Do Not Sell My Personal Information Jump to content


fil4362

Members
  • Posts

    586
  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Profiles

Forums

Events

Store

Gallery

Tutorials

Lexus Owners Club

Gold Membership Discounts

Lexus Owners Club Video

News & Articles

Everything posted by fil4362

  1. To be honest if the people on the website running it or supporting it ignore the opinions of experts and top motoring journalsit then this website isnt worth a dime. no one outside of tyre sellers and manufacturers recomend we all go out and buy winter tyres. Is this site sponsered by michelin or something cause i just dont get it. Theres some poor sods out there now reading this thread thinking is damed important they rush out and buy up a spare set of wheels and tyres before they get stuck in the snow all winter, I have pointed out that this really isnt the case and my opinion and has been battered poked and laughed at, when in truth i cannot find one single person who has given his expert opinion that winter tyres for us normal people that live in towns and cities in the normal world actually need winter tyres.
  2. The journalist wasnt convinced town and city folk need them ?? so thats not recomeneding them is it ???? Let me say it again town and city folk dont need them !!!! thats a which journalist saying that not me. Infact after hours of reasurce i cannot find one person independant of the tyre trade who does say yes go out and buy winter tyres you really need them. All i have ever said is that you dont need them you can manage perfectly well without them. If people feel the need to make your life "better" in some way by buying them feel free but everyone in the know says you dont need them or doesnt say" yes go out and buy them" so i wont be buying them. If an expert opinon as in the journalist for which magazine is wrong with his statement of "i am not convinced town and city drivers need them but MAY thats May help them then thats a good enough reason for me to keep my money in my pocket. Has anyone bothered to worry about the implications of the people behind you in the snow ?? if your stopping super quickly in your winter tyres what about he poor bloke behind you who cant actually afford to buy them and cant stop as quickly as your newly improved car does. And please dont say "thats his fault they ran into the back of me " Infact please feel free to run into the back of me in the winter see if your insurance covers your modified cars. If non of you lot believe the "experts" from the AA or rospa who see no need to use them i would love you to justify it to you insurance companies!!
  3. oops it would appear "which" the countries biggest consumer advice organisation also dont recomend them http://conversation.which.co.uk/transport-travel/winter-tyres-snow-weather-cars-buy/ Oh and as an mot tester i also know Vosa dont recomen them either ! it would appear no one not even the experts recomend winter tyres so sad !
  4. Yet again matt you fail to see the point. you we willing to tell us you work for europes biggest motoring organisation to prove your knowledge on the subject because other wise you would have just been another person who had read the advertising bumph and rushes out and bought them. The AA is the organnisation every one turns to when the winter comes, hence the weather reports, joe soap from the AA saying "the weather will be bad so only make essencial journeys". The AA doesnt report on the news saying "the weather will be bad we recomend you rush out and spend 400 quid on tyres". Rospa is the foremost organisation in the country when it comes to accident prevention hence the word "Royal" in the name , you know as in approved by the royal family. As i have said they dont even mention winter tyres anywhere on their website. You would think if there was any merit in winter tyres rospa of all people would be recomending them. Insurance companies last year where refusing to insure people {according to your bosses) who used winter tyres afterall they are a modification from standard. Once again the 3 biggest organisation that deal with motoring matters all share my views on winter tyres. I am sure they have all looked into thee pros and cons of winter tyres and decided not to bother , I am not aware of any major fleet company either ,including the AA that uses winter tyres, i am sure if there was any merit in them the Royal mail would use them for a start, remember all the late mail last year because of the bad weather, if winter tyres worked as everyone claims we would have all got a mail on tiime ! I havnt consulted with the AA or rospa or insurance companies on the matter of winter tyres so i withdraw my statement of "agreeing" with me, but as non of them recomend them they certainly share my views. Its ok you can conceed defeat if you wish you cant really argue when the biggest motoring organisation in europe the biggest accident prevention organisation in the country and insurance companies and all the biggest fleet companies in the country who share my views on winter tyres. the cost out weighs the benifits and no one except people that sell them (excluding me) recomends them
  5. just to add as well, i just did a quick search on rospa,s website The Royal Society for the Provention of Accidents. Their search engine returns no results for "winter tyres" . I did only do a quick search but it would appear on the surface that they see no merit in winter tyres either. So the AA and Rospa agree with me and your insurancce company is likley to charge you more !! Once again feel frree to spend moneey having them fitted.
