Woohoo, Steering Shudder Fixed.

[Skraggy_uk]

Got the car back from the non-franchise dealer I bought from.

They diagnosed a sticky passenger side caliper.

They changed both to make sure it didn't cause an imbalance the other way.

Now, no shudder, no pull, and I can use the top 2 gears at any speed above 30.

Before, I couldn't use 6th until the steering shudder had gone off, because the car would lose speed.

5th could just about maintain 50 and no more.

Thing is, it didn't feel like you were correcting the steering like some of the older bangers I've had, it just pulled if you let go.

So I'm a happy bunny and starting planning for getting the motorola cradle handsfeee pulled and getting a parrot of some sort fitted.

Just need to run a few tanks through and see if such a dramatic change to the drive has affected fuel consumption as much and I can make a massive improvement the 21mpg combined (almost all motorway, some crawl, some steady, some flying) I was getting during the first week.

[dave1]

Nice to hear that it's fixed.

[finchy]

hi mate,

that sounded scary, glad ya got it sorted

i'm in warrington too............you going to the midlands meet in a few weeks?

take it easy

[Yeldarb]

Glad its sorted mate.

[DJ Wozza]

Glad you all sorted fella

[chrisis200]

How much were the calipers if you dont mind me asking mine is shaking very badly now so needs sorting thanks

[Skraggy_uk]

The calipers were swapped by the garage I bought the car from, at their expense as I had only had the car a week, to stop me rejecting it.

The sales guy I dealt with said they were £100 a pop, which sounds like exchange recons, and they have that slightly gold colour to them.

Now, after a little drive out to deliver a birthday pressie, it will hold 30 in 6th, at 60mpg without any bother, and sit at a solid 30mpg at 70.

Much better than the combined 21mpg I got during my first week of ownership. And it doesn't try to stop the car every time I dip the clutch anymore.

[BluffMaster]

How much were the calipers if you dont mind me asking mine is shaking very badly now so needs sorting thanks

I had the calipers on mine replaced along with the brakeshoes and it cost about 180 quid - not the main dealer!

Skraggy, get them to check the brakeshoes as well. bad calipers usually mean uneven wear on the shoes.

[Skraggy_uk]

Somewhere in the next 6 months, it will be getting a full service.

The history shows a full service in 2005, a lexus intermittent in 2006, an oil/filter in sept 2008 at the garage I bought from less than 7000 miles after the last lexus intermittent. It has only 2000 miles since then. So while it isn't strictly to schedule, it is within miles.

It is 8yrs, 81k but no sign of a belt, so I'm going to get a full with belt done. MOT is March, so seeing what miles I've done by then, I might get both done at the same time.

I know there is a good indy arround Glossop and that is less than an hour from work, but I might try to find one a bit closer to home.

Will be a bit cheaper than the £800ish that Lexus will want.

[aido]

I know there is a good indy arround Glossop and that is less than an hour from work, but I might try to find one a bit closer to home.

Will be a bit cheaper than the £800ish that Lexus will want.

The one you're thinking of is Charlesworth Motors - a great bunch of folks and I'd definitely recommend them if you can make the trip there!

[Skraggy_uk]

hi mate,

that sounded scary, glad ya got it sorted

i'm in warrington too............you going to the midlands meet in a few weeks?

take it easy

I wasn't aware of that, will have to look it up.

[Skraggy_uk]

I know there is a good indy arround Glossop and that is less than an hour from work, but I might try to find one a bit closer to home.

Will be a bit cheaper than the £800ish that Lexus will want.

The one you're thinking of is Charlesworth Motors - a great bunch of folks and I'd definitely recommend them if you can make the trip there!

Yes, that is the baby.

[aido]

If you see my car again follow it as it'll be going directly there - or indirectly via the nearest Nandos or Macdonalds :D

[Skraggy_uk]

OK, a week on, after the caliper change, the fuel consumption has improved drastically,

21mpg is now 30.4mpg

And gone from 3/4tank for 250miles to 1/2tank for 260 miles.

And the car has become much more enjoyable to drive, just need to sort out the Code1 with most burned CDs that have played fine in everything from a 90 Celsior Multichanger, to cheap supermarket headunits, to cheap standalone domestic DVD players and add a Bluetooth handsfree and I will be a happy happy bunny.

[Lance]

The problem with the CD's not playing MAY be down to the CD themselves. If its a DVD-R or DVD-RW it wont play in your car. Has to be CD-R or CD-RW. Learned this from bitter experience and a saturday wasted burning CD's. Also make sure the format for burning is MP3.

Hope this may be of some assistance.

I had a braking shudder too. Mechanic closed off brake lines one at a time using vice grips to find out which one it was then swapped the disc over to the other side, found when this was done there was no shudder, not the disc then, done the same with caliper, found no shudder again.

Was eventually discovered it was the hub that had to be replaced. Done it and never had a shudder since.

[Steviewevie]

The problem with the CD's not playing MAY be down to the CD themselves. If its a DVD-R or DVD-RW it wont play in your car. Has to be CD-R or CD-RW. Learned this from bitter experience and a saturday wasted burning CD's. Also make sure the format for burning is MP3.

My old OEM head unit didn't have the ability to play MP3 CDs, I hadn't heard that later ones could, though I don't know for sure.

[Skraggy_uk]

These standard audio cds burned onto CD-R discs.

The early 90's Celsior with it's plain old fashioned pioneer cassette loaded changer played them fine.

Thing is, one or two of them will work by trial and error, flicking through the discs plays each track. Then you add another discs, and that might work, suddenly the next one won't and then northing including the discs already working give error 1. I guess job one should be to try and clean the lens.

On the subject of the shudder, all good, all gone. In this case the garage were lucky they fixed it first time.

They had in writing that I would reject the car if it wasn't fixed, because that was one of the terms of buying the car along with the paint chips, they told me they had done it before I collected and it drove fine, when I had handed over the keys to the trade in, they told they hadn't had time to do the paint and would need to make an appointment, and didn't get to drive it properly until two days later when I discovered it was as bad as ever.

They were lucky that they did a moderate job of the chips, and sorted the brakes or they would have had it back quicker than the guy who owned it from them for 3 months.