sparky Paul

Well, you would expect them to be able to read, at least. :wacko: Not quite so bad, but the only bad experience I ever had was with one of the big tyre fitting/car spares chains. Quoted me over the phone for V-rated tyres for a big V6 Omega, OH took the car in and came home with two nice new H-rated tyres, and a receipt for V-rated tyres. I was not best pleased with them, but they asked me to go straight back and they would rectify the problem. When I got there... "Errr... we've only got one V-rated in stock. We can get another one this afternoon." Great... another 10 miles back home, and another journey into town later. Perhaps I had found the reason for the H-rated tyres... Third visit, and the correct tyres were fitted. Wheel balance was appalling. Fourth visit for another attempt at balancing. Balanced better, but not perfect. Then I noticed the amount of lead on the wheels... they hadn't even bothered to remove the old weights to re-balance the wheels, and had simply added more lead at the opposite side, cancelling most of the original balance weight out. There was nearly half a pound of lead on one of the wheels, most of it totally unnecessary. I gave in. Never again...

Either the the caliper bushings or shaft is worn, or the shaft seal has had it. As sepulchrave says... change the caliper.

Standard 3/16" pipe and metric fittings. Best way to stop the fluid is to use a flexible hose clamp on the back, and cling film under the brake fluid reservoir cap to prevent it running out at the front - this blocks the vent and creates a vacuum in the vessel. Don't forget that you'll need to bleed the air from the brakes afterwards. It's not too difficult, and will definitely cost a lot less than

No, that's not normal. Mine lose one or two psi over a period of several weeks, and I haven't noticed any difference with different tyres, including Dunlops. Could be porous rims, or it could be the condition of the rims where the tyre seals, but from your mention of bubbles from the valve area even with new valves, it could be de-laquering and/or corrosion in the wheel's valve seat. I would suggest getting the tyre fitter to remove the valves (the complete stem) from the wheels, give the seat a dose of Rimseal and fit hard rubber ones, see if that cures it. The rubber ones might just do the trick, but this problem is likely to recur if it is due to corrosion, and probably get worse, unfortunately.

It might be my fading memory of the Dunlops, but I felt sure these were louder. The tread holds onto a lot of gravel too, which doesn't help. It's a shame though, they seem excellent tyres otherwise, and seem to be wearing well. IIRC I paid about

It's an old thread, but I thought I'd let you know how I've got on with these tyres in case anyone is considering them. Well, there's nothing wrong with the driving aspect, they're grippy, very good in the wet, and seem to be wearing well. They seem a well made casing, and balanced easily. However, they are noisy... in fact they are very noisy... even worse than the Dunlops. Go over 40MPH and you start to hear a constant thrum from the tyres. I will endure them for now, but I can't really recommend these unless you're deaf. :lol:

Mine's in tomorrow morning... :lol:

A good bit of info there. Although

I would leave the balljoint in the hub and release it from the bottom arm, but without using a splitter... Unscrew the bottom nut several turns, but leave on to protect the threads and save knuckles when the joint splits. Insert a bar between the bottom arm and the chassis in such a way that you can exert downward pressure on the bottom arm. Push down hard, then hit the side of the bottom arm where the balljoint is fixed with a hammer until the joint splits, then remove the nut and balljoint from the arm. If you push down hard, it should only need moderate thumps to release it.

Just to add... as well as the Fortunas, South China Tyre & Rubber also make Sunny and Wanli tyres.

Erm... the Fortuna F2000's you have on now are Chinese. Look on the side, it says 'Made in P.R.C.'.

You probably didn't get any replies because the thread dropped off the first page before anyone who could help saw it. With specific problems like this, it's worth bumping the thread back up once or twice... Others like you to use the site's search function too. There's a excellent thread on the forum regarding this very problem, it just took me seconds to find it again - just punch "aircon leaking" into the search box and it comes straight up. :) Anyway, good to hear you got it fixed okay. Pics are always welcome. :lol:

I've been suffering again with the front-end rattling like a bag of bolts. I bought two droplinks this time, figuring that they must both be about ready by now... Good job I did, they've both had it. Can't really complain, one original one from new, the other one was changed about 50k ago... the old bus has done 83k now. :)

'Westlake' will be another imported tyre from China, some of these are perfectly okay, but some are not so good. It pays to have a search around the net, see what other folks experiences with the tyres are like... if you can't find any info, then it's really up to you. If there is no feedback on a particular brand, bear in mind that some of these tyre manufacturers change the name on their tyres quite often... makes tracing bad reviews impossible.

If you look under the bonnet, two aircon pipes come from the back of the front evaporator and through the bulkhead. On a single aircon vehicle, these two pipes then head towards the offside of the bulkhead before disappearing down and towards the front of the car. If you have an additional two pipes which join these near where they pass through the bulkhead, heading down and underneath the car towards the back, you have twin aircon - i.e. an additional evaporator at the back of the car. I believe the cars with twin aircon also have roof vents for the cooled air. The fill quantities 1: 700g+50g and 2: 1050g+50g refer to the number of evaporators fitted, 1 or 2. Sounds like you have two evaporators, so 1050g would be correct.

It's not unusual for there to be some movement on the pedal, but I'm guessing you have found it worse after the work was done. The obvious answer is that some air has entered the system which will need bleeding - sometimes this can be stubborn, requiring a pressure bleeder. Also, check that the pads and calipers are fitted and seated correctly, and that the pads can move okay in the calipers. Is it pulling up straight when braking hard? If not, start by looking at the weak side. Did you clamp the hose and release the fluid through the bleed nipple when forcing the pistons back in? If not, it is possible to damage the ABS pump unit, although the symptoms you describe doesn't really indicate seal damage in the pump, which is often similar to master cylinder failure.

The vca site only gives data for new cars. There is another one which is very comprehensive and gives all the data... http://www.smmtco2.co.uk/co2search2.asp ...but I think the Parkers link given above tells you what you need to know. http://www.parkers.co.uk/cars/road-tax/?deriv=19351 It says yours is band F.

I think I'll keep my old '99 Gal too. 2001-on 2.3 Zetec manual will go up from

Of course not, but there is some tolerance built into the speedo calibration. None of the other sizes quoted have exactly the same circumference either. Strange. I might be wrong about the 'early' bit. My (admittedly later) mk.1 Ford Galaxy Owner's Manual, which covers all engine sizes, has tyre pressures for 195/65x15 205/60x15 215/60x15 215/55x16 Haynes book also states '195/65R15, 205/60R15, 215/60R15 or 215/55R16 (depending on model)' I knew I had read it somewhere... no mention of 205/65x15. I am the only one with a handbook with these sizes in? :lol:

From the tyre paste and the markings on the tyres, I would say they are part worn tyres that have just been fitted to the rims. Also, if you are on 215/55x16s now, you speedometer will read a little under on 225/55s, so watch out for that!