Your fleet running reports

[Mito Man]

@Mito Man Well that is weird - I managed to miss that post (and all the responses completely) .

Very nice - 620 is a pretty rabid thing. Track days coming up?

Yes, Caterham have their own track days with tuition so he booked a slot later in the year with them at Bedford.

Apparently he’s already broken it and it’s being trailered back for repairs next week.

[IanF]

@Mito Man Well that is weird - I managed to miss that post (and all the responses completely) .

Very nice - 620 is a pretty rabid thing. Track days coming up?

Yes, Caterham have their own track days with tuition so he booked a slot later in the year with them at Bedford.

Apparently he’s already broken it and it’s being trailered back for repairs next week.

Yikes! hope he's okay..

[Mito Man]

He’s fine, thinks it’s stuck in 2 gears at once. Or between gears or something like that from what he describes.

[DeskJockey]

Had the Galaxy in for new tyres and alignment today with my local F1 Auto Centres. They did a great job.

Turns out I'd not measured the remaining tread depth correctly, and there was more life left in the old set. They called me up and offered to store the new set for me while I wore the old ones down a bit more. The alignment required the use of a lot of force and some application of heat to free up a couple of nuts. When compared to another chain I used last time that involved me having to complain to the manager to get them to actually try, it was a nice experience.

Would recommend!

[Rich B]

Had the Galaxy in for new tyres and alignment today with my local F1 Auto Centres. They did a great job.

Turns out I'd not measured the remaining tread depth correctly, and there was more life left in the old set. They called me up and offered to store the new set for me while I wore the old ones down a bit more. The alignment required the use of a lot of force and some application of heat to free up a couple of nuts. When compared to another chain I used last time that involved me having to complain to the manager to get them to actually try, it was a nice experience.

Would recommend!

why didn't you look at your tyres before going to get new ones?

[DeskJockey]

Had the Galaxy in for new tyres and alignment today with my local F1 Auto Centres. They did a great job.

Turns out I'd not measured the remaining tread depth correctly, and there was more life left in the old set. They called me up and offered to store the new set for me while I wore the old ones down a bit more. The alignment required the use of a lot of force and some application of heat to free up a couple of nuts. When compared to another chain I used last time that involved me having to complain to the manager to get them to actually try, it was a nice experience.

Would recommend!

why didn't you look at your tyres before going to get new ones?

I did. I figured they were about 3mm, so due a replacement. They measured them at 4.3mm.

[IanF]

Had the Galaxy in for new tyres and alignment today with my local F1 Auto Centres. They did a great job.

Turns out I'd not measured the remaining tread depth correctly, and there was more life left in the old set. They called me up and offered to store the new set for me while I wore the old ones down a bit more. The alignment required the use of a lot of force and some application of heat to free up a couple of nuts. When compared to another chain I used last time that involved me having to complain to the manager to get them to actually try, it was a nice experience.

Would recommend!

why didn't you look at your tyres before going to get new ones?

I did. I figured they were about 3mm, so due a replacement. They measured them at 4.3mm.

Don’t think I’ve ever replaced any tyres at 3mm.. in fact, I think MPSSs/MPS4Ss only start at about 5mm!

[Beany]

Bean, you’re aware that coupe/cab E46/ have quite different mirrors to the saloon/Touring I’m sure, but just mentioning it.

Yup, as cynically expected, the 'guaranteed to fit' part is for a saloon, not a couple/convertible - it folds horizontally, not, er, rotationally?

If the fittings are the same I might just throw the fucker on (because using the car without a driver's mirror is a bit dodgy) and just come back to it next month or something.

And I really really must not use Autodoc again, that's the second time I've been burned by them and it's not worth it.

[Mito Man]

why didn't you look at your tyres before going to get new ones?

I did. I figured they were about 3mm, so due a replacement. They measured them at 4.3mm.

Don’t think I’ve ever replaced any tyres at 3mm.. in fact, I think MPSSs/MPS4Ss only start at about 5mm!

Michelin actually advise against changing their tyres before they hit the 1.6mm limit as it is premature and a waste of money - this has been on their website for donkeys years and I’ve saved the web page in case any twatty mechanic tried to warn me of imminent death because my tyre only has 4mm left
https://www.michelin.co.uk/auto/advice ... read-depth (towards bottom of page)

[Jobbo]

Bean, you’re aware that coupe/cab E46/ have quite different mirrors to the saloon/Touring I’m sure, but just mentioning it.

Yup, as cynically expected, the 'guaranteed to fit' part is for a saloon, not a couple/convertible - it folds horizontally, not, er, rotationally?

If the fittings are the same I might just throw the fucker on (because using the car without a driver's mirror is a bit dodgy) and just come back to it next month or something.

And I really really must not use Autodoc again, that's the second time I've been burned by them and it's not worth it.

I doubt the fittings are the same - the coupe/convertible ones are for frameless doors whereas the saloon/Touring ones aren’t. I guess looking at a Compact might give a clue - that has frames but the longer doors, and I think shares the saloon/Touring type.

[Beany]

Yeah, that's a good point. It might just be the plastic fill plate that's different, though.

Gonna get a coffee and some breakfast and break out the screwdrivers in a bit, see where I stand.

