Jump to content
SAU Community

Recommended Posts

Hello all,

just a bit of advice. I sent my R33 in for a wheel alignment, balance and rotation the other day at Fulcrum in Brisbane on the southside. The wheel balance and alignment was done, but they did not rotate the wheels. I rang and asked why they did not do them, and the reply was "the technician decided it was better for the best wheels to be at the front. This is standard policy". This is not what I asked for. I specifically asked twice for the wheels to be rotated. I paid for a wheel rotation and balance - it should have been done. At the least they should have called me about this instead of making a presumption. Fulcrum were good enough to offer me a free wheel alignment next time I go there (if I go there again) when I complained about this. So just make sure if you are dealing with these people to check they have done what you have asked and paid for.

A question: Why should the better wheels (with more tread left on them) be at the front of the car? For better grip during cornering? Because the skyline is rear wheel drive, I thought It would be better to have more grip at the rear to keep traction, and better power delivery (and cause it wears the tyres out more quickly at the rear).

Thanks,

Eek

Link to comment
https://www.sau.com.au/forums/topic/15105-make-sure-you-get-what-you-paid-for/
Share on other sites

this is why i never leave my car anywhere unattended while work is gettin done, just hang out of old mates pocket and question everything they dotouch, *** em.....if im pain good money, oh and i never let anyone drive her without me, except the girl, she drives it every day....i musta got the short straw there....

lenno

This is full of bull.  

Fact one - best tyres should be at the back ALWAYS. Promotes understeer not oversteer.  

Fact two - different sized f/r wheels should NOT be rotated.  

T.

i thought this as well. however the car steers with the front id prefer to have more tread on the front. Ive been told from a usually relaible source that more tread on the fron is better.

rb26dett, my thoughts exactly

In my opinion,provided the tires are the same size, the best tires should be at the front.

1.Most of the weight of the car is on the front axle-more load on the front tires.

2.Consider where your priority lies- good take-offs with better tires at the back or being able to pull-up in time instead of aquaplanning on the bald tires in rainy weather.

I think Fulcrum tech did the right thing by leaving the good tires at the front.Of course they should have let you know,of course they should't have charged you for wheel rotation but thats another story.

Dave hits it right there.

Most people can react to understeer without any knowledge - LIGHT braking and ease off the power.

However many people can react to oversteer?

Steer opposite to what you instinctively KNOW and keep the power down? This amplified by FWD cars that have savage lift-off oversteer properties.

This is for people who have no training other than what they learn from their mums and dads...

The 'new tyres on the back' is the advice given to people who have say 50% tyres but can only afford two new tyres.

T.

Good tyres to the front always. Much prefer to have steering/brake control than not have the brain power to control my right foot. Even the effectiveness of ABS is severly diminished if you are aquaplaining. And currently owning a reasonably quick RWD car, and a reasonably quick FWD car, there is definately a requirement to have good tyres, especially at the front. Its is even more pronounced in a FWD car. Besides, why argue with Fulcrum. I would never take my car there as I think all of their gear, especially labour, is overpriced, but they do know their stuff. They still should have consulted with you though.

Whoa, heaps of replies! I didn't know what was best for the tyres - to be on front or rear, that's why I asked. My wheels are all the same size, and the tyres currently on the front have slightly less grip than the back - not talking brand new on the back and worn at the front.

Well I took the car for a wheel alignment and balance cuase i had bad vibration over 120km/hr. Guess what? It's still there. It's violent between 120-130km/h. I've noticed that at 120km/h it vibrates through the steering wheel. 130km/h, the vibration in the steering wheel is less, but the console (where the radio a/c is) shakes like hell. At 140km/h, the vibration moves to the drive shaft/rear i think. Any ideas on what this could be?

Cheers,

Eek

same problem! on the freeway all is well, but accelerate to just over 120 and the steering wheel shakes. seems to go away above about 140. sent it in for wheel balance (it was aligned 2 months ago with no difference) and absolutely NO change. it's not that bad, just noticeable, and annoying in what is otherwise a smooooth car to drive.

grrrr.....

Eek Skywalker - Notice you are from Brisvegas. I have to recommend the guys from Bob-Jane Toombul. They are the first guys to give me a decent alignment/wheel balance in years. I got the full treatment last time when I got my new tyres and it feels great. The best thing for me was, the wheel allignment. As I have fully adjustable suspension they set it to the settings I asked for, amazing! It could be your rotors though or also, I have had problems with certain brands of tyres being seemingly impossible to balance. Try another balance first though, its the cheapest.

The wheels with the best tread should always be at the front. Its industry practice and a safety thing more than anything. Steering and braking are done on the front wheels so thats where you want your grip to be. Most people dont have to worry about oversteer because the dont drive hard enough to force the car to oversteer.

Obviously if they are different sizes front/rear you leave them.

All cars are actually engineered to understeer a little bit. This promotes the best chance of a head-on collision where the crumple zones will be most effective. A car that has tendency to oversteer will be very dangerous in event of a crash as side intrusion bar will not be as good a shock absorbant as your whole front engine bay/boot crumple zones.

How many times you've seen a car wraped in a pole and injured the occupant badly? Compare it to frontal hit where ppl inside would probably has minor injury or bruises from seatbelts only.

