FOAK: Car advice needed

It's *exactly* this which I hated. You spend half the time upside
down, with small bits of crap and rust falling in your eyes. And just
about everything is covered with rust and shit before you start trying
to fit a spanner to it.

On a bike, everything is right in front of you, you're the right way
up, and few things are rusted together.

 

<rubs sore eyes>

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| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest * 2 Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
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I wouldn't go so far as to claim they are only fit for hanging on the
side of narrow boats or landing stages. It would be enlightening though
to be able to do a direct comparison, keeping everything the same and
just swapping to a set of wheels with allegedly grippier tyres.

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| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest * 2 Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
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OK, so I picked an extreme example. I still reckon that given the use I
am going to give the MX5 and that tyre life is not a priority a
different tyre would work better for me. I remember going from well worn
Pirelli Cinturatos to new Semperit ?????s on my Saab 96 two stroke, and
wishing I had paid the extra for new Pirellis.

<Yes Champ I know tyre technology has changed in 40 years>
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| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest * 2 Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
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Unfortunately, the only remoulds worth using were made by a company
that's now gone under (Colway).

 

it was alright, as minicabs go

 

I saw him live you know.

 

Me too. My wife didn't "get it"

 

<red face mode>
I finally checked the tyre pressures. 32 psi all round instead of the
recommended 26 psi.
</red face mode>

Wessie might have had the right of it.

Further exploratory testing will follow.
--
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| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest * 2 Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
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OldestBrother bought one of their MPVs (can't remember whether it was a
Meriva or Safira). Under heavy load[1] the driveshaft would pop out of the
end of the gearbox..

He was less than impressed and that car didn't last long with him..

Phil.

[1] Towing a caravan or loaded trailer and with the right foot
enthusiastically applied.

 

That's shit. Surely a tyre should hold pressure until it's time to
change it?

I had the same problem with the sidecar tyre being flat and me failing
to understand how it could have happened.

 

I don't even know what the pressures are supposed to be on my Pug.

 

Quite. Still I now know a strategy for next time instead of just
escalated swearing. A couple of fasteners were missing off the panel
anyway, so it was a good opportunity to replace them.

I suspect wherever I take it to have the alignment checked would also
appreciate a bit of plusgas pre-treatment of the twiddlable bits.
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| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest * 2 Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

No idea. I suspect they're just run at regular auction houses.

 

This went through a BCA auction earlier this week:

Porsche 911 996 3.4 C4 conv + h/t, Y reg, 50k miles £14,500

 

I tend to check mine twice a year when I switch the summer and winter
tyres/wheels around. It's surprising how often they're really very
low, like sometimes down to 10psi or so.

This year I didn't bother getting the Volvo serviced, and a couple of
them were so low as to cause some issues...

Actually, I guess it's time I fessed up to my possibly most TC moment
ever, which may take some time, but here goes.

Late last year I had a slight LH wheel/kerb interface, which blew out
one tyre and damaged another one, such that they both needed
replacing. Some time after that I noticed a slight noise, like a
clicking of something touching a moving part, and assumed it was
something related to the previous incident. Several attempted
investigations (and a dealer service) failed to spot anything obvious,
and the noise only happened at low speeds under no load, so I left it
at that - it seemed to have gone away when I put the winter tyres on,
but it reappeared some time later.

So come this spring, the summer wheels go back on and the noise seems
to be more frequent, but I still can't find a cause. Summer comes
around, and we're not using the Volvo much, what with the A/C being
U/S and the new car ordered at the end of May. But on those occasions
that I did use it, I noticed some much worse noises, which got
steadily worse each time I drove it. So clearly I drove it even less,
in order not to aggravate things before we got shot of it.

Around July, the noises were so bad that I had to apologise to any
passengers on the rare occasions I used it, and I'd more or less
resigned myself to it being something perhaps wheel-bearing related,
although I'd been told that the discs were a bit worn some time back,
so I'd been assuming it was brake-related up until that point. In
either case, given I was getting shot, and that it was to a garage,
rather than one of the intrested parties from here, I wasn't going to
address it if I could possibly avoid it. So it was used even less.

Then one day in August, for reasons I don't remember J needed to take
her car and I was taking an early T/C from home in the morning, so I
got in the car around 11 to drive into work. ****, what an awful
noise. Jeezus, that's bad, and there's some horrible vibration now as
well. Oh well, it should get me to work OK, shouldn't it?

So I got about half way there, and the vibration had by now got so bad
I stopped to see if I could identify the problem. Kicked the wheels
and stuff, couldn't see anything odd, then just a bit further on I
decided to turn round and drive, very cautiously, back home. By this
time it's not even steering straight, so I resolve to get it sorted
soonest, and call J to come home and fetch me, as I had a meeting I
really didn't want to miss that afternoon.

