What's made you smile today?

[Cheest]

We made it. 50th anniversary today. No real plans other than a nice dinner at a Wisconsin Supper Club this evening. One of those rare places that have been in business for well over a century. In the same building.

I guess I'll have to shave.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

OMG THOSE ARE HATEFUL!!! Well done for percy veering.

Good bloke is Percy!

 

[The Panda Nut]

We made it. 50th anniversary today. No real plans other than a nice dinner at a Wisconsin Supper Club this evening. One of those rare places that have been in business for well over a century. In the same building.

I guess I'll have to shave.

Congrats to you both, and particlarly to you on not getting killed by Mrs Cheest. I've dont think I'll manage to benot murdered. 4.5 more years to survive! I hope its a great meal. PS How is Mrs C. All good I hope.

 

[The Panda Nut]

Noop in action again. I hauled a load of hard core up our local farm track (public footpath) . It disappeared almost without trace. Turned the car and trailer on the ploughed swamp field adjacent and chugged out easy peasy. Collected a full load of fire wood from the house and towed home. Down side was the neighbours all came out when I screamed due to back collapse, bless and thank them. Its settled again now. blasted thing. Upside, wife and daughter know how to hitch and unhitch the trailer now. In 8 weeks this house will be done and my back can rule the roost, but not yet!

 

[Cheest]

Congrats to you both, and particlarly to you on not getting killed by Mrs Cheest. I've dont think I'll manage to benot murdered. 4.5 more years to survive! I hope its a great meal. PS How is Mrs C. All good I hope.

Sometimes I wake up Crabby, but most times I let her sleep in. So, doing well. And thank you. We expect the meal to be good. We've been going there since 1971. Missed going the last 5 years due to the pandemic and having moved another 30 miles south.

 

[bugsymike]

Watching TV cartoon with grand daughter an Australian one called Bluey and heard a reference to "Grey Nomads" and laughed when I realised it referred to older people driving their Motor Homes very slowly with queues of cars behind them
We do go out as well as watch TV.

 

[StevenRB45]

Not sure this will come out in terms of the photo..

Now I know there's a school of thought that says budget tyres...that's what you put on a Toyota but the steering has a slightly strange quality to it at higher speed it's fine but small high frequency vibration.

Good god it's got a full 45 degrees of wheel weights..there's no way these brand new tyres are actually round not too concerned as they will be in the bin shortly but wow who thinks this is good enough to trust long term.

 

[bugsymike]

Is it just the photo, but looking at the brake disc it appears to have fine score marks like we used to get from cars that spent a lot of time too near the seafront and blown sand?
After driving brand new Moskvich cars on Russian tyres anything else is good

 

[bugsymike]

Is it just the photo, but looking at the brake disc it appears to have fine score marks like we used to get from cars that spent a lot of time too near the seafront and blown sand?
After driving brand new Moskvich cars on Russian tyres anything else is good

Then the Lada cars is where I learnt the need for cadence braking well before ABS came along, as being the only way to get around a tight wet corner at speed.
Even that would have been a waste of time with the Moskvich.

 

[StevenRB45]

Is it just the photo, but looking at the brake disc it appears to have fine score marks like we used to get from cars that spent a lot of time too near the seafront and blown sand?
After driving brand new Moskvich cars on Russian tyres anything else is good

Discs and Pads are literally new...well 1100 miles old so I happen to know it's been to the beach once in that time. But they are smooth to the touch...

They are however pretty low grade the ones my preferred garage fitted to the Citroën in the summer look lot better. Mainly as they were coated so the centres are still beautifully silver and these absolutely aren't after a month on the car in the weather.

 

[bugsymike]

It's probably just the photo then, it was like you could drag your nails across and feel ridges when they were exposed to wind blown sand that gets trapped between disc and pads. We used to see Motobility cars where the drivers would park on the seafront in the Winter with the spray breaking over them. Not cars to buy later due to rust.

 

[StevenRB45]

It's probably just the photo then, it was like you could drag your nails across and feel ridges when they were exposed to wind blown sand that gets trapped between disc and pads. We used to see Motobility cars where the drivers would park on the seafront in the Winter with the spray breaking over them. Not cars to buy later due to rust.

The garage did all 4 discs and pads prior to pick up...as you'd expect from someone who would like to make a profit on a used car they didn't use the finest quality discs and pads but it stops and they aren't worn.

