THE TYRES THAT BIND

I was recently asked by a friend to help fix a vibration on the front of his 2001 Vauxhall Corsa C. A quick inspection found everything to be in order, barring that the brake discs were heavily worn and looked to be the factory originals. Replacing them was a straightforward job, apart from not having the correct Torx socket to remove the caliper carriers. After bleeding the brakes, the car was taken for a quick test-drive to check everything was working. All was well until I used the car to run the old brake components to our local tip and was forced to brake hard from 40mph, causing the tyres to lock despite the car having ABS. I told my friend about this when I returned the car to him and he said: “It’s been doing that for ages on the old brakes. I take it easy on the motorway because of it.” Alarming to say the least!

I had a look at the tyres, which looked to be in good condition, with about 5mm of tread, but which were very hard. A week later, the car was returned for some other repair work, with my friend saying it was now making a clicking/rubbing noise, particularly when turning right. I checked the car over and found nothing, then remembered I’d earlier lowered the tyre pressures to the manufacturer’s recommendations as they were higher than they should have been and now they were ‘dragging’. Pumping them back to where they were originally sorted the problem instantly, as well as improving the braking.

So the moral of the story is that just because something is legal doesn’t mean it’s fit for purpose. My friend will be replacing the tyres with quality rubber ASAP. Peter Walmsley