rwhw@hound.UUCP (07/12/83)
My answer to shocks is to buy a car to fit ones needs. These little cars
have little parts that wear fast. They should be driven on good roads
with moderate loading.
The time to shift is when you buy the little car. Little cars have little
engines that can't pull a good sized load.
Replace the little car that fits in little places and uses little gas for
a decent size car that can be driven on back country roads, carry decent
loads and go up steep hills without straining its guts. Yes, it may use
more gas, so what. Think small, buy small, drive less.
Royjj@rabbit.UUCP (07/12/83)
Buy the shocks that match your driving style and the variety of road surface that you have to drive on. I've never heard of air-struts, but that doesn't mean that they don't exist. My Horizon went to 82K without needing shocks, struts, c-v joints, or anything else involving suspension work. In that time, I wore out three sets of front tires, and !one! set of rear tires (which were on the car at trade-in). Shift when the engine starts lugging. Given frequent oil changes, about every 4K miles or so, the high cylinder pressures caused by severe lugging are much more destructive than high rpm's (to a point, of course, but the torque range of a reasonably adjusted Omni/Horizon is wide enough to match one or the other gear). I traded in my Horizon (total of 1 fuel pump and standard mantenence through its whole life) for an Omni, currently at 22K, and thus far working the same way. With the custom seats (cloth) the interior is more comfortable than any *B*I*G* American car, it's much easier to drive long distances (goes where you point it, not where it wants to go), and much more fuel-effecient. Just think. Buy a SMALL car, drive it in a responsible manner (keeping up with the 65mph traffic, out of the road of trucks, etc), and then you too can feel BETTER THAN MOST!! rabbit!jj (better than the average Republican)
heliotis@rochester.UUCP (07/14/83)
rabit!jj, why did you dump your Horizon?
jrf@hp-pcd.UUCP (07/15/83)
#R:hound:-20600:hp-pcd:2400015:000:142 hp-pcd!jrf Jul 14 15:45:00 1983 HA! You went 82K without needing anything ? Why do you think you went through three sets of front tires and only one set of rear tires ?!
chichak@auvax.UUCP (07/16/83)
Of the two responses I have seen to this item, one has a slight error and the other need not be posted. Firstly, I dont think that KONI makes gas struts. I would recommend their normal adjustable inserts set at about 1/2 or 2/3 hard. These shocks are known for their awful habit of outlasting your car. Next, the response that suggested a car size swap to fix the shocks on a car. Does the net really need these non constructive answers to constructive questions? Things like this really belong in 1) a personal reply through mail or 2) /dev/null. Now back to the matter at hand. Bilstien makes a good gas insert for most makes and models, Dodge Colts for one, and are highly praised. The other brand that are common are KYB. more later Andrei Chichak auvax!chichak
gjw@floyd.UUCP (Greg Wroclawski) (07/18/83)
The Horizon is a front wheel drive car. From my experience with font wheel drive is that the front tires wear about 2-3 times as fast as the rear ones. Front wheel drive cars are front heavy plus the front tires must also steer and transmit all the driving force. The rear tires just go for the ride. It is quite normal to find the front tires wearing much faster than the rear ones. Greg Wroclawski Bell Labs
jj@rabbit.UUCP (07/26/83)
Well, I see that some moron thinks that I went through 3 sets of front tires in 82Kmiles shows that my shocks were shot. Perhaps I should point out to this incredibly obnoxious person that I have a new, fuel effecient car that has FRONT WHEEL DRIVE.
hakanson@orstcs.UUCP (07/30/83)
#R:auvax:-18300:orstcs:3000007:000:1582
orstcs!hakanson Jul 28 15:33:00 1983
The manual for my modern, fuel-efficient front-drive car suggests
rotating the tires at each oil change. All front-drive cars wear
those front tires at a high rate. I thought everyone knew that
(except the salesmen, but they don't count).
However, even if you didn't rotate your tires at all & just replaced
the front ones as they wore out, three sets of front tires in 82K seems
pretty reasonable to me, depending of course on the quality of the tires.
I just bought four new tires for my car, to replace the four original
tires which were all equally and evenly worn out after 43K miles
of moderate to very hard driving.
Now, let's see. By 82K miles, if my car lasts that long (I think
it will), I may be ready for another set of 4 tires. That makes
8 tires for 82K miles, and I think I remember in the original article
that you had replaced the two rear ones, also, giving 6+2=8 tires.
That doesn't sound too far off what my car may show. I just prefer
to have all 4 corners of my car behaving the same in the rain, snow,
or during hard cornering. Besides, there's something esthetically
"neat" about having all the tires being the same (age, type, brand,
condition, etc.).
By the way, I think my next major maintenance expenditure may be for
new shocks all around, as soon as I can afford it. But the suspension
on my car is so stiff, it's just beginning to ride a little more
comfortably (it's an '80 Dodge(Mitsubishi) Colt RS, for those who
are interested), so it won't hurt to wait a while.
Marion Yellow Colt Racing :-) {hp-pcd, teklabs}!orstcs!hakanson