Rich

Same patten different vehicle destinations.... Someone somewhere has!... Made a mistake. Well I still need to check the rears to see what they are, if they're both ET35 then maybe who ever had them before me damaged one and replaced it with an ET29! Or it could be an ET35 but when manufactured it was stamped up wrong, but I suppose the chances of that are slim!

Some people have no sense...I bet there was abit of play in that as well!! Looking at the photo again I can't see how the ball joint could fall out unless the pinch bolt failed. But if that happens the ball joint can't fall out can it as the weight of the car would hold it in the hub? Unless you happen to go over a nasty pot hole or fly over a humped back bridge!!

Bloody hell must've hit something pretty hard to cause that! I'm always checking mine now especially since you pointed that bolt out to me! What can happen if the whole ball joint comes away from the lower arm though, would it have the same affect as if the main bolts sheared and the arm comes out?

Well like you said earlier I haven't had any problems but I'd be happier having the same offset wheels on the same axle, just to see if it does make a difference if anything. I'll get the same brand tyres I got for the front and then change them around, I was going to put the ET35 wheels on the rear in case it drops any lower!!

Ok so I decided to clean the car today and take the front wheels off to clean all the grease off from me split CV boots. I took the OS off first and the stamp said ET35, which is what they're suppose to be and I checked one of them when I bought the wheels to make sure. Then I took the NS wheel off and clean it and that's when I noticed it said ET29!!!! Now I've had the wheels on the car for a year and half with no problems. Car was drifting to the left but Tony said that was down to the tyres. I can't tell if the rears have the same offset as the difference is so small to visually see. So assuming that 2 of my wheels are ET35 and the other 2 are ET29 and there's one of each on the same axle what problems could this cause? The drifting I get? I can't change them over yet as the front tyres have only recently been changed and done 1000 miles. The rears only had about 2mm left so will be changing them soon. Should the ET35 be put on the front or rear, bearing in mind the recommended offset for my car is ET35 - ET42! Something else to worry about now!!

So if I put 185/60 on the front and the 185/65 on the rears that'll be ok, even with different tread patterns etc? As long as they've got plenty of tread they should pass? Reason I'm asking is I bought some steelies for me escort which I need to get MOT'd before I sell. Standard wheels are 185/60 r14 but the ones I got are 185/65 r14 as they're off a mondeo. Trouble is 2 of them are almost on the indicator and worn on the edges.

Just a quick question. I know you can have wider wheels on one axle compared to the other, but what about the height of the tyre? For instance could I put 185/65 on the front and 185/60 on the rear? If you can will this pass an mot?

Good explaination, I understand now. So if you take our trainers, there are different tread patterns for different environments/circumstances; walking/running, dry/wet etc. Assuming this car just had budget tyres on with a symetrical pattern, would different ones have prevented it from happening or changed the way the car crashed? :ph34r_anim:

Cheers Tony, made abit of sense! :ph34r_anim: :ph34r_anim: The bloke driving wasn't hurt, don't even think the car had an air bag, if it did it never went off. The police were there for about an hour with the bloke, don't know if he got nicked for anything! I use this stretch of road every day and before the humps were put in the lighting was very poor, if you don't know the road you wouldn't see the bend until you were on top of it, but the signs can be seen clearly if you're paying attention to the road! When I go around it I normally cut across both lanes as you can see if there's any oncoming traffic...

What do you mean by number 3, that one has me baffled?!!

Can I just point out that the humps have only been put in this week, they weren't there when this accident happened. So you could approach the bend doing well over the 30mph limit. It happened around 5pm a couple of days into the new year so was dark. Also the lighting was fairly poor on this stretch, they've improved this though cos of the new humps. There are the warning signs on the side of the road to indicate it's a sharp bend which can be seen quite clearly via the headlights. I agree about the car not having ABS, I think it was an M reg so when they braked they locked. The car hit the post and the back end smashed into the brick wall behind it. Also cos of the time of year the road was damp and possibly frosty. There was an article in the paper about it, I will have to try and find it when I go to work. A week after this happened someone else drive straight into the tree you see in the background next to the lamp post. Looked like they didn't even attempt to steer around the corner!