I'll do them with a better set once they are worth doing. The tyres though

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

Good god it's got a full 45 degrees of wheel weights..there's no way these brand new tyres are actually round not too concerned as they will be in the bin shortly but wow who thinks this is good enough to trust long term.

Now that just makes me angry. I'd have never let a customer go away with that. T'would be interesting to know where it was fitted. There are too many dodgy places setting up to sell "budget", and even worse, used, tyres with poorly trained staff - or just without any training other than how to spin up a balancer

 

[porta]

Now that just makes me angry. I'd have never let a customer go away with that. T'would be interesting to know where it was fitted. There are too many dodgy places setting up to sell "budget", and even worse, used, tyres with poorly trained staff - or just without any training other than how to spin up a balancer

I think the skill is lost, wehn I got my front tyres replaced on the Jeep XJ, one wheel tyre combo was decidedly ‘not right’. I took it back as it was most definitely out of balance at 60-75mph.
As they were going to do it whilst I waited, I asked if I could see the results. I’ve used them for years as they do everything from a scooter to a combine harvester.
On initial removal, and whacking on the balancer, you could see over a third of it was weights and was definitely out of balance still. He said it was probably a dodgy tyre but they had n more in stock, and this being a Friday they weren’t going to get any in from Stapletons till at least Monday. I asked him to hear me out and try something (I’ve mentioned on here before about tyre fitting).
We removed all the weights and rebalanced, he marked the rim and tyre positions and we removed the tyre and set the wheel in hand motion and remarked the rim.
Putting the tyre back on a full 180, from the tyre mark and the second mark on the rim, tried it again, still out, but, only two small weights to rectify…I called that a result and gave him some beer money.
Wehn I was shown how to do wheel tyre combos, the 90’s in the trade at a Fiat dealership, it was Stapletons who came and showed us how to do it properly!

 

[StevenRB45]

Now that just makes me angry. I'd have never let a customer go away with that. T'would be interesting to know where it was fitted. There are too many dodgy places setting up to sell "budget", and even worse, used, tyres with poorly trained staff - or just without any training other than how to spin up a balancer

It wasn't any national chain etc...small place in Consett on behalf of the car dealer.

But yeah...I've got to say I've never operated a balancing machine but surely when you're up to say half that many weights you'd be like "maybe there's something else going on here".

Perhaps the wheel has a buckle in it....at which point they'd probably not mention it to me but the fact it largely balanced eventually suggests it's probably not.

Despite the weights the wheel doesn't shake your hands etc there's just a bit of weird feeling hard to quantify to it that isn't there at lower speed. More like white noise than vibration.

Of course...I actually said to them don't bother putting new tyres on it as I'm likely putting 4 All seasons on it anyway and I'll be placing whatever is on it in the bin. They put these on anyway rather effectively hiding the cross eyed wheel alignment which was fixed last week. Given these tyres are 35 quid each I'd have much preferred they gave it to me with the shoulder worn tyres on it but the alignment done.

If I wasn't waiting on them to replace the TPS sensors which will need the tyres off again then re-balanced I'd have got a mobile tyre fitter booked to get rid of these.

Now I just need to decide what's going on it..the temptation is to stick the All-Seasons as per the C3...but for basically the same price I can get a premium touring tyre from the same brand which is quieter, more fuel efficient, has better wet braking etc but isn't a winter rated tyre.

The estate in theory is family car only so hopefully we wouldn't be out in any blizzards in it as it's unlikely to be used for commuting in the middle of the night...but you know it's one of those choices where the stars will align and we'll be out in it in a blizzard thinking wistfully of the snow tyres at home.

This may be why I've bought it a good 6 months before it was needed...just so I can have a proper go through it and make sure it's up to standards before we have a newborn demanding all the attention..

 

[bugsymike]

It wasn't any national chain etc...small place in Consett on behalf of the car dealer.

But yeah...I've got to say I've never operated a balancing machine but surely when you're up to say half that many weights you'd be like "maybe there's something else going on here".

Perhaps the wheel has a buckle in it....at which point they'd probably not mention it to me but the fact it largely balanced eventually suggests it's probably not.

Despite the weights the wheel doesn't shake your hands etc there's just a bit of weird feeling hard to quantify to it that isn't there at lower speed. More like white noise than vibration.

