Evening all. Here is a topic that may interest some. I recently bought a 2012 NC Sport Tech. During a couple of runs I experienced that during very hard acceleration the car pulled slightly to the right this was not from the front wheels as when releasing the steering wheel it drives straight. As a retired motor mechanic I started to figure out what was causing this symptom and on checking a few items I noticed that the rear tyres were different. They were both 205/45/17 and were both Avons with practically new tread depth. The difference was one was a ZZ5 and the other a ZV7 and on looking at the tread pattern they were slightly different. It transpires that the ZV7 is the newer model tyre. I decided to fit a new ZV7 to the rear to pair up with the one already there and hay presto the problem disappeared. This just goes to show how sensitive the limited slip Differential unit is. Dave.
Interesting read, ZV7 is a decent grippy tyre for a reasonable price.
Run them on my Merc c320 cdi, never let me down.
This characteristic has been mentioned many times in previous posts and is invariably caused either by mis matched tyres across an axle or incorrect tyre pressures. Even what look like identical tyres but produced in different factories seem to produce the effect. The answer is to make sure both tyres on an axle are the same make, size and come from the same source anything else will give you problems of varying severity.
I agree, I had this when I bought my NA - it had 4 different cheap “no-brand” tyres. It handled dangerously. The reason is that individual tyres have slightly different grip levels, so when “pressing on”, one tyre will lose grip before the other, which will affect the handling. This is why you can have different tyres front/back (although I do not like this either), but you should always have the same tyres on the same axle…
And I forgot to mention that the age of the tyres is also a factor. With some cars being summer sunshine use only the tyres whilst looking new may be 6 or more years old and starting to to deteriorate. Just check the dot date code on the side wall to check the actual production date.
I have been ridiculed for saying it, which bothers me not at all, but I’d extend the “don’t mix them” maxim to all four corners.
I move the wheels around so I can wear the whole set out at the same time. Not just with MX-5’s either. The potentially dangerous effects of mixing are probably just easier to perceive on the MX-5 than on less involving cars.
Me too, like a matching set and do the rotation thing too.
Just picked up a set of wheels for refurbishment. Tyres were 2 Goodyear, 1 Pirelli and 1 Arrowspeed. The Arrowspeed has about 4mm the others were all down to a minimum. I hate to think what the car was like to drive before it was scrapped. It was a NC 3.75 as well…
I had a very heated debate with the local Honda dealership when my GF at the time bought a second hand CRZ. When I gave it the once over it had 4 different tyres on it. They insisted that was perfectly fine. I couldnt believe it. I paid for a full set of tyres myself. They also insisted the noise I could hear from the back end wasn’t a wheel bearing. Oddly when it went back for an MOT they said it needed a wheel bearing… You can imagine my conversation and luckily a lot of my complaints where emails.
Tyres are one of the most unrespected and misunderstood parts of a car for a lot of people.
Your post reinforces what many have said before - some dealers are only interested in making a sale. Some will do everything to make sure things are right and will give excellent after-sales service, others will do as little as possible and take no interest in the car once they’ve handed it over. I’ve experienced both!
I bought a decent car a few years ago but the exhaust was blowing. The dealer was well respected in the area and I’d always took my previous car there for servicing although I’d not got it from them.
Anyways the salesman told me the exhaust leak would be fixed prior to my collection, it wasn’t. I took it back a few days later as arranged but ended up without it being fixed, they couldn’t decide who’s paying for the work, sales dept or workshop. After another trip there it got fixed only for a few days later it started blowing again.
I gave up and crawled under the car myself to find a mess if bodge around a joint on the pipe. All it took was a new pipe clamp and a good tighten up, what a waste of space that dealer was.
The salesman after the sale had been completed changed his attitude the moment the money had been handed over, terrible way of dealing with folk.
They’ve closed down now, all I see is when I pass the premises are weeds growing, been like that years.
This used to be and maybe still is rife. If a problem is fixed before sale, the money comes out of the selling profit. If the salesperson has a commission on sales, this matters to them. Bringing it back a week later with problems comes out of a different budget.
