John
I quite agree with your comments.
With the car now becoming more of a commodity item, it is designed to
conform to the lowest denominator, ie. a person who gets in the car to go
from A to B, not someone who enjoys the finer points of motoring. Cars are
now designed more for the city rather than the country type roads that I am
used to, and I guess that is why I prefer my Triumphs.
I believe that wearable parts have also been tailored for city type driving,
and hence tyres are made softer for comfort rather than durability, as are
things like brakepads. When these components are really put to the test,
such as here in the Waikato where likes of us drive on country roads more
often (My wife and I both commute from a satellite town to the nearest
city - approx 30km each way), then they can't cut the mustard...
As well suffering higher wear on the brakepads, the LFC now wears out tyres
more and a lot of that is down to the choice of tyre. The recommended tyre
for that car is the Michelin MXL - but I can no longer get that. I used to
get great mileage from them, but the MXT-E that allegedly replaced them are
nowhere near as good - and I, like you, make sure that the geometry is
maintained correctly...
David Greed
1974 Stag Man O/D
1979 2500S Man O/D
Email: Home: greed@wave.co.nz
Work: david.greed@telecom.co.nz
Webpages: http://www.wave.co.nz/pages/greed
.
----- Original Message -----
From: "John Macartney" <jonmac@ndirect.co.uk>
To: "Michael D. Porter" <mporter@zianet.com>; <greed@wave.co.nz>;
<2000-Register@autox.team.net>; "MIKE HARDWICK" <mikeh2500@hotmail.com>
Sent: Sunday, 4 June 2000 09:54
Subject: Re: Short life of brake pads on my LFC
> One the key issues on the general thread surely has to be how long do we
accept pads
> should last in the first place. Obviously, it all depends on how the
brakes are used.
> I think I've never been a 'hard' user of brakes - much preferring a more
relaxed driving
> style in which the car's general progress is largely controlled by the
volume of
> surrounding traffic and use of the gearbox.
> I've met many people who feel that 12000 miles for a set of pads or front
tyres is
> entirely reasonable. For the majority, I suspect it is not they who are
paying for the
> replacements but their employers.
> I have every expectation for pads to last me at least 40-50000 miles and I
get angry with
> myself if I can't get more than 35000 out of a set of tyres before they
show signs of
> aquaplaning. In the past, I've expected a set of discs to go for at least
100,000 miles -
> barring scoring from unwanted stones in the calipers The roads I use
regularly are not
> smooth asphalt, are rarely straight for long periods and are mainly rural.
Deep in the
> heart of Gloucestershire, they are usually fairly rough tarmac and this
has a wear effect
> on tyres akin to 80 grit sandpaper. I have my tracking checked at least
twice a year. In
> years past when I made extensive use of motorways, 60,000 from a set of
tyres was by no
> means unusual but this was when cars had power steering as an option and
such an accessory
> was mostly fitted to 'barges.' It's nice to have it on my LFC but I'm of
the opinion that
> if a small Eurobox really needs power steering, the guy who designed it in
the first place
> still needs to learn a thing or two about front suspension design and some
of the more
> basic principles of steering geometry.
>
> Cheers
> Jonmac
>
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