im still facinated - did you say "photoshoot" earlier in this thread? (its late and i may have been dreaming)

RAC left my and my daughter stranded at start of year on my old car, after an hour on a 2.5 hour minimuim wait I managed to get hold of my brother who collected my daughter and took her home so she could use the loo, before coming back out to me with a tow rope to tow me home so i could fix it myself. A snotty letter was soon fired off to them not so long after

AA have always been great, had a hire van today at work which had a problem with it. The hire people sent the AA out to me who were with me in about 20-30 minutes, why couldnt SKoda keep using AA instead of crappy RAC?

im still facinated - did you say "photoshoot" earlier in this thread? (its late and i may have been dreaming)

Yeah, earlier on in the day I went to take photos of the textiles students in their fancy dresses in the tower ballroom. They had made them all themselves in class, was really nice actually, I will post some when I have time, but heres one of my faves

why couldnt SKoda keep using AA instead of crappy RAC?

I still have a postponed membership with AA, I joined them before I got blakfabi, then got free cover with my fabbie so they said they'd pend it til I needed it again when the free one ran out

Ooh, also, I went out to have a proper look at my alloy and the rim is absolutely pristine there's not a scuff or scratch on it!! I'm well impressed!! I was so worried about it! There is still some burnt rubber stuck to it, but that will be fine!! The guy in my Skoda garage cleaned it up a bit for me apparently. My mum and dad took it in today to be checked, apparently my tyre got quite an audience! lol!! They all know us in there anyway

Glad to see you are ok Loz and dealt with said tyre better than most people.

I was pretty disgusted with the RAC too as they too a matter of hours to get a recovery lorry out when my drive shaft came out.

Well done Loz

Main thing is you're OK. I wouldn't sweat the "not knowing it was falling apart" thing.

I've had similar (though not as extreme) on other cars. Gist of it is that unless there's people in the back of the car, it's not loaded highly enough to make a major difference to the way the car drives (unless you're pressing on, driving like a nutter etc).

With people in the back, the difference that you'd notice is heavy steering going one way and light as a feather turning the other way. Though these days with power steering, even that could be marginal, I'd imagine.

Congrats on managing to change the wheels over. Not too sure I'd want to do that myself at the side of a motorway.

Your neck pain's probably stress from bashing the wheel-wrench to get the bolts off. The fact it was freezing cold won't have helped. Symptoms may well get worse over the next day or so. :( Hope I'm wrong though and it's only us old gits that suffer like that.

J.

Actually, I'm sure its illegal / frowned upon to change a wheel on the motorway!

I was just wondering the same, but on the other hand I thought the RAC were meant to give women priority over men - yet it seems they took forever.

I thought so...I seem to recall from theory test days the advice was to let the police/recovery people (and so nowadays the wombles) do it, on account of most motorway accidents occuring as a result of traffic hitting stationary vehicles on the hard shoulder.

No, For what it is worth.

My understanding of what I have been told so far is that The Highways Agency can only assist in moving a vehicle if it is blocking an actual lane and not the hard sholder. They are not allowed to get involved in fixing anyone's broken down machine, but they do carry water to go in radiators etc. They are not allowed to put the water in the car, only supply it. They will however happily put cones around you and offer you some turkey wrap foil if it is cold.

I was under the impression that it was illegal to change a tyre at the side of a motorway and you were meant to wait on the otherside of the metal barrier for rescue serivces ie AA, RAC

I don't think it is illegal, but it's generally not advised because it's a dangerous place to be and recovery/HA/police have flashing lights which can make you more visible. Although saying that, it can have the opposite effect and rubber neckers steer in the direction they're looking. :eek:

If it was 1am and there was negligible traffic, I'd probably have a go at changing the wheel and make sure I was aware of any traffic approaching. If it was any busier or I had a young child with me, or I was feeling lazy, I'd be hopping over the barrier and calling for help

Chris

If I'd waited for RAC I'd porbably still be there

Bloody hell!! wheel ripped off.

I have a mini toolkit luckily although actually keeping the thing in the car would be helpful.

Skodas have a screwdriver in the spares foorwell although if you have a sub in the boot it's not much use there.

Glad it all worked out ok though. And not many girls can change tyres. Can you do mine next time.

I had to change the wheel on my sisters Micra. Nail in the tyre causing a slow puncture.

Should be able to get that "hot fixed" as theres loads of tread left.

If you havent got a tyre sorted yet, go see Tony Tyres in south shore, he is good on price.

Id say that looks like a manufacturing defect in your tyre, the entire tread has come away from the tyre casing. Ive had that happen before. Id pop it into skoda, qand get them to send it off

I know a few good tyre places in Bolton too.

On the way to work this morning I let a woman in a Focus out from a side street , and it was obvious her back left tyre was flat. I could hear it clearly inside my car and the whole car looked to be leaning slightly. I stopped behind her at some lights a mile down the road and hopped out to tell her and she looked terrified at first but did open the window eventually.

Anyway , after I'd let her know the lights changed and she just drove off down the road. If she'd pulled over I'd have considered offering to change the wheel if needed , but some people you just can't help.

On the way to work this morning I let a woman in a Focus out from a side street , and it was obvious her back left tyre was flat.

Seems to be that time of year. Came into work the other day and spotted a colleague's car with a very flat front offside tyre. Dropped by his office and mentioned it to him and he said "yeah it did seem to be pulling quite a bit on the NSL road to work" :eek: Apparently he was going to check it out when he parked up, but was distracted when he saw a friend and forgot about it. Hate to think what would have happened if he'd driven the 30 miles home on the motorway.

Chris

It can be hard to tell if you've got a flat on the rear when you're driving. The first flat I had on the RS I was driving along at 50-60 on very bumpy rural Irish roads with a jam-packed boot. Some maniac in a big Merc came up behind me and was flashing away like his life depended on it. I just thought he was impatient

At the next crossroads he leapt out and came and gave me the good news, and I'm ever so grateful he did. Pulled over straight away to change it. It was ****ing rain, the boot was full, I'd never changed an alloy wheel before, and we were already late on our four hour drive to the ferry. If he hadn't stopped us then it's possible I would never have noticed until we hit the motorway a bit later on....

(and this is why I always want a full size matched spare)