Janey

Mike, I know you love a good argument But I think that the point is that, say you take your car to a 'garage/supplier' and that 'garage/supplier' blows up your car, or does irevocable damage due to bad workmanship, or fits/supplies incorrect parts, or takes your car out for a test drive & smashes it up, the list goes on If the 'garage/supplier' doesn't have the correct insurances/warrantys etc. you are buggered. That is unless you wish to go through a very lengthy court process to try and claim from the individual (after deciding wether you sue the mechanic or the man who takes your money) and being asked by the court "Why did you take your car to this person? Did you not check that they were insured to carry out the services offered?" The whole thing is that any 'proper' business who supplies a service should have their services/products covered by the appropriate insurance.

Hehe...how to make more work for a stressed man.......... Order a set of lowering springs, so the whole lot have to come off

Ohh no Mark ....that would make me 7 months old than I am Anyway...back on subject we are going to take off the shocks & springs, run them to the garage opposite work & see if they can do up the nuts properly and go from there (whilst crossing fingers & toes that it will sort the problem )

Haha I wish Mark Looks like I'm getting some air tools for my big birthday And there was I wishing for a turbo

Right, let me start from the very begining Approx 4/5 mths ago I has a set of Spax PSX adjustable shocks & springs fitted to my Roadster Shortly afterward the rear passenger side started squeeking (at first I thought it was the air filter rubbing on the hood ) but it was the suspension Then on Friday I started to get a clonking from what sounded like the drivers side rear So yesterday after it being suggested that the squeek was probably the bushes dried out, I lubed everything up, took her out for a drive and.....squeek still there, clonk still there. Next I enlisted the help of Barrie, who took a closer look and discovered that the passenger side top mount had 2 nuts on it So off came the 2nd nut and hey presto squeeking gone But...clonking still there.....so.......off came the shock (I passed Barrie the tools ) only to discover loads of play on the top mount (mmmm now we figure why the 2nd nut may have been there ) We compressed the springs to enable the nut to be tightened and no matter what we did it didn't seem to want to budge so springs were decompressed again and the top seemed a little better (no major movement) Took her out for another drive.....the clonking is now worse than it was before Question is............please, please, please, what the heck do I need to do now ? and is there anyone out there who can help/advise Big thanks in advance

Cool, thanks Tony

Yes as far as I am aware it does as I remember you tweaking them

No this is out of my own demented brain Gord Not sure Tony how flexible is my rear ? No.....Bless how flexible is the rear 'geometrically' of the car in question? Ahh but that was the answer, we are talking about my car I have no idea how flexible it is, but I'm hoping you do

Blimey we are going to have the whole alphabet soon So let me get this right........The car has angular polar movement due to the flex being present which is due to the weight transfer no longer supporting the angular inertia, so therefore in theory a small pothole in the road would cause a worse long/short term effect to the geometry of the car than the lack of bracing Do I get my Physics degree now

No this is out of my own demented brain Gord Not sure Tony how flexible is my rear ?

Darn that Newton bloke So taking out the extra yaw factor (which we don't need/have in this situation ) the gravity points and roll points (as far as I am aware the 5 is pretty centrally balanced) are unstable, & without bracing (generally without in standard in Mk1's, 2's & 2.5's) the car is liable to flexing and therefore possibly causing geometry problems Yes ??

After watching the 1/4 miles today & looking at what the 'serious' boys were running on, and also some of the traction problems some of them were having - I have a question Take a RWD car Put 155/70/13's on the front - Put 195/45/15's on the rear What would the effect be ? Runwise & geometry wise ? p.s I'm a girly and i am allowed to ask questions like this

