Crazy Cat Lady

no i mean recommendations for a hand held pressure gauge! I obviously do use garage facilities :rolleyes: ...when in the locality , but bare in mind some of us live in remote parts, my nearest garage air line is 16 country miles away. And only last week when i went into a Tesco garage to fill up and check my tyre pressures: Remove valve caps [in the rain] put 20p into the air line machine - nothing happened, machine don't work [probably too stuffed full of money] i couldn't get the air line machine to work, or get my 20p back, put valve caps back on [while getting wet in even heavier rain]. drive away having spent 20p to get wet, and without being able to check my tyre pressures., oh how i laughed... Then on the way home i had an accident due to incorrect tyre pressure which resulted in my death, now i'm an angry ghost come back to haunt the Tesco garage that caused my untimely demise due to their dysfunctional 20 bleeding pence robbing bandit air line machine

Today Last week this arrived via Amazon uk [ ...£28.99 to include delivery] One reason i choose this particular foot pump is due to the 4.8 out of 5 star reviews on Amazon. It's okay just about better than average build quality and good for pumping up the tyres, but the gauge is very inaccurate & vague, seems to under-read by a couple of psi. So looks like a need for a good accurate pressure gauge too - any recommendations? Debs

A few years ago i had a bad experience with metal valve caps, three of them seized on solid, had to buy new valves. They'd only been on for a couple of months in a very cold winter, use to leave the tyre pressure check that long in those days, ...me bad :xmas_rolleyes:

They look fab. But if they're made of metal (?) be sure to apply a little grease to the threads and don't do up too tight.

I can understand the obvious concerns over neighbour privacy, but it seems strange that human rights laws are involved to protect people that are shown on 'property' cctv's that overlook public land while people with car dash cameras, or bike-cams, seem to be able to use them with complete impunity. If you remember the images of seeing that nasty woman put the cat in the wheelie-bin - it would seem to have been filmed from a property cctv which may or may not of had planning permission for the surveillance on the nearby public road. Perhaps we will never know, or if she complained about having her human rights violated.... Must admit, i'd like the get the thickest, heaviest, hardback volume of human rights and smack her around the head with it

Arrived this morning: Thanks Steve! **BESTY** They look really fab, seems a shame to put under a dirty old car :rolleyes: Debs

Is it a Police baton-truncheon? Debs

Getting your window clubbed by a Neanderthal means you can still have faith in Humanity. They say what goes around comes around - those types always end up getting their comeuppance Debs

Those wheels on your link look very cool, and that colour should suit a black or storm blue celica really well. My refurb is for my winter set; old 5 spoke celica 16" ...probably get some Goodyear Vectors too. The 'Gunmetal' term maybe misleading on the eBay description, it says 'ANTHRACITE TECNIK GREY' on the lids, which will be perfect if it comes out like the lid colour, and go with the Chrystal Silver metallic paint nicely, and being a darker than standard 16" finish it should help hide the winter road grime better. Yesterday i spend a couple of hours rubbing down the corroded finish on one wheel [the worst one] before thinking "this is a right game of soldiers" ...so come Monday they're off to the local shot blaster get the job done, over-wise i'll be spending all winter trying to get them ready Debs

eBay 400ml E-Tech Gunmetal Grey x 4 cans 400ml E-Tech lacquer x 2 cans ( 271290174603 ) £29.89 to include delivery 500ml Simoniz Grey Primer x 6 cans ( 272019070591 ) £20.50 to include delivery

My 4 x winter wheel refurb kit has arrived.... ....i know, should have done this months ago and be ready by now! :rolleyes:

Today: took the camera for a few snaps to show ride height... but forgot the tape measure - darn it! never mind, pretty sure it's lowered all around about 30mm from standard Debs

Sorry Steve, if it were a DIY job i'd buy a pair of those Hardrace camber arms from you, but the job is getting done by BD Performance of Wrexham who stock and obtain aftermarket products, it would be a bit cheeky of me to buy off someone else and ask them to fit so i've asked them for a price to include supply and fitting. My DIY [Daydreaming Incompetence Yawning] skills are fearless under my rust-bucket with my trusting old socket set... Debs

Another trip to BD Performance at Wrexham this morning, they were very helpful. Mechanic kindly raised the rear ride height up by 2cm which should put the excessive rear neg-camber into sensible territory. The car is now about 30mm lowered from the standard ride hight so it don't look that low, but it's not really sensible to go any lower with seized camber arms. They are quite happy and confident about removing the old camber arms, so will probably go along with this very soon... On the way home in the rain the car felt nice and grippy on very wet roads, the handle improvements are obvious. Ride comfort has become far more tolerable too :rolleyes: Debs

It's booked in tomorrow morning to have the rear raised 20mm which will definitely make the car sit better and should help reduce the excessive rear neg-camber. But speaking with the mechanic, he said it had -3 degrees neg camber on the front end before he started work, but he could only adjust this excess down to -1.43 & -1.42 which is as far as the top strut adjusters will allow at their limit. This puzzles me. New camber arms are on my wish-list, along with a few other goodies :rolleyes: Debs btw: HAPPY BIRTHDAY Bumblebee! - Hope you're having a good one!

