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Found A Place To Do Geometry Checks In North West!


Anees
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Hi,

I've been to Drury Lane Service Station in Oldham to get the Wheel Geometry Checked and Alignment of my car adjusted and the difference is MASSIVE!!! :D :yahoo:

The details of the garage:

Drury Lane Service Station,

Drury Lane,

Hollinwood,

Oldham.

OL9 7NG

Tel: 0161 688 7882 OR 0161 684 9290

Web: www.drurylane.f9.co.uk (doesn’t seem to be working)

They are a very friendly garage and were extermely helpful. They do alot of adjustments to Performance/Prestige Cars such as Lexus, BMW, Audi, Evo’s, Subaru etc

I was weary of using another garage for the Geometry apart from Tony@Wheels-in-motion so I got all the correct settings for my particular car situation (lowered 30mm, 18” Alloys) from Tony first before going and I gave these to the garage.

They did the initial check and found that my Geometry was massively out and different to the settings I had from Tony for my car. They did advise adjustments which we the same as what Tony had given me.

I have attached the Check Sheet that I got for the more technically minded folk on here to look at.

spec.jpg

Before I took the car in I though that it was driving ok but I did feel:

1. It didn’t turn into corners as well as I liked

2. When driving over crappy road surfaces and going over manhole covers etc the steering would just snap slightly to one side

3. The ride was not smooth – I felt slight bumps even on flat road (I was thinking their was something wrong with my shock absorbers.)

After collecting the car the difference was gigantic! :hehe: :D I felt it was a different car! The ride seems MUCH smoother over poor roads, the steering wheel is SO stable and no longer twitchy. The biggest difference however is how it handles going into corners – it is totally transformed. It’s like the car is glued to the road (to borrow an expression Aido used once “Its on RAILS!! :D :D :D :D ) WOW! In fact I would say that adjusting the camber has made much more difference then my TTE Anti-Roll bars did!! But now I can appreciate the Anti-Roll bars properly! The other difference I have noticed is that the steering is a bit heavier – but I think this is because there is a larger footprint of the tyres on the road then before!

I can recommend Drury Lane to anyone from the North West. I showed my Gold Membership card and they even gave me a discount!

I mentioned to them that a lot of members are looking for a good place to get their Geometry checked in the North West and they said that if we can get enough people together then they can “sort something out” discount wise. They said that they can probably do between 4 – 6 cars a day depending on how far out the adjustment is on each car and what the individual owner wants from the car (they setup race cars sometimes). It can take up to 4 hours! Mine did!! :lol:

They charge £40 + Vat for the check and then each adjustment is charged at various rates. I am going to email them a link to this post so maybe Drury Lane can come up with some good deal.

I would just like to thank Tony for all the settings that he gave me – hope you don’t mind me getting Northern owners to go to Oldham instead of (in my case almost 300 miles) to Watford!

If I had driven about 5 ½ hours there and back to Watford and I got the same results that I have now then I would have been well pleased – but instead I can travel about 8 – 9 miles down the road instead!!

I’m sure that Tony would be able to fine tune the car better which this specialised IS200 knowledge but this is more then good enough for me! :whistling:

EDIT: If a mod wants to move this post then feel free – I wasn’t sure whether to put it in “Brakes & Suspension” or “Modifications & Tuning”

Thanks,

Anees

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He means Wheel Nuts!

.....at least I hope he does! :P

Not yet Gord, WheelBase don't have any for the alloys. But they did say that the Spiggot Rings were very important - so I may get those put on. They want £20 + Vat for the 4 plastic rings! I'm sure that Rochford Tyres are alot cheaper!

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does anyone know of somewhere in the east midlands that does this sort of thing?  i think mine could do with a bit of tweeking...

Lexxy, I used Selectatyre in Buxton - it's about 45 mins from you I think?

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This sounds exactly what I need! I notice slight rumbling on level roads and am going to pay the guys in Oldham a visit - thanks Anees!

BTW, anybody know what the standard camber settings are on an IS200 SE before I go to Oldham?

Mate..... They have all the stock settings anyway. When you ring them up mention your from LOC and hopefully you should get a discount. :D

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Well I paid these guys (Drury Lane Garage) a visit today and had a full geometry done - nice friendly people, got a cup of coffee etc.

