Doing a long (80 mile each way) drive every day, I tried a new route.
On the M3, the Pug 406 in the inside land started to oscillate in the grooves left by truck tyres.
I could avoid by driving out of them (to the right, but VERY close to the middle lane).
By leaving the car in the "trench" and deliberately NOT compensating by making lots of little adjustments, (The road was v. quiet, speed about 70), it started to sway left-right. Getting worse. Quite disconcerting.
My question: The tyres are 195 x 65 x 15. All new. Pug 406 2.1Td.
Mileage is c.180,000m. Would new shocks / springs reduce this effect as I could see it becoming quite drastic and possibly contributary to an accident? I think the car is on the original shocks - certainly not done in the last 80,000 miles.apologies if this is classed as technical, but is safety related for novice drivers.. I have searched the archives but not found similar threads.
Thanks for any feedback - anyone else noticed this?
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had similar experiences and the worst I have ever come across was the Newbury bound old A34 just before the town. In an old Sierra estate and breaked and began fish-tailing all over the place.
This is why lorries should in my opinion pay their much higher road tax as they cause so much more dmaage than cars.
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They also tend to fill with water (the trenches) and cause mad aquaplaning.
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Couldn't agree more about the rutting on the M3 : the caravan in front of me the other week started snaking in these ruts : ended up boumcing off the armco. The omega hates them; it takes significant effort to steer out of them. They re-laid this stretch not so long ago as well!
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I read many years ago that a fully loaded artic does as much damage to a road as 250,000 cars doing the same journey.
V
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So will changing (probably 100,000 - 175,000mile old) shocks help? Mechanic (who does loads of taxis) says "car is fine - I drove it home at 30 and they're OK" but compared to SHMBO's Punto, they're positivly armchair-like in ride.
He's checked the link arms, bushes and bearings and they look OK (according to him).
Springs and shocks or just put up with it?
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I remember reading the same statistic somewhere(so it must be true..); but schoolboy 'A' level physics hasn't strectched to finding a way of deriving that figure.
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I remember reading the same statistic somewhere(so it must be true..); but schoolboy 'A' level physics hasn't strectched to finding a way of deriving that figure.
somewhere between 20 and 30 yrs ago, when I was studying for an environmental science degree, the commonly quoted figure was that the ratio at which cars and lorries eroded or abraded tarmac was the sixth power of the axle weight.
This was, I think, sourced from research by what was then the Transport & Road Research Laboratories. As it was only quoted in lectures on the 'political' element of the course, I was probably fast asleep, which is why it has embedded itself so deeply in my conciousness
I have to grow old - but I don't have to grow up
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They are why the M6 near me (J23-25) needs lane 1 resurfacing every couple of years, but they are just as common abroad - indeed, if your in Austria, the sign in 'Spurrinen' ("Tracks" !)
Then again, if your on the A12 in the Inn valley, you won't need signs to tell you.
I have to grow old - but I don't have to grow up
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There's noting wrong with your car - these menaces upset my 1.5 ton Mercedes just the same way. You need to be particularly careful after rain when they are filled with water, when they are quite deadly - I've seen folks clearly sticking to the middle lane to avoid them in this sort of weather. Borasport is right: Germany and Austria seem particularly badly affected, and they do have warning signs.
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They built a road, drove a lorry along it, measured the damage, then rebuilt it EXACTLY the same. Then they drove cars along it until the same amount of damage was done, and found the number to be a spookily exact 250,000.
V
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So who got the job of driving along this bit 250,000 times?
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It's probably about as accurate as that figure that said that "binge - drinking" costs the economy £50 (£100?) million (billion?) per day (month? year?). I can just see all those who have a day off work 'cos they were out on the raz the night before telling the boss they off because they were feeling ill after drinking 30 vodkas in an hour the night before - it's just a nice round figure. No doubt road tax evaders cost £100 million a year, as does the cost of road accidents in police time, A&E units, paramedics etc.
Back to the point - could worn rear arm bearings make the grooves feel worse. I know BXs tend to "wander" and self steer when these bearings are on the way out - do Pugs also?
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My Omega suffered really badly: changing the tyres definitely helped, even though the old ones weren't too low.
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