GreyRacer, thanks for that. It makes my results look in the same ballpark for the front-end: Assuming the right hand column figures are the final result on my printout. It looks like it is for the rear wheels. My theory is that the rear ride height is 20mm too low, and being so has caused excessive neg-camber of -2.34 & -2.57 I believe i read somewhere that neg camber increases by lowering, and so will decrease with raising ride height? If this is correct then raising the rear back up 20mm would sort out this issue? I'm also concerned that the lighter steering and agility i feel is not only about improved toe-in adjustment but maybe a smaller tyre footprint caused by excessive neg camber on the front wheels. Will it now have less tyre grip in the wet?

It's definitely too low at rear, the head-lamp dip beam level needed 3 clicks of adjustment. A bit of heavy luggage in the boot will see my headlights up in the trees It looks wrong too. Picy of front camber adjustment - the other one is a mirror-oposite:

I think the 7,8,9,10,11 figures are toe-in measured in millimetres The excessive rear neg-camber is probably caused by the rear of the car being 2cm too low. If just the rear is raised 2cm it may reduce this amount of excess neg-camber. It looks like the front is too excessive in neg-camber too, although that is adjustable. I'm not sure yet if this printout is the final results. The set-up is obviously flawed due the front of the vehicle pointing upwards.

Oops! ...sorry ride height typo corrected by edit! The ride height measurement is too low at the rear; this may have happened after slackening off some pre-load from the rear springs. But this ride height problem can be easily remedied by raising it back up again. The big issue here is the alignment figures which i'm still waiting for. The incomplete printout i have received suggests excessive negative camber. The seized rear camber arms will mean the full geo could not be achieved and only the front camber was adjusted. I'll take a photo of the front coilover adjusters and post later. Another discrepancy on the printout is the wrong wheel/trye size mentioned in the header - but i'm hoping this detail is irrelevant and overruled by the alignment machinery that was used on the actual wheel size of 17" I have a feeling the improved feel of steering and agility may have resulted in noting more than adjusting the front track rod ends.

This afternoon i phoned and spoke with the guy who set my car up, they're not sure how to email the results from the printer but if they can't he will put some black ink in the printer and print it out properly, and then post it to me. Will be interesting to see if it ever turns up... Meanwhile the ride height measurements are a bit up the creek centre wheel hub - vertical to wheel arch FL 345mm - 350mm FR RL 330mm - 330mm RR I've had to adjust my headlamp level down 3 clicks Debs

The alignment results printout i was handed on Friday after the job *note: no black ink in the printer These figures don't look final to me... i've asked them to email me the full results

Update: Attended the full geo & coilover re-setup on Friday, but things didn't go strictly to plan. The first problem was [and still is] the total seizure of camber adjustment bolts at the rear, so on this occasion no adjustments were possible for the rear-end, although this sadly was more or less what was expected, it's seems to be a common problem voiced on this forum. Apparently the front-end was also problematic with corrosion and some time was needed to loosen up tight track rod ends, but apparently this was achieved. The second may or may not be a problem, but a difference of set up procedure with the guys at BD Performance, they routinely setup coilovers up by corner weighting. They don't actually add weight in the form of ballast anywhere, it just seems to be an alternative way of setting up the suspension; to the claim of improved 'drivability'. Out of some debate and consideration [ these guys are coilover stockists who fit coilovers regularly so one would assume they have a set-up strategy that works ] i decided to allow they to set-up my coilovers the way they usually go about it. The results of 3.5 hours of labour [ totalling £189 ] has produced lighter and more predictable steering, more agility, comfy-wise it isn't a world apart than before but it has improved enough for me to experiment with increasing the damping from 3 clicks to 8, they must have slackened off some excess pre-load on the springs, it is slightly more comfortable, body-roll very slightly more than before but still very acceptable. The ride-height appears to have lowered slightly at the rear, may just be aesthetic but i don't like how this presently looks - i need to get on it level ground with a tape measure later and get an accurate measurement. The handling improvements are very welcome but i wonder how much more could be gleamed with a good sorting out of the seized-up rear end, easier said than done unfortunately. The alignment results printout figures have me completely intrigued, but i can't say i understand them, some of this due to no black ink in their printer so there's no titles or terms to what the results figures actually are, but the figures kind of correspond to typical 4 wheel alignment formation diagrams so they can still be seen in the colours green and red, but the figures themselves look rather excessive to me. Will photo this printout and post it here later : ) Debs

If the Celica GT is 30mm lower in standard spec...? and if it has the same chassis & running gear..? would it be okay use GT spec? Probably worrying too much about this, the guys at BD Performance are used to fitting coilovers and set up, i bet they'll know what's best. Besides, i'm half expecting my rear camber adjustment bolts to be seized stupid solid so may have to settle for a compromise geo. Debs

I wouldn't know what to suggest as to alternative spec, although i'd think the ride height lowering is going to affect it. I like where the height is now [about 35mm] which isn't to radical. Is the Toyota spec set up okay to go by?

Nice print out picture - looks like it needed more negative camber & some alignment. It's very interesting, clear and precise of what you had, and what you got! I'm hoping they won't have any agro with seized up rusty adjuster bolts :rolleyes: