyelet on the rears and correct length.

The dampers I removed were original De-Carbon on the front, still in perfect working order as far as I could tell. The rears were only a year old, supplied from Italy, gas mono tube.

Anyway in summary, the car now rides much better. Less crashing about, and much less body movement.
The whole setup is, in my opinion, still very firm. I believe the spring rates on my car are higher than I would like, but at least the dampers can now keep up.

My coupe is an original low mileage car from Italy and I believe the springs are original.

It’s interesting reading various reviews, tests and comparisons of the Fulvia.
One article comparing it to an Alfa 105 GT saying how much better the Lancia rode. Another article saying the complete opposite, that the Lancia seemed to lack suspension travel compared to the Alfa.
In general earlier S1s seemed to get praised for their comfortable ride, S2/3s less so.

I have read that the journalist John Simister, owned two Filvia HFs and couldn’t get on with them because of the poor ride.

Anyway I need to some more mileage, to properly assess whether my damper investment was worth it.
I’ll update in due course.