Thursday 28 June 2012

149,791 Miles

Finally got round to having new tyres fitted; just as well, as the rear off-side was in a bad way. The tread was good (very good in fact) but the inner wall had almost a 100% circumferential crack in the outer skin.

I opted for Bridgestone Potenza RE050 tyres, which I ordered from and arranged fitting through Black Circles. As of writing, one day later, they certainly make a huge difference. Lovely, smooth, precise feeling is restored....well almost.



I have been suffering from knocking sounds coming from the front suspension area again. I assumed it was going to either be the anti-roll bar drop links (as I haven't changed them yet) or perhaps the near-side bottom ball joint, that might have gone the way the off-side did recently.

Whilst the car was up on the lift having the tyres done, I had a poke around and asked the mechanic to help and found that the near-side bottom ball joint has indeed failed, quite badly as well. When he grabbed the wheel and rocked it, the whole hub could be seen to be moving maybe 5-10mm in the ball joint. Very poor show from those ball joints which are only about one year old.

Also there is a worn bearing kind of sound coming from the engine. I suspect a belt tensioner/idler or water pump bearing is on its last legs. Cam belt service was done at about 112,000 miles, so time to do it.




So current to-do list:
  • Near-side bottom ball joint
  • Front brakes pads
  • Possibly ARB droplinks if knocking still present after ball joint replacement
  • Full cam belt service including: cam belt, +tensioner + idler, waterpump
  • Possibly ancillary belt + idler + tensioner if noise persists.
  • Oil and Filter

No comments:

Post a Comment