Topic: What did you do to your car today?

[Dante]

Winter tires on BMW and GTI today. Mitsubishi on Monday.
Looks like the BMW may need brakes next fall or so. The Textar I have on the front didn't fair too well - very dusty and wore pretty quickly. In contrast, the TRW on the GTI have a lot more life left with few thousand km more on them. They are pretty dusty too.
Next will try the Jurid on the BMW, see how those will do.

[PJungnitsch]

My BCAA paid for itself yesterday. A nice 124 km tow for my 1 ton Sierra. A tiny idler pulley failed causing a complete derailment and shredding of the belt. To top it off my wife was driving it at the time, when the belt blew of course the power steering and brakes went with it (hydroboost system) she was just a little frazzled after that.

Something I never give any thought to is those belt components. And because my truck is a noisy diesel I’d probably never hear one getting bad. So I spent the day replacing ALL the idlers and tensioner. Think I’m making them a part of my maintenance checklist. Just a few weeks back we were driving through a snowy, icy, remote part of Alberta at night, I could only imagine how bad it could’ve been if this happened then!

Oh Geez. No brakes at all, or just super hard?

I was piloting a dead Dodge Powerwagon to the mechanic back in the day and the guy towing me had got up some pretty good speed before I realized the steering and the brakes were like rocks. And he did not notice despite all the swearing and obscene gestures I could produce. Terrifying

[revalations]

Brakes like rock hard. Steering same. The truck is 3780 kg, a big heavy brute. Of course being in BC this happened on a windy road lol. Poor Wife, it really razzled her. Said it’ll be awhile before she’ll drive it again. I guess it could’ve been way worse!

[TheHire]

Winter tires on BMW and GTI today. Mitsubishi on Monday.
Looks like the BMW may need brakes next fall or so. The Textar I have on the front didn't fair too well - very dusty and wore pretty quickly. In contrast, the TRW on the GTI have a lot more life left with few thousand km more on them. They are pretty dusty too.
Next will try the Jurid on the BMW, see how those will do.

Interesting to hear that about the Textars; I've had the exact opposite experience. Both are dusty, but good quality and my clients seem to get longer life out of Textar than TRW consistently.

Be careful with those Jurids... they get squeaky.

[ktm525]

Swapped some new tie rod ends onto the Ridgeline. Shops wanted about $500 to do the job + extra for an alignment and booking 3 weeks out. It took me about 1 hour at a casual pace.  Longest time was looking for tie rod separator and torqueing the wheels. Got it pretty close as it drives straight but will still cough up $75 for the alignment later this week.

Ridgeline is driving tight like the day she left the showroom. 

[Firm]

Swapped some new tie rod ends onto the Ridgeline. Shops wanted about $500 to do the job + extra for an alignment and booking 3 weeks out. It took me about 1 hour at a casual pace.  Longest time was looking for tie rod separator and torqueing the wheels. Got it pretty close as it drives straight but will still cough up $75 for the alignment later this week.

Ridgeline is driving tight like the day she left the showroom. 

 

[Bubba]

Swapped some new tie rod ends onto the Ridgeline. Shops wanted about $500 to do the job + extra for an alignment and booking 3 weeks out. It took me about 1 hour at a casual pace.  Longest time was looking for tie rod separator and torqueing the wheels. Got it pretty close as it drives straight but will still cough up $75 for the alignment later this week.

Ridgeline is driving tight like the day she left the showroom. 

 

[Dante]

Winter tires on BMW and GTI today. Mitsubishi on Monday.
Looks like the BMW may need brakes next fall or so. The Textar I have on the front didn't fair too well - very dusty and wore pretty quickly. In contrast, the TRW on the GTI have a lot more life left with few thousand km more on them. They are pretty dusty too.
Next will try the Jurid on the BMW, see how those will do.

Interesting to hear that about the Textars; I've had the exact opposite experience. Both are dusty, but good quality and my clients seem to get longer life out of Textar than TRW consistently.

Be careful with those Jurids... they get squeaky.

Maybe it's about how the car is driven? I don't know for sure. Now there is a new variable as it's my daughter's daily driver (mostly).
I taught her not to ride the brakes,  but who knows what she's doing when she drives alone.... Teenagers tend to know better than the old farts...

[bridgecity]

Swapped some new tie rod ends onto the Ridgeline. Shops wanted about $500 to do the job + extra for an alignment and booking 3 weeks out. It took me about 1 hour at a casual pace.  Longest time was looking for tie rod separator and torqueing the wheels. Got it pretty close as it drives straight but will still cough up $75 for the alignment later this week.

Ridgeline is driving tight like the day she left the showroom. 

