TheBoy

That,s more likely to be transfer of the friction material from the pad onto the hot disk which is quite common and probably the biggest cause of people saying they've 'warped' their discs. http://www.stoptech.com/tech_info/wp_warped_brakedisk.shtml Potentially, but in at least one case I've had (on the Rover), it was the disc itself was thinner in one area - we had to have the Rover engineers check them, as Rover were getting miffed at the number of warranty replacements I'd had - opps!)

Certainly one way I have 'warped' (probably affected the uniformness of thickness, than buckled/bent disc) pattern discs on my Omega is by 'giving it some large' (I work in Milton keynes, any attempt to be in a hurry does ask a bit from the brakes, esp with a 1.7 tonne car), then being lazy at the next roundabout, sat with my foot on brake waiting for my gap (its an auto, so there is creep otherwise). It seems, get cheap discs very hot, then compress it in one place quite hard between 2 pads is a sure way to need new discs (and pads)

Certainlysounds reasonable

I reckon you need to get the geomtery checked on it to ascertain the "in-garage" handling

Ooooooo, that car suits you And it will fit in the garage

So, Tony drives a modified Renault 5 then

What about the side repeater - are they easily obtainable?

Indeed, it does sometimes sound like a broken record. BUT we are all generally quick to make noises when we get poor service, so I like to give praise where I think its due I've been taking my cars to Tony for a fair few years now, back when he was in Watford. Everybody else had tried to resolve the issues I had with odd handling and chronic tyre wear on my Vauxhall Omega, including the usual fast fit and the Vauxhall dealers. All without success. I recall a phone conversation with Tony before taking the car there (Watford isn't exactly just around the corner), and it was clear he knew how geometry worked, giving me the confidence to make the trip. Now, rolling on a few years, its clear Tony has managed to train his staff at WIM well, and the whole outfit still has that dedication to putting the customer first, which is a welcome change (although many others are starting to realise this at long last). So praise where praise is due. And praise is due

Mind you, when the page opened, before the pics downloaded, I though maybe Tony had had an incident on todays slippery roads, so I initially had visions of fibreglass shattered all over the A41. So in the scheme of things, I'm glad its 'only' a scrape.

Bugger. Bugger,bugger,bugger,bugger and double bollox.

I have certainly had "out of shape" front discs on more than one occasion. I think that any out of shape is simply classed as warped. IME, the out of shape is where the thickness varies, rather than an actual 'buckle' A skim does cure it, though in the case of my Vauxhalls, new discs and pads are so cost effective at the dealer if you have access to the Vauxhall Trade Club scheme, I just replace them. On the Omega, its rare I do that sort of damage to the discs, except when I had some low quality pattern ones on. The little Rover, Mrs TheBoy's car, well, errr, uhmmm, yes, what can I say :angry: - the discs are too small imho, and very prone to getting far too hot, and often ultimately causing the discs to sometimes go out of shape/warp.

My poorly Vauxhall Omega was a struggle to keep in between the white lines on road, despite no significant play in the suspension components, though the tyres were very tired! A trip down to WIM showed the geometry had altered significantly since it was last at Chesham 18 months ago - hardly surprising, given the Grand Canyons that count as potholes in these parts. A new set of boots, and the geo sorted out whilst being fully explained to me, and the ol' girl is back to normal. It was absolutely lashing it down as I left WIM, so I tip-toed about until Great Missenden, then drove normally from there on. Even with the weather and the slippery roads, fantastic levels of grip and stability, given the weight of the car (1.8t)... Another excellent job by the WIM/BB team, and another delighted customer - thanks guys :angry:

They are no better than any other manufacturer from a design standards point of view. Probably no worse than most though. My bro has an X5, I will, of course, get him to check him tyres - was this fronts or rears?

I'm slowly bringing people around to the fact BMW designers leave a lot to be desired...

Agreed. Its pretty good for LP on even more modest cars.

How many miles have they done now? About 18K I wish I could get 18k out of a set of tyres on *ANY* of my cars... Obviously, I blame Tony's settings, rather than my driving style

Ah, yes, Mr WIM, I meant "what an Adonis" :bananapopcorn:

Do you mind, I'm eating "Ouch!"

Yeah, I was hoping there may still be some left in the supplier chain somewhere. The P6000, not a tyre I normally like, does seem to work well on that car I guess onto the Rover forums, see what they reckon is a suitable replacement - those Cinturatos look too much like 'eco' tyres to me, and on previous cars, eco tyres never matched my driving style

Can WIM still supply Pirelli P6000 for my little Rover 25 - need to double check size (car is not here), but from memory is 185/55/15 V rated

Hopefully soon everything will be transferred over to metserve......... this will solvethese issues mate. Cheers. I've never managed to get notifications to work - which is embarrassing sometimes, as it can mean I am weeks late replying to PMs

My brother is a jeweller and is an Omega agent, if you want a working one

Blimey my body clock is a month out of sync..... Anyway we had the meet today, 20 cars turned up and i measured 12..... now the scary bit? Of the 12, 10 where not in a suitable condition to be calibrated ... 9 needed new front wishbones and 1 needs a new rear coil. Everyone was gobsmacked by the failure rate..... Nevertheless it was a fantastic meet and everyone enjoyed themselves... Pictures to follow once i steal them from the owners club?....... My camera broke What an excellent day, and thanks to Tony and Mark, and the rest of the WIM team for allowing this to happen. The bush failure rate was shocking, I couldn't believe it - and I know they are a weak point of the suspension on these cars. But, it means all those people who were driving around blissfully unaware - despite many recently having new MOTs - are now doing something about it, before getting big bills for new boots. So from that point of view, even looking at the 'broken' ones has made it very worthwhile. Also, watching the alignment screens on cars with failed bushes, and seeing how much the play in the bushes affected the various angles was very worthwhile in helping understand the issues with wear and handling. It was a fun day, thoroughly worthwhile, very informative. I cannot thank WIM enough for sharing the info, and physically showing us all about the geometry. I'm sure the photos will show how interested everyone was. If any other clubs get the opportunity for one of these days, I really cannot recommend it enough - as well as it being a club meet, you will find it informative, useful, and bloody good fun. Do not let the opportunity pass by! BTW, photos on a CD, and should be with you by the time you read this. Thanks again, WIM, it was an excellent day, and going by the posts on our forum, everybody thoroughly enjoyed it. Even if there now is going to be a world shortage of Vauxhall wishbone bushes !

I work collegue has just got a 3.2 GSI Veccy-C. He saids it 'turns in too much'. I've yet to give it a spin, so unsure if he means it turns more than expected, or oversteers. Would it be camber related?

Pleased to see its coming along nicely now, at long last - looks massively different to when I was there about 3 weeks ago... Let me know when you can squeeze my blue tractor in - you remember the one, it had some very suspect geo issues , though thanks to your help, it made its trip up north and back without any worries (except the dipstick tube falling off, and leaving a nice slick behind, but that another issue ) Sorry to read about the slick (what a mess).... Are we doing tyres for you as well? Defo going to need 2 on front (1 in probably OK, but would rather have a pair). Need to recheck how much damage has been done to rear in last 2k since I last saw you. I'll measure tread a few days before you can fit me in, and we can decide on what needs replacing then? I seem to recall the rear that wasn't absolutely fubar had seen the best of its life, down to about 4mm 2k ago.