Tyres are always a problem for the dealers. The cost difference between putting an OEM Bridgestone on a car and something you have never heard of can easily as much as ÂŁ80 per corner. Which is off their bottom line. Cars are almost always valued off the Blue Book so it is down to margin and how much you want to pay for your car.
Thanks for that info. I’ve never had that happen with an MX5 with an LSD until I bought a 10AE (also with LSD) last week. It turns 5 degrees left on even gentle acceleration, which makes accelerating up to speed on a slip road quite a busy job.
Paul, my local mechanic, found the right rear tyre was worn in a triangular fashion, with the inside of the tyre having a larger diameter than the outside of the tyre. Two new rears are arriving tomorrow as the existing ones were dated 2010 and 2013. Both the rears are the same size and brand etc, but the different ages may indicate different compounds. Hopefully this is the fix.
Neither of the two previous owners were enthusiasts, so I think it’ll still be on the fairly random factory alignments, with variations depending on how often the first Lady owner bashed the wheels. I say this because, in her Ladyship’s 19 year ownership, she had new front pads every 10,000 miles and a new clutch AND FLYWHEEL at 15,000 miles. So an alignment is booked for next week.
Despite the family having a £32M fortune, she and her local garage also allowed the car to virtually fall apart underneath. The 2nd owner had to spend £1,800 on sills, welding and rustproofing. The garage who did all that also fitted a timing belt BUT NOT A WATER PUMP! They advised him that at 33,000 miles it didn’t need one. It was 19 years old at the time and had never had a belt or a pump. The garage call themselves specialists. Scary!
Some European countries don’t allow it by law.
Do you think it should be an MOT fail over here?
It’s not just unequal under acceleration of course, but under braking too.
Is that the one that’s “probably” the most expensive and “probably” the best Mk2 on the market, or a different 10AE? £1900 will get you some arches and sills at somewhere like MX5restorers, not that much left over for underbody derusting and sealng; that easily a £600+ job.
With directionals, make sure you put them on the right way around, ie. don’t swap left to right.
Years ago, in Belfast, I got my pre-MOT service done, went for MOT, and the car failed because the tyre tread was pointing the wrong way. In Northern Ireland, owners take their cars to a government test centre. At the time, you needed to book 4 weeks in advance, and it was a complete faff. None of this lets MOT it, and see what it fails on. The garage had mixed up the wheels. In some ways a good system, other ways not (at another government centre, they couldn’t test the handbrake on the rollers, so road tested it (handbrake stops!) on the little track they had behind the shed).
If someone uses the word “probably” twice in the description of a car, it’s probably best to include it when you quote that description.
Yes. No. Yes it will, and that sort of business (not naming any names) might do part of the underbody derusting and sealing, but will miss some parts that will need further work by someone else and yes, that’s probably more than £600 plus delivery and return costs, and is booked in for when Paul finishes spending around £400 on it for general checks and repairs, a leaking clutch master cylinder (£??), at least two tyres, a correct Panasonic battery (£100), plus the alignment at £67. Then I need to decide how perfect to make the paint. Do I spend many hundreds on making it concourse or £200 on making it really good? Do I spend £300 on fully refurbing the wheels or £30 on putting black rim covers on (since the centres are really good)?
Decisions decisions. Even after all that I have to decide which car to keep - the 10AE or my NC, and, if I keep the NC, do I give the finished 10AE to my grand daughter early rather than bequeathing it? Or do I sell it to increase either the inheritance pot or my ability to do more track days?
Just wondering why you have offered it for sale to a forum member at a significant price, describing it as “probably” the best Mk2. £7,995 is top end dealer money for a Mk2 which has never had rust repairs, so I assumed you were talking about two different cars. £7,995 is cheeky for a car in that condition.
Do try to quote me accurately, if you’re going to quote me, especially when I helped you by explaining your earlier error.
The car obviously isn’t the right one for you, and I will not sell it to you, if I even sell it when it’s finished.