The cure of all evils

I'm not usually the sort to join in forums but I find them incredibly useful for info. Having always had Golfs and Passats in the past I bought an Octy Scout 2007 last year with 90k on the clock. It has always driven like it was tired with all kinds of noises and grumbles under load. The forums on this site attribute such problems to DMF and various other common themes. After 12 months of ownership, I have changed the gearbox , Diff and Haldex oils . every filter known to man and was still less than satisfied with the general feel of the car. Various friends and mechanics drove it and told me that I was paranoid. The last lot, having re-gened my DPF and fitted an new sensor told me that I would never be happy because my other car is an A4 sport and the quality disparity was massive .

As a matter of course I changed the front tyres for some decent Good year Eagle F1s. Under load the gear box made more noise than ever. It was then that I realised that the back end was fighting the front. The car had had the wrong size tyres on all along. When I changed the front, the rears now had a larger rolling circumference. This compromised the central Diff. I have now fitted the correct tyres to the back as well. Wow . What a difference.

I know that with hind sight it should have been obvious but simply taking off 225/50/17 Chang Shen suicide tyres and putting on 225/45/17 Eagles , the car is transformed. No longer does it complain at being in fourth gear at 30mph. No longer are there underlying shudders and vibrations under load.

This car is born again. I am so impressed that I have just bought a set of steelies for winter and a set of winter tyres. I have had to have 16 inch because they don't make 17 inch steel wheels.

I have been very careful to make the rolling circumference almost identical though for my winter tyres. The spare is a 205/55/16 and this is what I have specified for my winter rubber, opting for Good year Ultra grip 9s. The moral of the story is, when you buy a car, be very careful what subtle non standard changes could have been done . Among other things I have changed a cheap aftermarket cv boot, and noticed pen marks when changing the timing belt which obviously indicates that the last guy who did it didn't have all of the correct tooling.