keeping it simple

[darrel]

Last year I sold my 280zxt to a friends son. He needed something that was more comfortable during the winters and the roadster he had was too drafty.

 

On his test driver he really loved the turbo when it spooled up, until I told him there was a cop right beside him. I have never seen that shade of white before, might have been a shade of green, gray and white.

 

His Dad sent out a message yesterday wanting to know where he could get some rear struts. When i had the car, I put on new springs and Illuminas front and rear. For those with zx's know Tokico doesn't make the Illuminas for the rear of the zx. So i was skeptical what was going on.

 

I had him tell his son to give me a call.

 

I know the kid had a run in with black ice a couple of months ago and hit the left side. The wheel was leaning out at the top. They took it in to a frame shop and they got it taken care of as well as paint and body work. 

 

Knowing it had suspension work on that side, i didn't think twice about it being something wrong with the work done. 

 

He told me when going slow the car would rock side to side and just all of a sudden started doing it. High speed was worse. He thought a strut had gone bad. I tried to walk him through things over the phone, checking the struts for signs of leaking, loose or missing bolts for the lower control arm. Everything looked ok to him, all parts were there and tight. So I told him to drive it up to me and we will check it out. I knew when he showed up because I heard the car pulling up. 3" exhaust with magnaflow. I been accused of having a v8 in it. Nice rumble. 

 

Back to the story. We took a ride in it around the block, each of us taking turns looking at the back wheels going down the road. I could tell something was up on the driver side. Got it back on the driveway and had him jack it up with my floor jack.

 

My suspicions confirmed after driving it, I turned the rear driver side wheel and the tire itself was severely out of round. One of the belts had broken in the tire. When he was still home he had taken off the same wheel while checking suspension parts. 

 

Moral of the story like in another thread I started. Keep It Simple Stupid. If I would have done that on the phone he wouldn't have had to drive up here. But then I wouldn't have seen the paint job either. Maybe that was at the back of my mind. ;-)

[PrimeLuxeZ]

Lol, thats pretty crazy, like my instructors tell me at UTI. "Always look for the obvious, and dont just jump into diagnosing"