Funnily enough they said they had done a lot of ISs just recently :hehe:

It seems that pretty much everything needed adjusting by some amount, especially the Rear N/S which was interesting because that tyre was well scrubbed when I changed them a few weeks ago.

I've only driven about 15 miles since, so it's early days but the steering does seem more stable/better weighted in the straight-ahead position - will have to see how it goes.

Cost £140 with all the various adjustments - seems good value considering it took them ............ 3 and half hours :o

I wasn't expecting it to be quite so long (they estimated 2).

Edited to say that I just re-read Anees' post and his took 4 hours, so I guess that must be pretty normal.

Oh, and winter tyres are a good thing in this weather :driving:

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Mine is going back in tommorow for some further adjustments.

Car has developed a "creaking sound!" I asked Tony Bones about this and he said its probably a "bush underload" and is because the point of weight on the suspension has changed. He has explained how to sort it - seems simple enough.

Tony is a great guy! :D

Glad it went ok mate! I was their today too giving them some more info Tony had given me!

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Mine is going back in tommorow for some further adjustments.

They did mention you were coming back - something to do with Kingpin Inclination I think.

Unfortunately, I don't have the check sheet to post - they did show it to me, but I didn't think to ask for a copy.

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LOL!! :D

I'm been bringing them alot of things to read about my car!

They must have been well pleased to do your car! Its is pretty much standard! LOL :lol: - I scared them by telling them obout owners with 9x19 alloys and 60mm drops! :P :P

Mine seems harder to setup because of the increased alloy size, lowered suspension and wider rims! The KPI if you look at the sheet above is way out and not directly adjustable. Should only be a difference of +/- 1 degree! Mine is 6.4 OUT!!! :ph34r:

I did ask Tony if it would be ok for the garage to ring him for abit of "IS200 specific" advice and he was glad to offer help. Credit to the garage they said that they are willing to listen to advice and take on board other peoples opinions. I have also given them copies of emails from Tony about the "bush underload" issue. Again happy for the advice and they actually read the information - which I find refreshing! Just hope they do take up the offer and ring Tony tommorow.

I'll let you all know how I get on tommorow. Just hope the snow isn't too bad tommorow and I can actually drive to Oldham!! Car has been in the garage for the past two days!

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LOL!! :D

I'm been bringing them alot of things to read about my car!

They must have been well pleased to do your car! Its is pretty much standard! LOL  :lol:  - I scared them by telling them obout owners with 9x19 alloys and 60mm drops! :P :P

Mine seems harder to setup because of the increased alloy size, lowered suspension and wider rims! The KPI if you look at the sheet above is way out and not directly adjustable. Should only be a difference of +/- 1 degree! Mine is 6.4 OUT!!!  :ph34r:

I did ask Tony if it would be ok for the garage to ring him for abit of "IS200 specific" advice and he was glad to offer help. Credit to the garage they said that they are willing to listen to advice and take on board other peoples opinions. I have also given them copies of emails from Tony about the "bush underload" issue. Again happy for the advice and they actually read the information - which I find refreshing! Just hope they do take up the offer and ring Tony tommorow.

I'll let you all know how I get on tommorow. Just hope the snow isn't too bad tommorow and I can actually drive to Oldham!! Car has been in the garage for the past two days!

chicken :lol::lol: 2 days in the garage :D

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UPDATE:

Got the car back to Drury Lane this afternoon (waited until the snow had cleared from the morning :lol::hehe:) and let them look at the car again. Also gave Paul (the owner + one of the techs) Tony Bones’s telephone since Tony had offered to help me previously and had put in a lot of input!

(Apologies in advance for the crap explanation)

Paul found that the bushes underneath my car were all corroded and not moving as they should. He (along with two other geometry technicians) spent the WHOLE AFTERNOON on my car lubricating it all, rechecking and readjusting the geometry.

The lubrication meant that things moved as they should and the KPI is much better. It is still not perfect but as Paul said its “near as damn it perfect”. He said that the small difference between the two KPI readings is due to having a (very) slightly bent frame. Said it was nothing to worry about. Tony concurred. The Noises have now also gone due to the lubrication. Kindly they also balanced my front two tyres for free! In fact they didn’t take a penny for a whole afternoon’s work!

Here is my new Checking Sheet.

new_geometrys.gif

Paul is an ex-motor racing driver and he also test drove my car extensively and said it was handling “spot-on” – good enough for me.

