Makes one wonder if someone was jacking the vehicle under the tie rod- very scary
What's made you not grumpy but not smile either today?
- Thread starter dave
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What's made you not grumpy but not smile either today?
Indeed, it’s not that old and you’d not expect an 8 year old car to just snap the tie rod like that, I notice the wear indicates are very close to the limit or on the limit. Maybe a neglected car or maybe the owner has been hammering it over a lot of speed bumps or pot holes ?
In all honesty it probably wouldn’t make any weird noises before it snapped?
Indeed .. it looks a 'clean break'.. but also looks a bit twisted.. on the hub side of the break
There is a steep and awkward 'give way' junction where I am stood in the distant pic..
so could even have let go while on full lock at virtually walking pace
In the grand scheme.. those spars look pretty weedy
Very true Jock..
Even less work than normal around here now..
And a lot of the local garages havent reopened since Xmas
There is a big length of wood laid under the car.. so they mustve wrestled it over somehow
Will need a Facebook account...but good lord.
https://www.facebook.com/143233165824638/posts/1991637064317563/
I'd bet money on the Mercedes being a 4matic.
https://www.facebook.com/143233165824638/posts/1991637064317563/
I'd bet money on the Mercedes being a 4matic.
Yes indeed, but I've seen some pretty dodgy jacking done in tyre depots over the years let alone by the vehicle owners themselves. In fact I now take loose wheels in when I need tyres done - I'd feel quite nervous about letting them loose without being able to supervise, and if you attempt to offer advice it's invariably not appreciated! Easier to just turn up with the wheels in the other car's boot (or even in the wheel barrow - Yes I've even done that, more than once)
Having had a mobile service out to the C3 I don't think i'll be darkening the doorway of a tyre place again.
Four airbags under the jacking points raise it level, wheels done and gently back down. So much less chance of damage.
Air bags? what a great idea! Was it a one man band or a bog national? Just wondering if I could try them up here in Edinburgh - Was there extra expense due to it being mobile?
When they did my Punto tyres which when I looked I could see a rather substantial star shaped puncture on the shoulder of the tyre. I asked if I could look at the tyre after to see what had happened, when I picked the car up they said they couldn’t find any puncture and assumed it to be the rim that was leaking, so they put extra tyre goop on the rim to seal it.
New tyres fitted and looked like a plasterers radio typical tyre fitting service total incompetence, we only do it because we don’t have a £5k tyre fitting machine, honestly where do these garages get there staff from ?? Do any of them know anything about cars..... or fitting tyres?
Big National (National tyres and autocare bought via AA tyres as I get discount off) but I don't know if they pay local franchisees or have their own guys though.
Cost no more to get them delivered and put on than it did to go in.
I think the broken track rods are the result of skids into kerbs. Happened before the roads cleared. The Astra clearly has a break at both ends of the rod.
Crash on the hill, the dozy woman with the Smart car was a significant problem. She parked too close to the bollards, (the discussion before the crash was about moving it). VW saw the wriggle needed, so took the right side of the road to avoid. Merc didn't realise why, kept going, ran out of grip and space.
Without the Smart, I think both would have passed ok.
"Let's park on the hill, and set other traffic a challenge." No. Didn't go well.
Crash on the hill, the dozy woman with the Smart car was a significant problem. She parked too close to the bollards, (the discussion before the crash was about moving it). VW saw the wriggle needed, so took the right side of the road to avoid. Merc didn't realise why, kept going, ran out of grip and space.
Without the Smart, I think both would have passed ok.
"Let's park on the hill, and set other traffic a challenge." No. Didn't go well.
There's a car ahead of the Smart sideways that has mounted the kerb so perhaps she saw what was going on and stopped before she slid down after.
I was under the impression that you were meant to leave an adequate gap to the car in front to stop if required?
Yes she shouldn't have stopped there, but also the car in front of her shouldn't be sideways in the road and the VW shouldn't be going down the wrong side of a refuge island but they may have got away with it if he hadn't come through like a bowling ball.
National? The people with the big red signage? What a coincidence. I tend to approach the smaller suppliers as I find they are often more "hungry" and respond to a bit of haggling. However last spring one of the neighbours, with a large Honda HRV, rang my door bell because he had a flat tyre and couldn't get the nuts undone. They were stupidly tight, I think they may never have been off since it left the factory, but yielded to my biggest power bar.
He's a very pleasant chap but definitely a clean fingernail office type and when I started suggesting where we might go to get it fixed said he'd rather just buy a new tyre and let's just go to the National Depot up the road. So we did.