  6. i said i had been involved in cases against the AA. The case i mentioned with the fuel pump, the patrol man was an ex co worker of mine who we had to "let go" due to poor work standards. Which if the AA had checked his record before they employed him they would have know his record which included being sacked from next place of work for fraud so sacked forpoor workiign practice and fraud yet still gets a job from the AA. This is just one instance i have had with the AA. i mearly emplied some of their "staff" where crap. I never mentioned there is one or 2 that i know are very good and go beyond whats expected to get the member back on the road. Your opinion on winter tyes was backed up by you telling us you worked for the AA Anyway i digress, at the end of the day, europes biggest motoring organisation agrees with my me. So it would appear my opinions carry more weight then my own boring ramblings which people cant be bothered to read. Oh and I didnt just take the time to just read the bumph, i actualy took the time to look for it after all 23 yars in the job 2500 happy customers is no evidance at all that you dont need winter tyres as like i said ad the AA agree the cost out weighs the benifits.
  7. http://www.theaa.com...-in-the-uk.html any body bother t read that artical written by the biggest motoring organisatioon in the country ??? pay special attention to this section quote from the AA "many parts of the country never or only rarely experience weather conditions that would justify use of winter tyres" " many drivers choose not to use the car when snow or ice are around" "assuming that the industry could supply tyres in sufficient volume, the overall cost would be prohibitive – estimated at £500/car x 30million cars = £15billion for wheels/tyres plus storage and fitting costs If you read the artical it also says changing your tyres you should inform your insurance company again i quote from the AA "Over the winter of 2010/11 we did hear reports of some insurers increasing premiums or remarkably even refusing cover if winter tyres are fitted. As a result we recommend talking to your insurer if you are considering fitting winter tyres Strange isnt it on reading the artical it would apear the AA, the countries, no europes biggest motoring organisation seems to agree with all of my points.
  8. Feel free to fit your tyres i never stopped anyone, if you also feel the need to ignore the experiance of a 40 year old mechanic with 23 years experiance in the motortrade also feel free. 8/9 people on here cant be wrong so it must be my 2500 customers and every single mutli vehicle company int he country that must have it wrong in not using them I make my living from this not just something i picked up on google.
  9. Theres how many people recomendign winter tyres ? 7 /8 i am not going count. you have all based your winter performance on your past expericance of tyres in the winter. But theres talk of temperature diffrences of 4 degrees, to hot for them yet will wait another couple of weeks. Do you guys wake up in the mornings with a thermometer then do a quick pit stop before you go to work to see which wheels/tyres your going to use that day .You cant compare tyres from one part of the countrry to the other or snow depth if these tyres by your own admition work better in temp variations of as little as 4 degrees. Your all saying you get through the winter just fine with them and thats your proof they work. I get through the winter without them thats my reason for not using them. I have 2500 ish customers on my data base at work one just one askes for winter tyres. He wants them and has them and thats just fine. He lives on hill and thinks they get him home better at night after a day at work thats also fine. he drives a mercedes with all the modern gadgets on. My brother lives higher up the same hill they live on the same street , he has a bmw with no traction control he doesnt have snow tyres he got home every night last year. so what does that tell us ? not much except does the guy in the mercedes really need 400 quids worth of tyres and 300 quids worth of extra wheels in the winter ? the answer has got to be NO. ok for a second think of big motoring organisations ,,, the AA for a start then through in the postal service to namee just 2 ,does either of them pull their fleet in when the weather gets cold to have the tyres changed ? does they have thousands of spare wheels kicking around just waiting for the cold weather?. Surley if winter, snow, snow flake marked tyres what evver you call them where that good every company would have them on their vehicle. When the waether turns bad their stafff couldnt get their vehicles out of the depot slip slide and crash all over the place productivity must be down big time. If theres a coupe of weeks of snow and their vehicles are out of service for this time surley winter tyres would, affectivley save the economy millions in the long run. The end fo the day these "special tyres" work for such a short period of time they are just not worth the massive outlay, And dont start about "what priice do you put on saftey " as no ones mentioning saftey its all about getting stuck. Yes we have laminated windscreens and air bags and seat belts and all the other devices mentioned but non are saftey devices are they. they dont make you drive safer they prevent you getting hurt should you crash. Surley the point is not to crash on the first place so that point doesnt matter. Last