Car-Curb Contact

[Michiel van Wessem <jmvw@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello again,

Here's a little story of curb contact and consequences. Hope it doesn't
bore you.

Ok, I told you how exited I was when I got my first New World snow. I was
so happy with the opportunity to slide around on it! I'm one of those fools
who learn best from experience. Well, I have learned to limit the amount of
sliding when curbs are nearby now. 

You see, there was this out-of-control curb that just rammed my right front
wheel as I was taking a left turn. When I came home, I found out that I had
a bent rim. Stop laughing, dammit!

I asked for a new wheel on the bmwparts list and the bmw list. Somehow my
message to the bmw list ended up on the bmwparts list too. I assume Richard
has  a filter that is responsible for this. Other messages seem to get
through to the bmw list fine though. But I guess I digress.

Not having the patience to wait for a wheel, I ended up buying a rim at a
junkyard around here, for $75. Major muddy mess in the rain there. There
was a black guy getting the parts off outside in the mud and rain while the
white owner was joking about this nigger working on Martin Luther King Day.
I think I could have gotten the wheel off the net a little cheaper and
maybe a little better quality, but what the heck. 

The new wheel has some scratches and has been parked a little too close to
a curb, otherwise it's ok. I used some acetone to get the junkyard's white
ink off. I went to a tire place here called Avelino's to have the new rim
fitted with the tire from the bent rim and have the thing balanced. This
cost $15. I asked them if they used a torque wrench and they yelled to the
kid to use the "torque stick". I saw this is a flexible extension they put
on their air impact wrench. 

Today I went for a long drive. First thing that happened was a loud rattle.
The new wheel was loose. I torqued it and that fixed it. I blame the tire
shop for not torque-ing the wheel. Why can't they do this?

The car still wanted to drift all over the road at 75mph, it was a
handfull. Going off an off-ramp at normal speed, a tire screeched. At a gas
station I noticed that although one wheel was pointing straight, the other
wheel was pointing out. Major toe-out!

For $59, I got an alignment at a place called Performance Tire Center in
Shrewsbury, NJ. Interesting place, they also had a bunch of used Mercedes
coupes for sale as well as a 635something. And..they brought a Ferrari in
the shop while I was there. I never saw one close by, let alone from the
bottom or peeking into the engine compartment. Sorry, I don't know what
model it was. It had four seats and the engine was in the rear. Maybe a
70's model judging from the way the dash looked. It was spotlessly clean.
The mechanic gave us a happy look. :)

I think the guy there did an excellent job. My car is rock solid on the
freeway now. 

That toe-out can't have been from the curb alone. On Sunday I had a 270
mile drive into Pennsylvania (where I got stuck in the snow on the side of
the road and was pulled out by a terrific army man with a 4 wheel drive
F250) and I had no problems at 110 mph. Maybe the loose wheel caused the
toe-out?

Finally, one of my tires became soft on this drive today. It was the only
Pirelli P600 on the car and it was old. There are three Embassy's on it. I
guess the previous owner was cheap and thought that this one still had
enough thread. I'll buy an Embassy to match the others. 

That's it for now. I know this was longish, but hey you're the sucker who
read it. :)

Michiel 
PS: I'm still hoping someone will make a steering column shaft extension 
*beg* *beg*

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