Nice!  Great price for an alignment. I can’t find a shop around here that’ll do one for less than $100.

[TheHire]

Swapped some new tie rod ends onto the Ridgeline. Shops wanted about $500 to do the job + extra for an alignment and booking 3 weeks out. It took me about 1 hour at a casual pace.  Longest time was looking for tie rod separator and torqueing the wheels. Got it pretty close as it drives straight but will still cough up $75 for the alignment later this week.

Ridgeline is driving tight like the day she left the showroom. 

Nice!  Great price for an alignment. I can’t find a shop around here that’ll do one for less than $100.

Yeah, along with labour costs having gone up, there is serious upkeep to an alignment rack. Our four-wheel roll on in-ground rack was $145,000 and requires having to call in a dedicated tech once a month for calibration (~$1,500). It's a huge cost, and unless you're doing lots of them as a volume, it's tough to palate. We have enough performance alignments, track-setups and corner balancing to justify it, but it still hasn't passed that break even point.

[draghon]

Swapped some new tie rod ends onto the Ridgeline. Shops wanted about $500 to do the job + extra for an alignment and booking 3 weeks out. It took me about 1 hour at a casual pace.  Longest time was looking for tie rod separator and torqueing the wheels. Got it pretty close as it drives straight but will still cough up $75 for the alignment later this week.

Ridgeline is driving tight like the day she left the showroom. 

What brand of tie rods did you use? Agree that $75 is a great price for an alignment!

[bridgecity]

Swapped some new tie rod ends onto the Ridgeline. Shops wanted about $500 to do the job + extra for an alignment and booking 3 weeks out. It took me about 1 hour at a casual pace.  Longest time was looking for tie rod separator and torqueing the wheels. Got it pretty close as it drives straight but will still cough up $75 for the alignment later this week.

Ridgeline is driving tight like the day she left the showroom. 

Nice!  Great price for an alignment. I can’t find a shop around here that’ll do one for less than $100.

Yeah, along with labour costs having gone up, there is serious upkeep to an alignment rack. Our four-wheel roll on in-ground rack was $145,000 and requires having to call in a dedicated tech once a month for calibration (~$1,500). It's a huge cost, and unless you're doing lots of them as a volume, it's tough to palate. We have enough performance alignments, track-setups and corner balancing to justify it, but it still hasn't passed that break even point.

Thanks for the insight !

[ktm525]

Swapped some new tie rod ends onto the Ridgeline. Shops wanted about $500 to do the job + extra for an alignment and booking 3 weeks out. It took me about 1 hour at a casual pace.  Longest time was looking for tie rod separator and torqueing the wheels. Got it pretty close as it drives straight but will still cough up $75 for the alignment later this week.

Ridgeline is driving tight like the day she left the showroom. 

What brand of tie rods did you use? Agree that $75 is a great price for an alignment!

Honda OE. The finish and  quality are immediately apparent. I got them for about $75 each which are still expensive but not stupidly so compared to "high end" aftermarket.

Alignment rack: This is a high volume tire shop. The Ridgeline is a very basic suspension so not sure a fancy shop is required. I only messed the toes when replacing the tie rods so it should be a quick job.  It was aligned last year when the control arms were replaced.    One of the rear adjusters (camber) is frozen so it has been slightly outside of spec for years but not worth addressing unless I start replacing rear bits. Frankly it is tracking straight now so the thought to not bother with the alignment crossed my mind.

[EV Dan]

Swapped some new tie rod ends onto the Ridgeline. Shops wanted about $500 to do the job + extra for an alignment and booking 3 weeks out. It took me about 1 hour at a casual pace.  Longest time was looking for tie rod separator and torqueing the wheels. Got it pretty close as it drives straight but will still cough up $75 for the alignment later this week.

Ridgeline is driving tight like the day she left the showroom. 

What brand of tie rods did you use? Agree that $75 is a great price for an alignment!

Honda OE. The finish and  quality are immediately apparent. I got them for about $75 each which are still expensive but not stupidly so compared to "high end" aftermarket.

Alignment rack: This is a high volume tire shop. The Ridgeline is a very basic suspension so not sure a fancy shop is required. I only messed the toes when replacing the tie rods so it should be a quick job.  It was aligned last year when the control arms were replaced.    One of the rear adjusters (camber) is frozen so it has been slightly outside of spec for years but not worth addressing unless I start replacing rear bits. Frankly it is tracking straight now so the thought to not bother with the alignment crossed my mind.

In my experience a car tracking straight is not a reliable indicator of correct front wheel alignment. It is what happens in sharp turns, like slow speed manoeuvring in a parking lot. If I hear any rubber squealing then the alignment is likely off.