year thee mercedes driver mentioned above came in for new tyres for winter , both my tyre suppliers strugglwed to evn get the tyres he wanted as non of them stocked them,both are mutli national companies. I guess the demand for them just isnt high enough to warrent stocking them. people have posted "evidance " of better tyres from where? russia ? canada? sory this is england last time i checked the bad weather we have is for such a short time and the beniftis so slight and the evidance so slim i cannot and for the foreseeable future refuse to promote the use of winter tyres. Can you imangine me trying to sell my customers tyres where to get the best otu of them he gets to use them a couple of months a year only when the moon is right and the skys are clear when the temp iis low enough that they will work better 400 quid is a heap of money in this area, when the customer laughs at his neighbour who he knows will be stuck because they guy at the garage has told him to spend all that money on tyres for winter,and his neighbour hasnt bothered. Can you imagine the look of sheer horrow when his neighbour also drives safetly to work with otu spending the money. Once again i do undertstand the benifts of winter tyres but for the cost to time of use to actual benifit ratio i cant justify the money. So when you all come back after the winter and say woo i glad i spent well on my tyres i didnt spin or slide at all i will sit here and think you know what ,,,, neither did i . Some peopel dont seem to realsie that as a mechanic/ mot tester of 23 years alogn with the other lads at my garage we havee over 120 years of car repair service and mot experiance between us (so we must know what were talking about or we wouldnt be in bussiness) non of us use or see the reason to use winter tyres. Infact as i talk to all the garages in my area non of them recomend or use them either.
  10. Where in my post does it say i am a better driver than you ? If it does then so be it i cant be bothered to read my post again. I dont use winter tyres and i pretty certain i didnt say you shouldnt use them either. I have never used them and never crashed ro failed to use my car either.I mearly said drive in accordance with the conditions. You work for the AA and drive a transit van ? what do you do then ? And i dont think working for thee AA qualifies you as a "profesional driver" hold a psv licence and dont concider myself a pro driver. I also held a rally licenece for a while as well but that neither makes me a better driver. I also hold qualifications in caving climbing and canoeing i am also a football coach qualified of course oh and a referee. Theres lots of things i hold qualifications in but non of them make me better than you mearly experianced in what i do. I am also the only person in thhe country capable aand able (other then Luk) capable of fitting a dsg gearbox with a new clutch. I know this as i am the only person in the country who has bought the tool for doing such a job. Luk make the clutches and have only ordered 2 tools at the cost of 1500 each they have one i have the other. The dealers are simply fitting new gearboxes when one fails. Again tthis doesnt make me any better than yourself but it does prove how commited i am to my job and not just doing it for the pay cheque. I also do understand tyres, and as of last week so should everyone else as all new tyres now come with a complete description of noise were and water dispersal abilities so its no longer rocket science. So you keep driving your AA van. I will still be sat in my garage waiting for all the ones with more than a flat batery or puncture that you cant fix.
  11. Having not had the experiance of wheels in motion i cannot comment on their work ,Although from what i have heard and looking at theiir spec sheet for the Lexus i can see no reason to not use them. They have calculated wheel geometry specific for your car taking into account wheel size and lowering of suspension and such like. I have seen wims specs and they look good my problem is i only have front wheel tracking gages as i have never invested in the newer 4 wheel ones which can be used to adjust the k.p.i of the car as well which when your car has been lowered it will need adjusting. I know 2 local garages that have the 4 wheel alignment gear one iss a big national company. I have spoke to both of them both cannot set my car to the specs used by wim as they dont know hoow to use the gages correctly (their words not mine) The best option was my local independant garage (whom we share information with and regular thing tank sessions on real problem cars) who seid they would get the manufacturer of the gages back in to set my car to the specs provided. I knwo the local national tyre and exhaust place have many times set tracking with worn out balls joints/track rod ends. I also know they have atleeast twice not adjusted the tracking at all and mealry just smeared the track rod ends (moved when adjustment carried out) with grease. I havve had the need to remove the track rod end and found it totally siezed only days after it was ment to have been adjusted!!. Your car can handle badley for lots of reasons tyres pressures would be the first port of call. If the tracking is out you will certainly notice the front end feelling "funny". I would sort these two things out first as they are cheapest.