Car feels great now – no noises at all and very smooth ride (seems abit softer then before) with a solid stable steering and it still corners brilliantly.

Two slight points of concern are that because the car is lowered the tyres will wear out slightly quicker on the insides then normal. This is due to the front alignment and just something I have to live with. If I swap the tyres over I should double the life hopefully.

Also again due to the lowering I still have a very slight rub on the drivers side inner wheel but due to the setup of the geometry this cannot really be prevented without screwing up other settings, It is only very slight and is not really a big problem

The biggest thing I want to comment on actually is all the effort Paul and the guys at Drury Lane put into my car. He read everything that I gave to him and even rang Tony about the setup Tony had provided for me. It was clear that Paul was really trying to do the best for me and that means a lot. :) He tried to explain everything to me and didn’t use deliberately complicated technical terms to try and baffle me. I have given the garage a lot of information to read and he made me feel valued that I brought them the information – not like some places I’ve been to where its in the bin the minute you leave the door! :ph34r:

I hope that Tony doesn’t mind but I would like to quote something from an email I got from him today when discussing his phone conversation with Drury Lane:

One thing I must emphasise at this point is the conduct of Drury Lane; totally concerned about their customer "you" from that conversation I offered them to be one of my trusted centres, that as you can see on my site is prestigious hence only four recommendations, if I say "trust" then I mean "trust"

I feel you have been dealt with great respect and maybe there should be a need to reflect that respect to all in the forum, WIM will validate the customer awareness of Drury LSS, not because WIM is the "do" and "know all" but the fact that Drury had the bollocks to ask!

I hope that a lot more guys decide to visit from the North (Gord, Besty, Wosket etc). It would be good if someone from the Club Discounts section could give them a ring :question: . Paul said that if he could get a few bookings at once they might be able to have a “checking day” similar to the one being arranged in Watford.

Paul may also join the LOC to give advice in addition to Tony on Geometry matters. :D

Drury Lane also do bodywork, MOT’s servicing, Crypton Tuning, Tyres, Exhausts and loads of other stuff (I’m not on commission – I promise guys! :hehe::whistling: )

Overall an excellent customer orientated garage and as Paul says “we look after you!”

Just need to get my (wheel) nuts sorted now! :):D

Anees

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New set of Wheel Nuts (Convex nuts without washers) and a new set of locking wheel nuts where all fitted today! :D

Everything seems sorted now! Also got my back wheels balanced (had a kind of shimmering feeling comming from them) and all is well!

Had to get the nuts from WheelBase in Oldham - cost me £2.50 a nut and £15 for the locking wheel nuts. Didn't really like their customer care - but job done in the end! :):rolleyes:

Looks like Drury Lane may be an "approved centre soon" :whistling:

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:ph34r: Visited Drury Lane on Tuesday for a full geometry check.

Nice guys, and everything was done as explained.

No major problems just

" a small adjustment" I was told.

This was done and everything is fine.

A point worth mentioning was the cost of the check, at £40.00 + vat, not a problem.

But do ask the cost of any adjustments as this could surprise you.

In my case the small adjustment cost a further £80.00 + vat.

Still at least I know everything is spot on now.

Thanks to Anees for the introduction.

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Paul did say that these costs will come down as the garage gets "geared up" for dealing more with Lexus and the technicians get more familiar with the particular aspects of a Lex they will get quicker so the prices should come down

Paul himself is a proper expect and even impressed Tony:

I kept thinking about the conversation I had with Drury yesterday and how truly concerned Paul was with the cars set-up, he really wanted to be sure that they had done it right, they on judgment have done the best that the car will permit.. sure looking at the print!..... the operator holds the knowledge, and that's what counts.

Like I said before if we could get a group booking of say 5 cars we maybe able to get a deal.

Do you notice a difference in the car? :)

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:ph34r: Visited Drury Lane on Tuesday for a full geometry check.

Nice guys, and everything was done as explained.

No major problems just

" a small adjustment"  I was told.

This was done and everything is fine.

A point worth mentioning was the cost of the check, at £40.00 + vat, not a problem.

But do ask the cost of any adjustments as this could surprise you.

In my case the small adjustment cost a further £80.00 + vat.

Still at least I know everything is spot on now.

Thanks to Anees for the introduction.

£80+ vat! i am "worried"

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