The Panda Nut
Nutty about Pandas Infected by Panda virus and OPD
I needed to clean the limescale out of my hot water cylider and replace the immersion. Is a bit of a performance taling the hot tank roight out.
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What's made you grumpy today?
Cars parked very tight to our wee runway (drive) today so went out to stand in the road whilst Mrs J reversed the Panda into the road. Waved goodbye to her and turned to walk back to the front door and Oh! O/S/R tyre on the Ibiza is flat, really flat. Swopped it out for the spare which is a full size I bought to supplement the bottle of gunge she comes with as standard. Inflated the flat tyre and at first can't hear or see a leak so painted it with solution of washing up liquid and water and, damn it, there's the leak. It's in the shoulder at the side of the tread almost into the sidewall so not repairable damn it! Closer examination reveals a very small shard of glass has penetrated right through. The really gutting thing is I renewed all the tyres this year and there's only about a mil's worth of wear on it!
Always the way for me....
It could be worse I managed to do a not even 2 week continental sports tyre a few years ago.
That was spectacularly annoying...the little rubber bobbles and coloured strips hadn't even worn off it..oh and it wasn't cheap either.
I think I got you both beat...
Had a full set of 4 new premium tyres fitted to a Focus a few years ago.
17 miles (yes, seventeen!) later ran over a wooden fence post that fell off the back of a truck which was trying to get out of the way of an ambulance with lights and sirens on.
Felt the bump, pulled over at the next lay-by and listened to the stereophonic hissing noise.
Both passenger side tyres with damaged sidewalls.
And one alloy with a definite bend.
And, unfortunately, only one space-saver spare wheel.
Of course it was raining, and I was on my way to a business meeting.
I did wonder whether the passenger in the back of the ambulance was actually having a worse day than me.
Had a full set of 4 new premium tyres fitted to a Focus a few years ago.
17 miles (yes, seventeen!) later ran over a wooden fence post that fell off the back of a truck which was trying to get out of the way of an ambulance with lights and sirens on.
Felt the bump, pulled over at the next lay-by and listened to the stereophonic hissing noise.
Both passenger side tyres with damaged sidewalls.
And one alloy with a definite bend.
And, unfortunately, only one space-saver spare wheel.
Of course it was raining, and I was on my way to a business meeting.
I did wonder whether the passenger in the back of the ambulance was actually having a worse day than me.
The first time my wife borrowed my car to get to work, 2 months old and she found the biggest nail in the world.
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Top effort!
The winner for me would have been if when in courtesy car that had no spare (modern era yay)...and my pump etc were in the boot of my car...I'd managed to destroy a tyre on a car with 1k miles on it that didn't belong to me and that I was liable to replace. I'd done 6 miles in it..
Thankfully it held air long enough to limp to garage down the road and I didn't have to use the goo so it was repairable.
I think the main message of this thread appears to be punctures still absolutely happen with modern tyres...they just want to save the cost of a spare/use the space for under floor storage.
I agree, one of the biggest "bug bears" in recent years is manufacturers penny pinching by not including a spare wheel. They can sell you a car "limited" to a 155 Mph which to use is illegal, but not give you a spare wheel which is esential!
I recall a few years ago going out to a regular customers daughters car in pouring rain at night (anyone but a good regular I would have declined) she had caught the kerb and damaged both the tyre and rim, I reach for the spare tyre...... nothing just a stupid out of date bottle of gunk and a toy compressor, none of which would have got the driver mobile. It's bad enough that manufacturers make car electronics unrepairable at road side, but a simple tyre/wheel issue has to involve a car transporter or AA/RAC membership is pretty poor in my book.
If any of my or my daughters cars comes without a spare wheel I make a point of getting one and they have been shown how to change a wheel also!
I understand manufacturers are obliged to include a spare wheel for some Countries, Why Not Here!!!
The AA has had to start including a bunch of new bits and pieces on the vans.
One of which is a multifit wheel...another is rivet gun with effectively rubber mushroom head rivets you fire into the tyre to patch the hole temporarily.
It's made what would have been a 10-15 minute job of bang a spare on into a whole song and dance that ties patrols up with otherwise perfectly functional vehicles.