  12. Hey why dont you go for a set of 155 tyres while your upgrading them for winter. Or get some chains oooo tell you what get some spikes. Narrow tyres are better in the snow spikes and chains are even better. My point is the diffrence you will get is so slight you wont notice. You cant compare one year to the next not even one road to the next as conditions will never be the same. Manufactures give all sorts of claims which i am sure under test conditions they can actually prove. Sorry i dont live in a lab i live in the real world. As far as loud exhaust and big tyres go if you look at my picture you will see the wheels are not big wheelss they are totally standard, and yes my exhaust did cost 400 pounds just for the back section but its no louderr than the standard system. As ex tyre fitter and i presume your an AA man (the biggest motoring organisation) you should know transit vans dont come with truck tyres. They are fitted with 8 ply light comercial tyres. As for the AA ha ha, i have been involved in the sueing of the AA for poor workman ship so many times its untrue. You see i dont mind sticking my neck out or standing in court in pursuit of the rightfull work on my customers cars. The most recent one was an AA man, he diagnosed a fuel pump fault. He then lifted the back seat and proceeded to hit the aformentioned fuel pump with ever increasing sizes of tool whislt the owner tried to start the car. The fuel pump housing being plastic , didnt take long to crack. Thank fully it did still fail to start, starting to work would have lead to a very bad fuel leak. I of course presumed it was the owner that had been hitting it and it was only when i questioned her about it she told me the story of the AA man. Funny isnt it the AA paid for all repair work to the fuel pump and i charged the customer for the crankshaft sensor the car actually needed. to boot the AA man in question still works as?? yes you guessed it , an AA man. Please forgive me for not valueing your thoughts and comments in the same way you dont value mine. Oh and just for the record the AA started as a motoring organisation which used to warn members of impending speed traps ,,,, now hows that for responsible motoring.
  13. quote "Last year, the same place did me 4 Khumo all weather tyres for about £360 so I guess the £472 doesn't sound so bad,,,,,, Anyway, although last winter was not a bad one (at least not where I live), on the few days when the roads were icy / snowy my car was all but paralysed." unquote That was copied from the first post in this thread. I have had my Lexus 5 years and never been stuck come to think of it i have never been stuck in the snow in any car. Thats any car i have ever driven. Theres obviously diffrent road conditions aroound the country but in my experiance of 23 years of drivign i have never been stuck and never bought winter tyres. I recently put a brand new set of cheap arse no name tyres on my car as i blew the budget on new wheels, these grip better than the old uniroyal tyres ever did. Theres a lot to be said for just a plain old normal decent set of good treaded tyres. As a mechanic/mot tester who fits 10-15 tyres a day i have never until very recently (last 2 years) even seen a winter tyre. Out of 2000 or so customers on my books i have one who asks for winter tyres.The only other time i see them is when some one has been for a part worn tyre from somewhere else and they have had one put on. I wont be convinced theres a need for winter tyres, drive your car to match the conditions just liek your told to when you take your lessons, if if the snows too bad you need to adapt your car for the weather then i feel you shouldnt be using your car, even the weather forcasters and all motoring agencies say " only do vital jourrnies" seriously if yourr gonnaa get stuck it gonna happen a slightly softer compund tyre with slightly diffrent tread patterns isnt going to get you out of it. feel free to spend your money though if it makes you feel safer on the roads, infact come see me i will happily sell you a set !
  14. The trc when pressed turns the traction control off. In normal on mode the wheel speed sensors pick up the wheels speed if one wheel is spinning faster (pre determined/pre programmed ammount) than the others then the engine power is cut. The ecu decides one wheel has broken traction and is spinning and cuts engine power until the wheel regains traction. Pressing the button (so the light on the dash comes on) turns of the traction control allowing limitless fun and wheel spin.
  15. Last year, the same place did me 4 Khumo all weather tyres for about £360 so I guess the £472 doesn't sound so bad,,,,,, Anyway, although last winter was not a bad one (at least not where I live), on the few days when the roads were icy / snowy my car was all but paralysed. Would i be right in thinking you spent 360 quid on diffrent tyres for winter and still got stuck and this year your planning on spending even more money on "special" tyres for winter? I spent no extra money on my tyres and didnt get stuck once.!!! This topic crops up every year and i still see no reason to spend any extra money at all on "diffrent" or "special" tyres for winter. Drive to suit the conditions and save your money. Thats my say on the matter i now await the arguements.
  16. Got mine from ebay usa looked around found them for $8 plus postage. took about a month to come but spot on item at bugger all money.
  17. chhers for the numbers , i know my profile says Derbyshire ,but i actually live 5 minutes outside city centre Manchester, i am an outdoor persuits instructor and get up and around Matlock very often stoney middleton calver are both stomping grounds of mine. Infact i probably spend more time in derbyshire than manchester.
