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1 month of zed ownership.


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Hi all, so i finally decided to take the plunge after spending an obscene amount of hours researching my new car purchase. I hadn't planned on making a purchase till next year, however i realised the amount of hours i was oggling the damn thing online it'd be silly not to do myself the justice of making a snap decision purchase!

 

My car 04 Azure blue 350, with black rays alloys, scorpion exhaust, japspeed manifolds, Bc racing suspension, LED rear lights and a few other nice touches.

If it sounds familiar, the car used to belong to a forum member based in scotland!

 

So here's my "The good, the bad and the not so ugly" list, based on the last 4 weeks i've had with the car.

 

The good.

Well i got a bargain (touch wood) having managed to barter a cool 1k off the listed asking price I left the dealership with a cheeky smile on my face.

It's truly a magnificent looking car.

The performance is a little more than i expected (but i've been driving a rover 45 for the last year after my mitsi FTO blew a head gasket!)

 

The bad.

2 days in to purchase i was giving it some beans, the rpm was rising, the exhaust note was rising, and rising and rising and didn't stop until the cockpit sounded like a turbine engine. to my horror before i could pull up there was a bang followed by a scrapping noise. The back section of the exhaust managing to unclip itself from it's bracket. Thankfully a £10 fix with a new better fitting bracket.

 

Although the car now sounds painfully quite and i'm considering an exhaust with a bit more grunt in tone.

 

The traction control is much too intrussive, cutting the power too quickly, that said it's a good safety feature and will be firmly left on at the slightest hint of rain.

i also had 1 scary moment, after heavy rain. Crusing at 70 in 6th gear on a dual carriage way in a straight line when i had a few seconds of what seemed to be aqua planning. Which shook me up a bit, i'm a little concerned that it may be the tyre set up on the car, Bridgestones on the front Pirelli's on the back. Especially after i slowed down , to see a Ford KA come bombing past at plus 80 without a care in the world!!! Worrying to say the least.

 

Anyway looking forward to many more months getting used to the car and hopefully some track days as i've never been on one before!.

Any advice on the tyre issue would be much appreciated.

 

Cheers, Tom.

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Sounds like a nice car and well done on getting a deal on it from the dealers... not often they knock much off.

 

The traction cutting in is more than likely down to the tyres. Other people have had the same problem and its been down to mis-matched tyres.

 

Welcome to the forum!

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Hello and welcome.

 

As people have already said check your tyres. Don't mean to sound patronizing but you shouldn't be gunning it in the rain anyway. If some idiot wants to go bombing past with water on the road let him, it'll be his car in the ditch if he hits a patch of standing water. Remember you've got summer/sport tyres on as well, so they aren't the best in the wet.

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Thanks for the replies and advice, i'll certainly look in to the tyre situation although they all have good tread on them i guess some tyres just can''t disperse the water well enough. replace the bridgestones or pirelli's?

In the same conditions i'd of been hapy doing the same speed in my old rover, so that's what shook me up a bit.

However there's a thousand and one variables, could of been oil on the road or even a freshly squished frog :lol:

Also have to say the Bose stereo is a nightmare, i'd read they skipped alot, but cd's are unplayable :angry:

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Welcome :wave:

Bose can be fixed R35LEE. (member) Or a nice new head unit,load of the member can advise you.

If the Stones are REO 40's I go with the calendar girls and ditch the stones.

Get your post count up and sell them on here. (no spamming though :p:lol: )

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Hi Tom - welcome to the forum :wave: is that Wrighty's old car you've got then?

 

You're right - it'll just be a combination of mismatched tyres etc that will be causing your issues - but also possibly your leaden right foot ;) I've never found the TC to be intrusive - I think I can count on one hand the number of times it has kicked in - and anyone who knows me will tell you I don't pussyfoot around.

Get your geometry checked and a set of matching tyres and it will be like night and day :thumbs:

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:welcome:

 

Yep get those tyres consistent as soon as you can, tyres react (so when losing traction, gaining it back, speed of break of traction etc) differently by brand so probably had something to do with the aquaplaning. I have driven in hard rain and havent had any problems, if a Ka wants to do 80mph in driving rain just let them, it isn't advisable in any road car really.

 

TC can be frustrating and there are a few threads about it on here. My tuppence worth in summary is that there are the obvious safety aspects which is great and in any wet weather I always have it on. On the flip side it does come in too early, but what frustates me the most is that it takes too long to get the control back from it again as that light flashes away on the dash and the wheels stay motionless which in some circumstances can be quite dangerous with cars coming towards your stricken car. I guess its just an older spec TC system that isnt as good as more modern cars.

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Looks like i best get those tyres sorted with winter fast approaching.

As for the TC i've noticed it being intrusive mainly shifting down to 2nd to overtake so maybe it is my heavy club foot. :lol:

However when wet i'll leave that little switch firmly alone.

 

yes it was his car before, well looked after i hope? :scare:

Have you got an email address for him? Can't seem to reach him by phone.

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What size are your tyres? One of the causes of the TC kicking in is that the rolling radius of the tyres is greater than the 5% maximum deviation from standard. I've had my Zed for aeons and the TC has only ever kicked in three or four times.

 

 

Pete

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Pirelli P zero's at the back 245/45/18

225/45/r18 on the front, having had a peek around the front side i've got a dunlop sport 2050 on one side and a bridgestone re040 on the other! So pirelli's alround i'm thinking.

Thanks for the advice. :thumbs:

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