Now here's a thought. As the Ibiza came with just a bottle of gunge, I bought a standard steel rim - genuine VAG product as fitted standard to the base version of my vehicle. The base model uses the same 185/60R15 size tyre as mine and the wheel width and offset of the steel wheel is the same as the alloys which came with my vehicle. So from the point of view of dimensions and tyre speed rating etc the steel wheel is identical to my alloy - and, of course the base model comes on these steel wheels. So, with the steel fitted, as it is right now:
can I just drive at normal speeds or should I be limiting progress to 30mph - or whatever - due to the wheel not being an alloy?
Here's the puncture:
It's just at the end of that tread groove, almost impossible to see unless you look really carefully. However slaister a wee bit of soapy solution on it and you can see the bubbles.
can I just drive at normal speeds or should I be limiting progress to 30mph - or whatever - due to the wheel not being an alloy?
Here's the puncture:
It's just at the end of that tread groove, almost impossible to see unless you look really carefully. However slaister a wee bit of soapy solution on it and you can see the bubbles.
if you look it goes in through the tread and out the side wall, it was about 6 inches in length
Hi Jock
Are the ET figures the same ?... other than that I would be happier with your proposal than with 4 x odd tyres
Are the ET figures the same ?... other than that I would be happier with your proposal than with 4 x odd tyres
Think this would be one of those things that makes a difference in theory rather than practice.
In theory the wheels have a different rotational mass so braking may be different across the axle..in practice whether you'd notice that over say braking on the camber of the road is probably unlikely.
Only thing for me would be the bolts. We've got a steel spare and alloy wheels, as they were a factory option the bolts are designed to work with both. Slightly odd in that the alloys are hub centric...but the steels are not.
As result there's a flair half way up the bolt that centres and holds the steel wheel on that the alloy does not utilise at all as the bolt holes are bigger and they get held by a captive washer at the end. Slightly odd as fully tightened up..half the bolt hangs out the steel wheel.
Andy ,
Nails can do that.. our old Blue 169panda was parked in the 'CouncilDepot ' every workday.. Amazing the screws I removed from the treads over weekends
I was always reminded of a trip through Snowdonia on the back of my Dads TS100 1970's bike
Tubed rear tyre picked up a nail..and started 'sewing'...
1 nail made 7 holes.. we had 6 patches
Nails can do that.. our old Blue 169panda was parked in the 'CouncilDepot ' every workday.. Amazing the screws I removed from the treads over weekends
I was always reminded of a trip through Snowdonia on the back of my Dads TS100 1970's bike
Tubed rear tyre picked up a nail..and started 'sewing'...
1 nail made 7 holes.. we had 6 patches
sorry Charlie, ET figures?Hi Jock
Are the ET figures the same ?... other than that I would be happier with your proposal than with 4 x odd tyres
You can drive at normal speeds, as it is effectively the same wheel/tyre.
These are probably the same wheels as on my Fabia. The base Fabia has steels, and the SE, which I have, had alloys, but identical dimensions and tyre size. When I bought it, the dealer happily swapped my alloys for steels from a base model, as steels make more sense for learners, where kerbs have a tendency to jump out at them. I bought a new wheel for a spare, and a toolkit (from an Ibiza) via eBay.
I've had three punctures on the Fabia, in 4 years. The Panda, new in Jan 2006, owned since Jan 2010, collected its first puncture a few weeks ago. Space-saver spare saw daylight for the first time ever. Hard as rock, but gets you home.
Sorry Jock
ET : Rim offset
ET : Rim offset
For your Perusal
Basically, if the point at which the wheel mounting surface is exactly the center, equal distance from the back or front of the wheel then the ofset (ET) is zero.
If it's more towards the front of the wheel as in most cars or further back as you'd get with some deep-dish wheels, then that distance is measured and gives you the offset in millimeters.
I didn't comment re ET, as I believe you worked for Firestone in past Jock, something about grandads and sucking eggs
Thanks Charlie, Andy and all. I just never came across that terminology before. Offset - Inset - Stud pitch circle diameter - boss diameter - Rim width and diameter - Rim profile ("J" for instance being a common one) and so on. At Firestone I wasn't involved in wheel design just supplying and fitting tyres to wheels supplied by the teams and then taking tyre temperatures and wear projections during practice before races and interpreting them for the teams so they could make beneficial adjustments to suspension setups and calculate likely pit stops when endurance racing.Sorry Jock
ET : Rim offset
So there you go. Even at this ripe old age I'm learning something every day and isn't it wonderful it's you guys I'm learning from - Thank you.
