Kerbs and wheels

Bonza39

Member
 Aberdare, South Wales
Had an unfortunate meeting with a kerb at about 80mph which ended up in me just nicking the front offside rim, but cracking the rear one. Thanks to scousefly on here, I now have sorted my 108's having replaced my two offside ones after refurbing the rims. I also replaced the two tyres. My problem is that although having the suspension components checked and the alignment done, which, I was told, wasn't particularly out and nothing bent, the front end seems to have become very light and slightly unpredictable. The tyres on the nearside have only done a few thousand miles, the front having about a 3mm difference to the new offside front, the rears a bit more, but nowhere near worn down. Knowing how sensitive the car is to the runflats and the wear on them that I took off previously, does anyone think this small difference could have an effect, or is it purely a case of going back to recheck the setup and components?? The guys that set it up are indys and have previously set it up fine after we found the problem to be the runflats. They also changed the rear springs after finding one cracked. Its a puzzling one, as the car was properly sorted before, felt really planted, but now anywhere above 70, and I feel like I'm constantly steering it, making small corrections all the time to keep it straight, almost like the dead weight in the middle has gone??? :headbang:
 
I cant see the different tire thread making it feel all different (The NS always wears down quicker - especially if you live in Swindon with a million roundabouts!)

If all the components (wishbone, lower arms) are all straight and true then it has to be the alignment. But for the impact to crack the rear rim would have been some force.

when you say you had the alignment done was this just heel toe, or a full geometry (hunter alignment)?

A obvious question.. but did you replace the tires with the same brand? As this sounds like the most obvious thing to me.
 
You say there is a difference of 3mm on the front tyres and more on the back. That equates to greater than 50% worn tyres on one side (8mm less minimum 2mm gives 6mm of usable tread, of which 3mm or more has gone). With both on the same side you are asking for trouble in any demanding situation of steering braking, etc.

I'd take it and have it correctly 'Hunter' set up if nothing is bent, but seek their opinion of tyres before doing it.
 
Hi guys.

I do actually live I the roundabout haven called Swindon and that amount of difference of tyre tread on RFTs will most certainly make the car feel scitish, and yes in this area near side tyre wear terribly more than the offside.

I will always maintain if your fitting a new tyre so the front (not so much the rear) try to replace both as even a 50% difference in thread depth whilst still legal may cause the puncture detection to continually activate after periods of high speed driving! as it a calculates rotation of the wheels and at a constant high speed (motorway are straight ish) the tread difference will cause it to activate more readily.
 
Update...finally got everything sorted! After having the car aligned the first time, I changed the nearside tyres front and rear and had it checked again, drove it and it STILL wasn't right! I then took it to another garage I have used previously, and had it Hunter aligned. The measurements it went in with strangely didn't match the ones it came out of the other garage with, and they were wrong anyway...both rears were toeing out! I am happy to say that now its back to driving the way it should ad I am finally happy with it! Just goes to show, even with all the alignment technology out there, it's still down to the guy that actually works on it :(
 
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