Of course...I actually said to them don't bother putting new tyres on it as I'm likely putting 4 All seasons on it anyway and I'll be placing whatever is on it in the bin. They put these on anyway rather effectively hiding the cross eyed wheel alignment which was fixed last week. Given these tyres are 35 quid each I'd have much preferred they gave it to me with the shoulder worn tyres on it but the alignment done.

If I wasn't waiting on them to replace the TPS sensors which will need the tyres off again then re-balanced I'd have got a mobile tyre fitter booked to get rid of these.

Now I just need to decide what's going on it..the temptation is to stick the All-Seasons as per the C3...but for basically the same price I can get a premium touring tyre from the same brand which is quieter, more fuel efficient, has better wet braking etc but isn't a winter rated tyre.

The estate in theory is family car only so hopefully we wouldn't be out in any blizzards in it as it's unlikely to be used for commuting in the middle of the night...but you know it's one of those choices where the stars will align and we'll be out in it in a blizzard thinking wistfully of the snow tyres at home.

This may be why I've bought it a good 6 months before it was needed...just so I can have a proper go through it and make sure it's up to standards before we have a newborn demanding all the attention..

It may be "static balance" that is out rather than "dynamic" as you don't feel steering wheel shake.
Especially with that amount of weights.
Static is where if you let the wheel spin freely it would settle at the heaviest position, probably where all those weights are.
It was more common in the past and you could actually see the cars bonnet shaking as the wheel was trying to go up and down.
When working at a Mazda Dealership we used to take nearly new Mazda Rotary RX3s and 4s to the local ATS tyre depot to have new tyres fitted, only to have customers complain about high speed vibration (probably at three figures knowing some of them)
In the end I balanced their wheels on an old hand wind up wheel balancer we had that was bolted to and oil storage unit, you would wind it up by hand and then put ink on a brush and moved it into contact with the tool which correctly told you where to place the weights, it also had a lever that you moved outwards until it stayed stationary which told you where to put the static balance weights. probably built in the 1950s.
It cured the problem and just showed thousands of pound spent on computerised wheel balancers is wasted if you have monkeys working them!
Another point is rear wheels out of balance like that can cause travel sickness.

 

[StevenRB45]

Sounds plausible...

I'm hoping it's not a buckled wheel though that's pretty unlikely given the lack of visible damage to the wheel...but one side has no wheel weights and the other ALL the wheel weights... although of course if your quality control is that bad you could also accidentally produce a straight tyre.

Very odd indeed, if it needs an alloy a matching one is about 130 quid or I could get mobile service to true it up.

It'll go on the list for after the Citroëns heater and the TPS system on it is fixed.

Although I'm going to straight up ask them of the wheel is bent when it's in for the TPS sensors.

 

[portland_bill]

Not sure this will come out in terms of the photo..


View attachment 455051
Now I know there's a school of thought that says budget tyres...that's what you put on a Toyota but the steering has a slightly strange quality to it at higher speed it's fine but small high frequency vibration.

Good god it's got a full 45 degrees of wheel weights..there's no way these brand new tyres are actually round not too concerned as they will be in the bin shortly but wow who thinks this is good enough to trust long term.

I can't see any weights in the pic, but the concentric lines around the bead look off. They are there as a guide to ensure the tyre is seated properly on the rim. Could be the photo angle, but it looks like the bottom part is closer to the rim. If the tyre is not seated properly, it will effectively be oval, slightly.

 

[StevenRB45]

I can't see any weights in the pic, but the concentric lines around the bead look off. They are there as a guide to ensure the tyre is seated properly on the rim. Could be the photo angle, but it looks like the bottom part is closer to the rim. If the tyre is not seated properly, it will effectively be oval, slightly.

Perhaps...it's likely coming off to sort the cursed tps anyway...let us hope it is mounted by someone other than the work experience kid.

In terms of weights..I've added red arrows to the start and end of the continuous line of weights on the inside of the wheel.

 

[Pugglt Auld Jock]

I can't see any weights in the pic, but the concentric lines around the bead look off. They are there as a guide to ensure the tyre is seated properly on the rim. Could be the photo angle, but it looks like the bottom part is closer to the rim. If the tyre is not seated properly, it will effectively be oval, slightly.

That's very observant of you PB, does look like it's not quite seated right doesn't it? and the positioning of the wights, if that bead is not right, would be consistent with it.