At least now, this isn't also utterly financially crippling.

But I'm still fucking annoyed.

Edit: bit of googling suggests that no, they won't fit at all.

So that's saved me pulling the door apart at least.

[DeskJockey]

I did. I figured they were about 3mm, so due a replacement. They measured them at 4.3mm.

Don’t think I’ve ever replaced any tyres at 3mm.. in fact, I think MPSSs/MPS4Ss only start at about 5mm!

Michelin actually advise against changing their tyres before they hit the 1.6mm limit as it is premature and a waste of money - this has been on their website for donkeys years and I’ve saved the web page in case any twatty mechanic tried to warn me of imminent death because my tyre only has 4mm left
https://www.michelin.co.uk/auto/advice ... read-depth (towards bottom of page)

Michelin seems to be alone on that one. Plenty of others advocate for 3mm. I get it'll postpone the cost a bit, but I'd rather know that I'm not driving on tyres that are very near their wear limits. Aquaplaning resistance goes down (no real surprise there) as the tyres wear and braking distances go up.

[Sundayjumper]

Edit: bit of googling suggests that no, they won't fit at all.

Correct. In addition to Jobbo's comment above, IIRC the rake of the windscreen is different too.

Still, at least it arrived quite quickly. That was always my main gripe with Autodoc.

[Sundayjumper]

200 miles @ 23mpg today and nothing seems to have fallen off. Excellent.

IMG_0796.jpeg (30.25 KiB) Viewed 886 times

[Beany]

Edit: bit of googling suggests that no, they won't fit at all.

Correct. In addition to Jobbo's comment above, IIRC the rake of the windscreen is different too.

Still, at least it arrived quite quickly. That was always my main gripe with Autodoc.

I ordered it a week ago.

Ah, wait, by Autodoc standards, that is fast.

Anyway, pretty sure I've found the right part on EuroCarParts so hopefully I can get my hands on that a bit sooner and it'll be, you know, the right part.

Already got a cap for it (never got around to painting/fitting the replacement after it was smacked last time) so just need glass, which I've re-ordered from Amazon, because fuck paying £70 for a bit of glass with some kanthal under a layer of laminate. Seventeen quid is far more appealing.

So maybe by this time next week I'll be sorted.

What a load of annoying bollocks. I'm quite liking BMWs, but I think I'll avoid coupes/convertibles in future; it's admirable that they make so many changes for them and don't just put a frock on a saloon, but it makes sourcing parts and procedures to do things an utter buggeration.

I suppose at least I'm in a position financially now where I can go "ah bugger" as opposed to "ah, now I can't eat anything but potatoes for two weeks" when shit like this happens so in the grand scheme of things, ho hum, I guess.

[tim]

200 miles @ 23mpg today and nothing seems to have fallen off. Excellent.


IMG_0796.jpeg

How much of a light foot hypermiler do you need to be to get 23 out of that? It's quite impressive I suppose given the bulk of it.

[V8Granite]

I did. I figured they were about 3mm, so due a replacement. They measured them at 4.3mm.

Don’t think I’ve ever replaced any tyres at 3mm.. in fact, I think MPSSs/MPS4Ss only start at about 5mm!

Michelin actually advise against changing their tyres before they hit the 1.6mm limit as it is premature and a waste of money - this has been on their website for donkeys years and I’ve saved the web page in case any twatty mechanic tried to warn me of imminent death because my tyre only has 4mm left
https://www.michelin.co.uk/auto/advice ... read-depth (towards bottom of page)

Once you got down to around 3mm on the old GSD3s they were horrid in heavy rain, I think part of the tread disappears at that depth as it wasn’t all the same.

Dave!

[tim]

Michelin seems to be alone on that one. Plenty of others advocate for 3mm. I get it'll postpone the cost a bit, but I'd rather know that I'm not driving on tyres that are very near their wear limits. Aquaplaning resistance goes down (no real surprise there) as the tyres wear and braking distances go up.

"The minimum tread depth is 1.6 mm. This means that it is imperative to change your tyres once this limit has been reached to avoid compromising your safety and breaking the law.
But it also means that it is premature to change your tyres before this threshold."

SO presumably michelin tyres are fine at 1.6mm and at 1.599 are CIRCULAR HARBINGERS OF DEATH!!!!111!111!eleven!!!111

[DeskJockey]

Luckily we know that all motorists are so keenly aware of the performance of their vehicles that they can feel when the tyres hit the limit, and immediately proceed to have them replaced.

[Beany]

Michelin seems to be alone on that one. Plenty of others advocate for 3mm. I get it'll postpone the cost a bit, but I'd rather know that I'm not driving on tyres that are very near their wear limits. Aquaplaning resistance goes down (no real surprise there) as the tyres wear and braking distances go up.

"The minimum tread depth is 1.6 mm. This means that it is imperative to change your tyres once this limit has been reached to avoid compromising your safety and breaking the law.
But it also means that it is premature to change your tyres before this threshold."

SO presumably michelin tyres are fine at 1.6mm and at 1.599 are CIRCULAR HARBINGERS OF DEATH!!!!111!111!eleven!!!111

Imagine if your tread depth went to 1.5999mm at the same time as the odo clicked over 100,000 miles.

....the horror.