Kyleb wrote:
....Great little cars, but listen to what they are telling you and give 'em what they need.
This was the best piece of advice anyone has given me regarding LBCs (Little British Cars), and I'm not exaggerating that this advice may have saved my life:
I already knew going into the deal that the tires on the car were crap. However, when the car's right rear wheel began getting particularly vocal, I began looking into what was going on. I found the ride height on the right side was 1.5 inches lower than on the left side. I had misattributed this to bad shocks and bad tires. I decided to move up the date that I planned on replacing the tires to today.
When they got the car on the lift, they found the right rear leaf spring had split. Only one leaf was left intact and the body was hitting the tire, hence the "vocalizations" I was hearing. Had I kept driving the car and the final leaf let loose, it would have been very, very ugly.
I don't blame the seller. The car was not making those kinds of noises until I had driven it one weekend. Something just
felt wrong, so I shortened up my ride and relegated the car to some very short hops thereafter until I could put tires on it. I definitely heard the car talking to me, I just lost a bit in the translation.
The net result is that my budget is completely blown, but at least the car will be safe, which is priceless.