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Finally had to get some new tread on the Insight, after some separation on one of the originals. Got the RE-92’s, same as original equipment. After the alignment story, some interesting observations about the limited service spare.

Had the alignment checked after the new tires were mounted, both with and without me setting in the drivers seat. Nothing changed too drastically with the driver in place. The right rear camber is a little different from the left, which is likely the cause of that tire wearing a little, but it was a front tire that had the separation, and not this right rear.

The rear camber is not readily adjustable so we left everything the way it was.

Here is the print out of the alignment. The initial readings are the car by itself. The final readings are with the driver in place behind the wheel.


http://www.cleanmpg.com/photos/data/522/Insight_Alignment.jpg



For comparison the service manual specs are:

Front Caster Angle: 2°00' +/- 1°
Front Camber Angle: 0°00 +/- 1°
Front Toe-in: 0 +/- 1/16in.
Rear Camber Angle: -1°00' +/- 1°
Rear Toe-in: 1/8 +/- 1/8in.



I had to put the spare on the left front, last Thursday Nov. 02, because of tread separation. My commute went from an indicated 84.1 miles RT to indicated 87.6 miles. This was consistent over the entire week this week. 6 days of an extra 3.5 miles per day. The smaller diameter of the limited service spare is messin’ with the odo, and my logbook:Banane36: . There’s an extra 21 miles that I did not actually travel. The FE will figure out at the pump, but I will have to take into account the 21 miles which is on the master odo, forever.

There has been some discussion here and there, about running the spares on all four corners, for possible improved FE. It would appear that, one would be fooling themselves because of the smaller circumference, and I can tell you first hand, that the spare will not give near the FAS roll out of the RE-92’s, and this is with just one of them on the ground.

Randall

Randall

How are the new tires working out? I never felt there was a alignment problem with your car but I thought I could feel a separation problem starting. I had a separation on one of my original tires but I also had two flats with nail punctures on that tire. My mileage took a hit for a couple thousand miles until the tires broke in. How is your mileage doing?
Louis

Hey Louis, how's sunny AZ.


That was only last Friday when the new tires were mounted. Don't have but the trip home from Ponca against a screaming north wind, (one of those helicpoter landing winds that you and I talked about at the marathon) so I will start the commute again first of the week. I to, figure it will take some time to train the new tires:eek: .

Randall

Yesterday I came home with a new set of Hydroedges on the green
golfcart, too. Must be one of those "ut oh, winter's coming"
things. They feel ... heavier, or more damped, or something,
I can't quite tell yet. They roll just fine, especially with
sidewall-or-thereabouts pressure in them, but I think the
Integrities were more "bouncy" or something and exhibited more
of a springy resonance.
.
Anyone east-coastish want the old Integrities, which still have
about 3/16" tread on them? I'm offering them up free around the
local area and can simply take them back to the tire place for
disposal if nobody wants 'em.
.
_H*

Louis asked:

How are the new tires working out? I never felt there was a alignment problem with your car but I thought I could feel a separation problem starting. I had a separation on one of my original tires but I also had two flats with nail punctures on that tire. My mileage took a hit for a couple thousand miles until the tires broke in. How is your mileage doing?
Louis

The new tires seem to be much quiter than the older ones. The mileage thing, we'll have to wait and see........

When I filled up this last time (just a few days ago), the wind was blowing so hard, it was actually sucking trash out of the cans at the ends of the pump islands....(some of you think i'm jesting here, but psyshack won't) (the cans are tied down in these parts).....anyway, it was also cold, and the pumps weren't running very fast at all....and I was (dis)cussing this with the gent on the other side of the pump, and my nozzle did not trip off.......arrrrgggghhhhh.......10.9 gallons on the pump, and some of it on the ground before I saw what was happening. Remember this is the same tank as in the above post, so the mileage is messed up because of the spare tire size. Hopefully the next fill-up, I can get things zero'ed out.

Randall