Of course if you had a frontal hit at 200km/h you hardly stand a chance anyway, so drive carefully and it'll never happens. <>

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now


  • Similar Content

  • Latest Posts

    • As discussed in the previous post, the bushes in the 110 needed replacing. I took this opportunity to replace the castor bushes, the front lower control arm, lower the car and get the alignment dialled in with new tyres. I took it down to Alignment Motorsports on the GC to get this work done and also get more out of the Shockworks as I felt like I wasn't getting the full use out of them.  To cut a very long story short, it ended up being the case the passenger side castor arm wouldn't accept the brand new bush as the sleeve had worn badly enough to the point you could push the new bush in by hand and completely through. Trying a pair of TRD bushes didn't fix the issue either (I had originally gone with Hardrace bushes). We needed to urgently source another castor arm, and thankfully this was sourced and the guys at the shop worked on my car until 7pm on a Saturday to get everything done. The car rides a lot nicer now with the suspension dialled in properly. Lowered the car a little as well to suit the lower profile front tyres, and just bring the car down generally. Eternally thankful for the guys down at the shop to get the car sorted, we both pulled big favours from our contacts to get it done on the Saturday.  Also plugged in the new Stedi foglights into the S15, and even from a quick test in the garage I'm keen to see how they look out on the road. I had some concerns about the length of the LED body and whether it'd fit in the foglight housing but it's fine.  I've got a small window coming up next month where I'll likely get a little paint work done on the 110 to remove the rear wing, add a boot wing and roof wing, get the side skirt fixed up and colour match the little panel on the tail lights so that I can install some badges that I've kept in storage. I'm also tempted to put in a new pair of headlights on the 110.  Until then, here's some more pictures from Easter this year. 
    • I would put a fuel pressure gauge between the filter and the fuel rail, see if it's maintaining good fuel pressure at idle going up to the point when it stalls. Do you see any strange behavior in commanded fuel leading up to the point when it stalls? You might have to start going through the service manual and doing a long list of sensor tests if it's not the fuel system for whatever reason.
    • Hi,  Just joined the forum so I could share my "fix" of this problem. Might be of use to someone. Had the same hunting at idle issue on my V36 with VQ35HR engine after swapping the engine because the original one got overheated.  While changing the engine I made the mistake of cleaning the throttle bodies and tried all the tricks i could find to do a throttle relearn with no luck. Gave in and took it to a shop and they couldn't sort it. Then took it to my local Nissan dealership and they couldn't get it to idle properly. They said I'd need to replace the throttle bodies and the ecu probably costing more than the car is worth. So I had the idea of replacing the carbon I cleaned out with a thin layer of super glue and it's back to normal idle now. Bit rough but saved the car from the wreckers 🤣
    • After my last update, I went ahead with cleaning and restoring the entire fuel system. This included removing the tank and cleaning it with the Beyond Balistics solution, power washing it multiple times, drying it thoroughly, rinsing with IPA, drying again with heat gun and compressed air. Also, cleaning out the lines, fuel rail, and replacing the fuel pump with an OEM-style one. During the cleaning process, I replaced several hoses - including the breather hose on the fuel tank, which turned out to be the cause of the earlier fuel leak. This is what the old fuel filter looked like: Fuel tank before cleaning: Dirty Fuel Tank.mp4   Fuel tank after cleaning (some staining remains): Clean Fuel Tank.mp4 Both the OEM 270cc and new DeatschWerks 550cc injectors were cleaned professionally by a shop. Before reassembling everything, I tested the fuel flow by running the pump output into a container at the fuel filter location - flow looked good. I then fitted the new fuel filter and reassembled the rest of the system. Fuel Flow Test.mp4 Test 1 - 550cc injectors Ran the new fuel pump with its supplied diagonal strainer (different from OEM’s flat strainer) and my 550cc injectors using the same resized-injector map I had successfully used before. At first, it idled roughly and stalled when I applied throttle. Checked the spark plugs and found that they were fouled with carbon (likely from the earlier overly rich running when the injectors were clogged). After cleaning the plugs, the car started fine. However, it would only idle for 30–60 seconds before stalling, and while driving it would feel like a “fuel cut” after a few seconds - though it wouldn’t fully stall. Test 2 – Strainer swap Suspecting the diagonal strainer might not be reaching the tank bottom, I swapped it for the original flat strainer and filled the tank with ~45L of fuel. The issue persisted exactly the same. Test 3 – OEM injectors To eliminate tuning variables, I reinstalled the OEM 270cc injectors and reverted to the original map. Cleaned the spark plugs again just in-case. The stalling and “fuel cut” still remained.   At this stage, I suspect an intermittent power or connection fault at the fuel pump hanger, caused during the cleaning process. This has led me to look into getting Frenchy’s fuel hanger and replacing the unit entirely. TL;DR: Cleaned and restored the fuel system (tank, lines, rail, pump). Tested 550cc injectors with the same resized-injector map as before, but the car stalls at idle and experiences what feels like “fuel cut” after a few seconds of driving. Swapped back to OEM injectors with original map to rule out tuning, but the issue persists. Now suspecting an intermittent power or connection fault at the fuel pump hanger, possibly cause by the cleaning process.  
×
×
  • Create New...