So on the Saturday I rang our local (~5 miles away) tyre and exhaust
place to see if they could do wheel bearings, as I was utterly
convinced that this was the problem. They said they could, but would
probably need to order parts, so I said I'd come round and leave the
car with them for a couple of days while they sorted it.

So off I sets, hazards on, max speed around 25kph, as the wheel now
seems to have a life of its own, towards the garage. About half way
there I hear, and feel, an even worse thud-type noise from the wheel,
and figure that the bearings must by now be shattering, so I carry on
even more cautiously for another 400 metres or so, until...

the wheel falls off.

Almighty crash, steer towards the edge of the road as the wheel goes
bouncing off into the opposite ditch, and I grind to a halt leaving a
gouge in the tarmac.

****.

So I get out, put out the warning triangle, retrieve the errant wheel
and have a look at the damage. Overall not too bad, although it's
popped the wing-mounting screws out of their restraints so the door
hinge is digging into the wing. Most of the impact had been taken by
the brake disc, which thankfully is of the ventilated type, so is
effectively two disks separated by about 5mm, and seemed to have
remained pretty much unscathed. There is a big chunk of aluminium
ground off the inside of the wheel onto the brake caliper, but no
further damage is visible.

So what happened? Well, a quick search revealed one wheel bolt,
sheered through, on the road just before the gouge mark started, so it
becomes suddenly, blatantly, overwhelmingly obvious. The vibration had
been due to loose wheel nuts, completely unrelated to the previous
noises. As time went on they loosened more and more, and the previous
day at least one (of five) had clearly gone off on its holidays before
I sterted to drive, probably followed by at least one more on that
trip, which would explain the steering being fucked up too. The thud
I'd felt a little before the end was the fourth one dropping off,
which was later recovered, as it happens, leaving just one, presumably
none too tight, to take the strain, which it clearly wasn't going to
do for long.

Can you imagine how fucking stupid I felt at this point? No, you
can't. You may think you can, but you're wrong.

Honestly, I really felt that this was sooo stupid it would have been
deserving of a YTC#, even given the very high bar that VaM set some
years back.

I felt a little better once I'd cannibalised one bolt from each of the
other wheels, and found the one on the road, so at least I had four
bolts/wheel. Wheel was rebalanced, tracking re-done, and suddenly the
car was driving like its old self again. It almost seemed a shame to
get rid, but it was past its time in any case.

So the moral of this story? Yes, it might be worthwhile checking your
tyre pressures occasionally, but for ****'s sake, take a look at the
bolts now and again as well, eh?

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

In my case I think significantly too high pressures are more an issue
than too low.

I once had horrible creaking noises from my trailer when pulling away
from standstill on the way back from a Cadwell track day. I was
convinced the ancient framework was about to collapse, but I eventually
traced it to loose wheel nuts. The pikey trailer wheels must have been
flexing.
--
+----------------------------------------------------------------+
| Pete Fisher at Home: |
| Voxan Roadster Gilera Nordwest * 2 Yamaha WR250Z |
| Gilera GFR * 2 Moto Morini 2C/375 Morini 350 "Forgotten Error" |
+----------------------------------------------------------------+

 

Oops. I'd definitely give that a YTC#, but it's not up to me.

I have a similar, yet not so disastrous story:

I bought my A3 when it was ~18 months old and after I'd had it about 6
months I, like you, had a wheel/kerb interface requiring new tyres and
a new alloy[1]. This was all sorted and I thought nothing more of it.

Until a year later when it went for its first MOT. The front
suspension on the side I'd whacked was pretty fucked, in that the MOT
man recommend I call the Audi assistance to get it to a garage as it
really wan't safe to drive, IHHO, and so I did so.

I somehow managed to get it all replaced under the warranty! I'd put
it in for MOT nice and early explicitly so any issues could be done
under warranty if needed but I wasn't expecting to get away with that!

[1] I actually got one from eBay[2] within a week. £15 + postage.
They retail at around £270+vat.
[2] My first ever eBay experience.

 

'Traffic-calming' stupid sharp-kerbed mini-islands in the middle of
the fucking road. Coupled with fumbling for my phone in the pocket to
read a text message. See, phones really are a menace.

--
_______
..'_/_|_\_'. Ace (b.rogers at ifrance.com)
\`\ | /`/
`\\ | //' BOTAFOT#3, SbS#2, UKRMMA#13, DFV#8, SKA#2, IBB#10
`\|/`
`

 

<nods>