The manager dealt with us and what a pleasant chap he was. In fact there was something very familiar about him and when I mentioned it to him he said that yes, he felt he'd probably met me somewhere before. Probably from the past in the trade? Anyway whilst my friend and he were chatting I took the, very large, wheel and tyre over to the fitting machine and the fitter went off to see what they could supply him with. He was lucky, they had an exact match, and I chatted with the fitter, who was also very pleasant, whilst he stripped the old tyre from the rim, lightly rubbed the slight alloy corrosion from the lip of the rim, applied a very light "skim" of sealant (he said they do this as standard on alloys), lubricated the tyre beads with fitting soap and fitted the new tyre. He then removed all the old balance weights and balanced the wheel. It was a text book example of how it should be done and I was very impressed. They then swopped over the newly fitted assembly for the "skinny" spare. I've no idea what my neighbour paid - a lot I would guess for an original brand tyre to match what was on the car already and it was a big tyre. We had to wait a wee while for another customer, who had come in behind us and blocked our way out, to finish getting his tyre and go before we could move and I passed the time chatting to the manager chappie. I mentioned how I seldom frequent establishments such as his and he asked why. After some light banter he said "No, seriously, next time you need tyres come and see me, I'll do you a deal which might surprise you". I'd forgotten all about this until this thread set me to remembering, but, I just noticed, they do AVONs! Could do worse than give him a chance?
PS Damn it, Mrs J just told me she thinks they've shut that branch as it looked all closed up when she went past it on her way to the supermarket!
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Talking about text book examples of how to do it, about 17 years ago I had a text book example of how not to do it and that was at a little local tyre firm.
Jock level post coming up
I used to own a Ford Mondeo with a very early set of diamond cut faced alloys, these had a much wider front face for looks and the back of the wheel was normal, they had warning stickers on the inside of the bolt cover and the back of the wheel saying the tyre needed to be taken off the back face (with the front face being much bigger I suspect you’d probably not get the tyre off the front.
So I waited ages in the little waiting room reading magazines and drinking coffee eventually getting frustrated, I stand a look out to find the YTS boy with the wheel face up, off the ground and hanging on a pry bar trying to get the tyre off the front of the wheel, I rushed out and corrected him pointing out all the labels, he then scratched the front face of the wheel with the tyre machine when he turned it over and I later found a nice big lump in the rear foot well as he’d jacked it on the floor pan.
Needless to say I never went back, despite having used them for years up till that point and somewhere my grandfather who worked in the motor trade until he died in the 90s had used for about 40-50 years before that
Jock level post coming up
I used to own a Ford Mondeo with a very early set of diamond cut faced alloys, these had a much wider front face for looks and the back of the wheel was normal, they had warning stickers on the inside of the bolt cover and the back of the wheel saying the tyre needed to be taken off the back face (with the front face being much bigger I suspect you’d probably not get the tyre off the front.
So I waited ages in the little waiting room reading magazines and drinking coffee eventually getting frustrated, I stand a look out to find the YTS boy with the wheel face up, off the ground and hanging on a pry bar trying to get the tyre off the front of the wheel, I rushed out and corrected him pointing out all the labels, he then scratched the front face of the wheel with the tyre machine when he turned it over and I later found a nice big lump in the rear foot well as he’d jacked it on the floor pan.
Needless to say I never went back, despite having used them for years up till that point and somewhere my grandfather who worked in the motor trade until he died in the 90s had used for about 40-50 years before that
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Whilst there is a car sideways ahead of her, there is a lot of distance between them. There are tracks around her, so she's been there a while, as something else has gone past. I wonder if it was the sideways car, that lost control due to steering to get around her.
They're all to blame to some degree. Smart parked in a silly place, VW no aware of following car then passing on the left, Merc going too fast, and sounding his horn way too late, by that time, what did he think the VW could do?
Smart car had been visiting the ones with the camera, hence the parking position. Advice not to move was poor, better to go and clear the space. If she'd rolled away, there's a chance they would all have passed, close but no crash. "Rabbit in the headlights"
Austin/Morris 1100/1300 wheels were that way around. Had to place them on the machine face down or they'd never come off. They were'nt easy the right way around either.
I had a 'convenient 'branch of National when I commuted to a city centre..
They still send be a big sheet of 20% off vouchers
But its no longer 'convenient'... and the stitch.up with the brakes on our sons Seicento took the shine off the place
Oddly the Manager for that Branch now runs the place I now use a few miles away..
Where I get all the 'loose wheels' attended to.. but purchases are through AA tyres.. as they are 'Halfprice..'
They still send be a big sheet of 20% off vouchers
But its no longer 'convenient'... and the stitch.up with the brakes on our sons Seicento took the shine off the place
Oddly the Manager for that Branch now runs the place I now use a few miles away..
Where I get all the 'loose wheels' attended to.. but purchases are through AA tyres.. as they are 'Halfprice..'
Yes, them, but don't know if they charge for mobile if dealing direct, like I say went through the AA for the discount and the AA use them to fulfil orders.
Round here they tend to be the best of a bad bunch.
It'll very much depend on the guy who turns up with the van. Theoretically because he's a one man and van operation I'd put money on his balancing equipment etc being in better nick if he's the only one using it day in day out. He managed to put no marks on the wheels on the C3 which are black painted and they were perfectly balanced 1st attempt...even the pressures were right which never happens ever.
OP
OP
laser adjustment dont last, get LRS you prevent cataracts then too. I have that got multifocal lens fitted.
