CIH

Fixed a puncture on a Mazda 323 yesterday. Backed it out the tyre-bay and there's a terrible knocking noise from the rear. Chucked it on the ramp and found a knackered rear roll-bar drop link. Customer confirmed he was getting a noise and the car occasionaly felt "less stable" when changing lanes at speed. Mr Smug with my diagnostic skillz, I declared I was wasted at KF. Two minutes later the car drives back in with the fella saying the sound was worse than ever. Back on the ramp, I noticed the clearance between wheel and lower arm-hub mounting bolt was really small, and the new wheel balance weight was all scratched and the bolt had a polished spot.........

I imagine you'd be looking at a Potenza, given the dimensions. edit: A guy who neighbours our place has a v8 M5 with staggered wheels. I wonder if his car behaves in a similar way ?

Would Nissan have changed the settings to suit UK roads ? Just had a quick read through the the thread and I notice the report shows Z33 Fairlady, not 350Z ?

Oh I agree but you also told me not to trust the wear pattern so I look at both and try to draw my own conclusions. Plus I wouldn't expect -58" camber (OEM -1'30" ish, within tolerance anyway) and minimal toe to cause almost the whole outer 50% of the tread to be heavily worn (N/S/R tyre). It was an MOT job so neither I or our test dude found any issues with the car itself. I decided it may have been a historical issue previously rectified but the tyre still displayed the wear pattern. Would you agree, by the way, as Hunter's video tech says, that failure to rotate wheels across axles can cause heel and toe wear on the outer tyre shoulder ?

Sticky/Stuck slip plates sounds logical. Anyway, did an A4 cabriolet today and it was nice and straight forward with no perplexing "activity". Even the suspension options code was on the spare wheel-well placard/sticker and it's almost never there! 'Cos it went well I got a picture of the car and kept a summery report for my personal little portfolio. Tyre was far worse than the geo would have suggested though..... Had an early A3 in for puncture which showed classic signs of excessive negative camber on both front tyres so that should on the ramp Saturday.

Would chaning tyre brands help alleviate the syptoms ? Tony, are you sure the wheels are staggered ? I was surprised, recently, to find an MGF has symmetrical wheels despite different tyre sizes.

Yup, that's what I figured. Should be do-able with my kit as I'm pretty sure it has the power-tools but it doesn't lend itself to minor tweakage. Are the shims readily avaliable to be made-up ?

Seems odd SAI would show as out of spec but consistant across the axle. Like the Golf I did a few weeks ago. And the different max. steering angles ? Though, when I've tried that I've often found the target can be obscured from the camera and have had to abandon that spcific procedure. Eitherway, be interesting to see what WIM+Friends have theorised.

I'd be interested to see what WIM makes of the IRS as fitted to the S12 Silvia and how camber adjustment could be obtained. IIRC it's a similar set-up to e30/early e36 3 series BMW. Here's a scan from the Nissan brocheure Factory toe adjustment is provided by an eccentric bolt on the inner arm-to-frame bush. A common "mod" is to fit Z31 Fairlday/300ZX semi-trailing arms to accomodate bigger brakes and 5-stud wheels, incidentally. The front can be fully modified with S13 180SX/200SX Coilovers, TREs, hubs, lower arms and (iirc) track control arms. S14 parts can be used for 5-stud wheels and better brake options.

so, factory fit ?

This is all very fascinating. Out of interest, was the wheel packagae a factory or dealer-fit option ?

All this sounds so familiar.....

The Service techs have Autodata books for things like timing belt replacement procedure. Duon't know about geo data... How would the twisted subframe account for the different readings for the Eunos ? I could understand but when the readings changed I head fell clean off. Could the frame had shifted somehow ?

"build one" ? lol actually, I really fancy a Sukhoi Flanker so I really should build one to make room another box. 'think I'll start the Foxbat (^ bottom right) as it's a fairly simple, chunky shape.

If I were to come I'd have to park the S12 round the back and walk the rest of the way Do the sports car dudes mind the "natives" knocking about ? Or have does Herts have nicer people than Manchester ?

Beachshore has moved the database to a new server but it was saved up to Friday. The forum was back online for a while yesterday and Tony made a few posts but alas they've now gone. Sorry but yes.... Once the "notice" was posted on the login page, all posts there after could be lost in the move. Ah no big deal. So long as I'm not going crazy and imagening posts

Did we loose some posts from the weekend ? I'm sure some of the threads were further along than they are now

Got some cheap S13 kits for OneVia and SilEighty projects!

Had a right old couple of days. 1st job back after a week off was a Sprinter Van. I really hate measuring ride-height when it gives specific target figures from given points but doesn't give a proper description of where those points are. I did get to do Jacking Compensation for the first time though. And today I had an NA Eunos which was absolutly peculiar. Did all the pre-geo tests and was happy. Tried to adjust the rear and, despite what I did, I couldn't get the OSR camber any lower than -1'40 and the NSR any higher than -30". Plenty fed-up I locked it down and did the front. Printed off the reports and the rear had shifted to~ -50" either side. Hunter didn't want to tell me the spec for rear camber, presumeably because it was lowered on what looked like coilovers. I had figured somewhere around -1' was probably a fair figure so it had gone where I wanted but I really hate geometry movement that I can't account for. Does my head in no-end....

just had to show off the scissor doors eh ?

Would excessive Cator cause heavy steering ? Assuming correct Thrust Angle, I was thinking it would be be because the SR isn't shifting across the tyre ? This isn't work related (haven't been in due to a sprained ankle) but a discussion on a car forum.

Yes but wouldn't a corrective action on the NSR have an undesired impact on the OSF and vice-versa ?

I always figured it to be a shallow copy of a Lambo ?

See a few of these around Altrincham. There's a vblack one with a silver flash (the panel aroundthe fuel filler).

Am I the only one who doesn't like loads of colour in a 'bay ? I'd probably be the only guy buying the black Samco hoses, plug leads etc