Ahh so in theory: For example, angular acceleration is an axial vector. In classical mechanics, such interactions can be described by Euler's equations for rotational motion: M = Jw. (J - the moment of inertia, w - angular acceleration, M - external momemt) So we can formulate the following definition: If an interaction results in axial accelerations, then this interaction is an axial (torsion) interaction. It should be emphasized that there exist no fundamental generalizations for the equation M = Jw in the modern theory of fields. Thus the modern theory of fields operates only with polar interactions, and torsional interactions are not taken into consideration. Now I get it It is a little disconcerting that there can be that much noticable movement without bracing A friend has a 1990 Roadster with absolutlely no bracing anywhere at and he feels the flex when cornering and over the winter with a hard top on every bend in the road resulted in a creaking where the top was staying put and the chassis was moving My car came with a factory front strut brace, I added the seatbelt one, then did the front chassis one & have now got the roll cage to go in & probably a rear strut & possibly chassis brace. Main reasons for doing this was that people pointed out how bad the car looked in the pics (roll etc) when I was drifting so in theory amongst other bits like changing the knackered shocks & springs, bracing was the next best thing

For the last week my car has had no rear bracing (previously had a rear seatbelt tower brace on) and I have noticed a high amount of 'body flex' when cornering etc. The rear end feels very un-planted (front still has strut & chassis bracing on) and although its not actually effecting the main drive too much, there is a definate flexing movement going on. I am wondering wether this could have an effect on the geometry as if the rear half of the car is moving around in a way which as such 'doesn't seem healthy' Anyone got any ideas on this little theory of mine ??????

Excellent news - hopefully I will never need to use your 'services' but I am always coming across people who have mashed a wheel or two and are asking where they can go

Ok so in a perfect world, what tyres would be best for my little Roadster - allowing me enough grip but enough lee-way to play on the twisties but reasonably safe & grippy in the wet Or am I asking too much from some poor little rubber tree that never hurt anyone but have their juice farmed for our needs

Interesting reading I'm still running in my new symetricals, excellent grip in the dry, crappy in the wet Although I'm not sure I agree with being described as a Vicars Wife

So in real terms you were making a safety video then Gazza I put my foot down a little too much (touch of road rage ) turning into a road from a stop last week (new tyres & wet road) the back end slid out then back again, then again as I recovered it Was great fun & I'm sure it looked impressive from behind though

And luckily apart from a scuff on one of them (wasn't me ) Who did the deed..... name and shame Twinkle Hehe...Whoever owned it in Japan before I got it

I love the way they look on the car. (Pain in the butt to clean though ) Although they are a bit like 'marmite' some Roadster owners actually swap them for boring standard Mazda Alloys And luckily apart from a scuff on one of them (wasn't me ) they are in excellent condition even the centre caps are perfect

LOL, you will have to ask Jason for the whole story, will give you a clue....it has something to do with Raz being asked if he likes Judy Garland Baz has got a load of piccys ready to go up & Zee is collating all the others at the mo, so you should get to see some today Cheers Dan, I'm a bit torn as I have an original set of BBS's on the car at the mo and I really like the way they look. So maybe I should go for a set of 15's or 16's for track (my thoughts are on more tyre on road more grip ) and then I also have my other set of skinnys (micra steels) for drifting.

Thanks for the answers guys So in reality if I want width I need to go for bigger inches too.....now where have I heard that before Hehe Melin, you can thank Tony for the story behind the signature, I'm glad your little 'un appreciates a good nursery rhyme, Germany was wicked, wish I'd taken my Roadster too now (although I may have ended up in the armco ) The company was excellent I haven't laughed so much in years (well since JAE anyway) TTE's hospitality showed no bounds, and the hotel was tops for actually ordering take out pizza for us and happily watching while we sat in the bar & ate it. There are so many funny stories to tell, like the tale of "crikey",& the one about "Faz, Taz, Raz, Daz, John from Croydon & his dog (possibly called Dorothy)"....don't ask Can't wait for next year to come round

Ok ....yes I am probably extremely thick, but then I am just a mere girly My wheels are 14 x 6JJ H2ET 45, the tyres I have on at the mo (thanks Tony ) are 185-60-14's. My question is...can I fit wider tyres on this size wheel, if so what ??

You would have a 'Wilmslow' moment Sorry I'm sure someone with some knowledge will be able to answer this one

From what I have read most drift cars seem to run with toe in