jiberjaber

k - well I probably have a few miles to think about what to do. I would hate to take the plunge and discover teh old wallow is back... might swap the front and rears and see how it feels.

Well its that time to replace the bridgestones that I swapped to the rear, but I am nervous to buy two more F1As as I dont want the car to turn back in to 4 wheel jelly mobile! Any news in the last 2 years since this thread started Tony that might pt me more at ease ??

Wel I am a lot happier now I know what it was! - (he hopes... going to still listen out for the clunk noise though! )

LOL - well I found the clunk noise.... I was working in the shed yesterday and needed my socket ratchet drive for something I was doing..... no where to be seen. Last time I used it was when I changed the battery about a month ago. Guess where it was! Jammed between two pipes in the engine bay! I must have knocked it off where I had rested it, and forgot to count all the tools back in after doing the work! At least I think I have found the source of the clunk now!

Ah - anything I can see when I jack it up and take the wheel off then to confirm?

I can email them to you.... the format doesn't work in the visible forum. I doubt very much if you have a broken coil.... How does the car handle when you get the thud, does it pull to one side? No pulling to one side, just a boing every now and again, there were a couple of little boings tonight on the drive home which I heard but felt more through the break peddal... hmmm wonder what it is... I might jack the car up tomorrow night and take a look.

Cant see the attached charts Tony I have a boing clunk noise which I can hear and feel through the break peddal. I dont think it is the brake pads moving as I know what they sound like from previous experiance, my worry is broken springs!... I think it has Eibach's fitted to the IS300 (they were the ones you swapped over many many moons ago)... Any idea what the distance should be for them?

Well I managed to make good time back from Birmingham via the M40 in the rain and called in to Tony's. After a bit of leavering around at various bush's etc, the lads swapped the wheels over from front to back and re-checked all the pressures etc. I have driven home tonight and the car is like of old! I havent had chance to fling in round any corners as such, but it easily went "fast" without getting floaty which was what was happening with the Eagles on the rear. The road noise is quieter as well which is a bonus Cheers chaps!

Unfortunatly I don't think I will have time to swap the front to back at the moment as I am stuck in a hotel in birmingham. Tony, do you think it would be worth me swinging by on friday to stick it on the ramp, it wouldn't be too much of a detour, say around 15h00?

RE040's were the standard fint on my last two Lex's. This one has them on the front still.

Yes valid point Dazz, I would be a bit dissapointed if that's the case given the rating these tyres get over everything else though - it would explain the wobbly feeling, not sure I could put up with that for the life of the tyres though.

Yes - will do, I am up to Brum next week, so there are a few miles on the road to asses the condition... I'll report back

I have done about 120miles since fitting and the car is on 50K and a bit. Could it be the tyres having *more* grip than before and therefore if you swing the car around a bit it has a similar effect to trying to drive with the handbrake on (i.e. all the movement is in the suspension) ? It feels a bit like a boat at the moment!

OK, checked the tyre pressures, the Tesco machine was showing them at 35, so I dropped them down to 34. Still the same feel though. It is as though the shocks have gone, i.e. if I move the stearing left / right whilst in motion, the rear "wallows" around if you know what I mean! Very puzzled! I checked the shocks and they come straight up and stop when pushed down, bushes maybe?

OK - I'll give it a ride up the road at some point and see if they have scrubbed a bit more then try the tire pressure.

Great to catch up with you today Tony - the facility looks great and the lads all friendly and efficient. I think you have yourself a good crew there! I did notice that there was some back end oscilation on the drive home, kind of like being buffeted by a strong wind, the effect increased with speed (70+ onwards) - I assume this is tyres need to scrub in, but I can't remember feeling that before on new back tyres. I'll keep an eye on it over the next few weeks. Any ideas if it is the tyre newness?

See you Thursday Tony

Excellent Tony - thanks for the info. Good news on the ability to mix and match, I think there is still a load of tread on the front. Might give you a call this afternoon

So the Lex has received a couple of warnings on the MOT, the two rears are low and need replacing. Currently there are Bridgestone Protenza RE040 all round, but I have heard some good news about the Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymetrics. A couple of questions I need a bit of help on. Can I fit a pair of asymetrics on the rear and still keep the directional bridgestones on the front? My tyres are 215/45/17 but I have seen that 225/45/17 (XL's) are around the same price, any advantages in the increase in size? Cheers in advance

Following on from the topic about underinflated tyre pressures, what's the recommended pressure for the std 17" Bridgestones on an IS300, in the following situations: a) mostly fast motorway driving? a bit of "Nurburgring action" ? Ta

Wow.... I was thinking that there was a link to the heat=>expansion, but never would have guessed it was down to the x-sectional area increasing the rolling resistance, resulting in a quicker build up of heat that could not bedisapaited hence the expansion. It certainly is the missing piece in the jigsaw!

Indeed - I was daft enough to last time, I wont this time... being Northen I want my money's worth!

Now then as a few of us on here use Tony Wheels-in-motion for our alignments I thought I would post up a little warning to all that do...... Just got back from Tony's, excellent service as usual, but one thing I must remind you all about is the fine tune of the Geo.... WHAT EVER YOU DO DONT FORGET TO GET YOUR FINE TUNE DONE!!!111 It's free and is vital to ensuring you dont waste all that hard effort Tony has put in to set up your geo. I never did get round to getting my fine tune done after the geo was first done by Tony back in October last year.... the result.... 1 new tyre required for the o/r/f ! This could have been avoided if I had bothered to get the fine tune done!.... You live and learn, then die and forget it... but somewhere in between, please remember to get them fine tunes done after the geo... the're free and are pretty vital to seeing the geo correct!

It's all about value added things though Amhet, there is no incentive for a person to use a trader affiliated with a site apart from if they: a. add some sort of incentive to buy through there site link (discount or something else); b. some form of trust worthyness is implied by the site accepting the trader as a "safe" advertiser. I dont think you can compare the YP with a site such as WIM or LOC or any other collection of like minded enthusiasts, YP is a commercial org, and does what iy says on the tin, i.e. an unchecked list of companies with only their contact details. The case we are talking about is more of a "brand" value for WIM, and as such should be protected. If one plumber in the YP does a kak job, yes you would take it up with the plumber, but it would be the "plumber whose details you found in Yellow pages", YP have 000's of users and advertisers, one rotton apple wouldn't end their reputation over night.... WIM is a totaly different case, there may only be 10 or so traders (maybe more who knows )associated with te site say, and maybe inthe future a couple of thousand users but the risk to the reputation (and brand if we were to think further ahead) is higher..... eg: "I got a terable plumber of the web site" "I got a terrable plumber of the web site, but thanks to unique way website is set up, we got the problem resolved and were one big happy family again" The difference is subtle, but means a lot on the scale you are dealing with at the moment.

no probs Tony.. not sure where the impression was given that it was this site, as it certainly is NOT