[rrocket]

Swapped some new tie rod ends onto the Ridgeline. Shops wanted about $500 to do the job + extra for an alignment and booking 3 weeks out. It took me about 1 hour at a casual pace.  Longest time was looking for tie rod separator and torqueing the wheels. Got it pretty close as it drives straight but will still cough up $75 for the alignment later this week.

Ridgeline is driving tight like the day she left the showroom. 

What brand of tie rods did you use? Agree that $75 is a great price for an alignment!

Honda OE. The finish and  quality are immediately apparent. I got them for about $75 each which are still expensive but not stupidly so compared to "high end" aftermarket.

Alignment rack: This is a high volume tire shop. The Ridgeline is a very basic suspension so not sure a fancy shop is required. I only messed the toes when replacing the tie rods so it should be a quick job.  It was aligned last year when the control arms were replaced.    One of the rear adjusters (camber) is frozen so it has been slightly outside of spec for years but not worth addressing unless I start replacing rear bits. Frankly it is tracking straight now so the thought to not bother with the alignment crossed my mind.

In my experience a car tracking straight is not a reliable indicator of correct front wheel alignment. It is what happens in sharp turns, like slow speed manoeuvring in a parking lot. If I hear any rubber squealing then the alignment is likely off.

So tracking straight isn't reliable.

But a squealing tire is?

Gotcha! LOL [emoji38]

[ktm525]

I ran the laser level. It's close. Yes both tires could be toed in giving straight line stability but excessive tire scrub. I don't think so though because it "looks" ok. We will see what the before and after numbers look like on Friday!.

[bridgecity]

Replaced the sway bar bushings on the MDX this morning. It had a rattle over rough roads/packed ice  this past winter that hasn’t surfaced this summer over the smoother roads. Everything seems tight under there so thought I’d start with the bushings. If you can change a tire, you could change these on the MDX. However I won’t know if they solved the issue for a bit. Roads are bare and dry.

The Mevotech replacements are quality compared to OEM, even though listed as a OE quality. Ah well, I’ll get the Honda ones if these don’t work out. Not to worried since they are so inexpensive and easy to do.

[rrocket]

Replaced the sway bar bushings on the MDX this morning. It had a rattle over rough roads/packed ice  this past winter that hasn’t surfaced this summer over the smoother roads. Everything seems tight under there so thought I’d start with the bushings. If you can change a tire, you could change these on the MDX. However I won’t know if they solved the issue for a bit. Roads are bare and dry.

The Mevotech replacements are quality compared to OEM, even though listed as a OE quality. Ah well, I’ll get the Honda ones if these don’t work out. Not to worried since they are so inexpensive and easy to do.

Funny...my experience was the opposite.

The OEM sway bar bushings in the Honda Accord we had were inferior to the aftermarket ones.

And, oddly, only the rear ones had the issue.

[EV Dan]

Swapped some new tie rod ends onto the Ridgeline. Shops wanted about $500 to do the job + extra for an alignment and booking 3 weeks out. It took me about 1 hour at a casual pace.  Longest time was looking for tie rod separator and torqueing the wheels. Got it pretty close as it drives straight but will still cough up $75 for the alignment later this week.

Ridgeline is driving tight like the day she left the showroom. 

What brand of tie rods did you use? Agree that $75 is a great price for an alignment!

Honda OE. The finish and  quality are immediately apparent. I got them for about $75 each which are still expensive but not stupidly so compared to "high end" aftermarket.

Alignment rack: This is a high volume tire shop. The Ridgeline is a very basic suspension so not sure a fancy shop is required. I only messed the toes when replacing the tie rods so it should be a quick job.  It was aligned last year when the control arms were replaced.    One of the rear adjusters (camber) is frozen so it has been slightly outside of spec for years but not worth addressing unless I start replacing rear bits. Frankly it is tracking straight now so the thought to not bother with the alignment crossed my mind.

In my experience a car tracking straight is not a reliable indicator of correct front wheel alignment. It is what happens in sharp turns, like slow speed manoeuvring in a parking lot. If I hear any rubber squealing then the alignment is likely off.

So tracking straight isn't reliable.

But a squealing tire is?

Gotcha! LOL [emoji38]

I've had a car driving perfectly straight but wearing out insides of the front tires (toe out). You'd never guess something was off if the tires didn't squeak in parking lots. That squeaking in itself is not a guarantee something is wrong, but rather a clue.

[rrocket]

. That squeaking in itself is not a guarantee something is wrong

No kidding.

My Echo's thin, cheap tires used to howl around corners non stop..and alignment was perfect.