The good news on that aspect that is having had a few looks underneath I really do think that is just coming out of an odd bolt on the sump and my mechanic friend recons he can sort that really easily when he services her, hopefully next week
The new boots are a set of General Grabber AT's 235 / 85 / R16 size. These are a fraction wider in the diameter of the wheel than the ones taken off, but then those were worn so I think they will end up about the same. The bigger difference is in the tyre width across the tread. It's a bit over an inch wider to we now have quite a bit more rubber on the road which will definitely increase my confidence in the wet, and they look an awful lot better.
I had these fitted at a local tyre place and forgot to take my camera hence the low quality picture below taken on my phone. I'm sure I will find many an opportunity to take her picture showing off the shiny new white lettered tyres
According to the guys at the tyre place the old ones had a date code indicating they were from 2002 which is well past the recommended use date for tyres.
I've also managed to get the bolts on the wheel brackets on the roof properly freed up so the spare is nice and bolted on
For those of a young (or very old) disposition, the title of this blog post is from the Ian Dury album of the same name. He had a penchant for purchasing good second hand clothes, but always insisted that 2 items had to be brand new...
Really interested to hear what difference the tyres make, I considered new boots for her but bottled at the potential cost :-) Also, did you swap the rims as well?
ReplyDeleteTobes
Hi Toby
ReplyDeleteStill the same rims we considered new, but they are in good shape apart from surface paint issues which I will sort out in my own time.
We did swap out the one black rim for one of the spare cream rims to improve the looks.
Not many miles on the new tyres yet, but It's certainly calmer inside knowing you are not driving a heavy vehicle on tyres with big cracks in the sidewalls