  18. Job done fella thats all that matters. I was after heated seats as mine are just electric but not heated dont really fancy full leather though they just too hot inthe summer,if we ever get one again. where in derbyshire you at or is ricky at. My brother in law recently wrote of his is so i have acces to bits his is heated seats just in cream !
  19. good post, have you took into account air temperature though? old air is more dense then warm air and give more bang for your buck without changing fuel, hence putting a bettre cold air intake and and intercooler on your car for better performance. The Lexus doesnt change its ecu setting dependant on fuel grade. theres nothing onthe car that measures fuel grade so it cant change itself as it doesnt know whats in the tank. The car itself can richen or weeken the mixture/fuel air ration, can and does do this but thats based on the exhaust gases not fuel in the tank. Infact if the car doesnt richen and weeken the ration the cat doesnt work properly. The recent test i saw was tech based using a dino. The car ,if i remember correclty ran a k series rover engine 1800, (the same a the lotus elise) The car was at normal temp in all test. They fuel varied from tesco home brew to top priced fuels from all major companies. They even tried fuel addatives, adding them to all the fuels. There was no significant horse power gains on any of the fuels or addatives. There was a few recorded increases of 3/4 bhp on the dino readings. I doubt anyone on a daily comute would notice the diffrence. Having said all that , my old turbo did seems to sound diffrent and have more power on optimax, but looking back it was so slight it could have just been a placibo effect.
  20. If the car has electric seats in the first place then they should be plug and play. If your car is an s model like mine is then you need a positive and a negative to power them. The fuse box in the footwell is the best place to take one from just run the cables under the carpet. For the negative side just fix the wire to the seat bolt mount as anything metal on the car (providing it mounted to the body) is an earth/negative.
  21. Get them if there cheaper you wont notice a diffrence. You will get an extra 10 mm of width and 4.5 mm of side wall height i doubt you will even notice. You will how ever notice the new tyres making a diffrence. Given a brand new set, same rubber compound and tread pattern of each size tested back to back i doubt you will notice any diffrence in the 2 tyre sizes. Rightly so though narrow tyres are ment to be beter in the snow as they cut through it rather than sit ontop of it. I recently put on 4 new (cheap) tyres they give better grip than the old (good brand) tyres. I put this purely down to better tread. The only thing to be aware of when buying cheap tyres is noise, these cheap ones mean i have to trun the stereo up a notch or 2, i noticed the minute i drove out the workshop.
  22. Think i can just about top that. Mine is a 2000 model with no history at all not a single stamp in the book. Its just turned 168,000, its not failed mot in 5 years and i have only serviced it once.It doesnt even use a drop of oil. The service history is preety bad since i am a mechanic lol. I just tend to fix it as it breaks fortunatly this doesnt happen. Even when the radiator went it still got me home after a 10 minute cool down and a coupel of pints of water.
  23. An st The st170 will out perform the Is every day of the week. Your quoted times for 0-60 are 1.3 seconds apart., if you do the maths thats not even close in terms of distance down the road. The Lexus is 69kg heavier than a 5 door st and a 3 door st is lighter. (based on a 2002 model) Thats like driving round with a passenger in the car all the time. The st170 has more power at lower revs, the Lexus hits a max 195 nm of torque at 4,500 rpm the focus hits the same at 2,500 rpm. Just to confirm the figures ,a recently on a private road fo course ,raced my mate in his 3 door st170 trust me the figures stack up to the expected results.
  24. stiff wire coat hanger or such like. Wrap a srew driver in a rag ,bend the top of the door open, use the wire to reach down and pop the boot release. very very easy to slightly harder if you dont want to mark the paint ,a touch up brush is cheaper than a window ???
  25. As a mechanic of over 22 years i have driven many many cars . The lexus is200 is no more exciting than the 318 you currently own. I have an is200 for 5 years now (the sameone) In that time i have own audi convertable,325 bmw and rover coupe turbo. All 3 where more exciting to drive than the Lexus. If its excitment you want go for the Focus over the Lexus. If you want reliable then it has to be the Lexus hands down. They are more expensive on parts when they break ,they just dont break. Mine has done 168,000 miles. when i bought it ,it had done 130,00. It came with no history at all. I believe in buying a car with your eyes before service history, a stamp can be made very easily and a service record made very simply. Anyway since owning my Lexus i have drove it like its stolen most of the time and other than the radiator going and me not noticing the temp gage being high and even when i did i carried on for another 4 miles with it screaming, its never let me down. The little rad leak cost me a head gasket timing belt and of course radiator. Take your pick really but do road test a Lexus before you buy one, if you want excitment the is200 isnt for you.
×
×
  • Create New...