An Iq Called Toya

[Soeley]

Looking very nice indeed Craig, let us know what you think of the tyres once you have got some miles on them. I'm waiting to put my 17's back on when the mercury goes up a bit more, we have gone back to morning ground frost here :(

Bet you don't know whether to sit an look at her now or go and drive her ;)

[Guest]

They look great Craig, nice job on the refurb too. Well worth the expense they were. Also, they complement the silver paint job on your car, it's a good balance and does not look over the top at all. The tailgate spoiler adds to the effect too. 10 out of 10.

By the way, has anyone seen Jackass presents Bad Grandpa? I laughed so much my jaws ached.

[craggle]

Cheers guys. I'm really not a fan of black wheels, did consider grey or anthracite ones but in the end I kept coming back to silver ones and I'm glad I did, As you say, looks different but not over the top. :)

Come the summer I will take them off again and remove the brake pads and the discs. The pads are wearing down now, probably 6mm of material left so up for replacement and I will stick the discs in the lathe to take a very light skim over the top to remove any rust and ridges. Spray them silver again and refit with new pads.

Apparently the weather report here for tomorrow morning is for frost too, maybe I changed from winter tyres too soon!

Craig.

P.S. If anyone was wondering the front wheels of the car is sitting on blocks of wood in the photos. I found that once I fitted the Eibach lowering springs I could get my trolley jack under the front any more so a builder friend of mine cut some blocks of wood for me from a 2" thick plank and added a ramp to one end of them. Drive the car up them and then you can get the jack underneath. :)

[vox]

Hey Craig,

What's the steering like with 205 wide tyres? It looks great BTW.

[craggle]

To be honest, It feels fantastic.

I really can't tell the difference in the steering, it turns just as lightly as before. I imagine the steering is going to be heavier at parking speeds but the power assistance on the iQ is pretty good and compensates for it.

The only thing I did notice on the 30 minute journey home is it has more of a tendency to follow the camber of the road. I think they call that tramlining and it was noticeable in places on the inside lane of the dual carriageway I use. Not excessive but it did feel different than the narrower, higher profile tyres if you know what I mean.

Overall I'm happy with them and think the ride and handling has improved with the wider tyres fitted.

I'm due to travel to Mildenhall on Tuesday which is about 130 miles away so I'll report back then if I notice anything more. :)

Should say I set the tyre pressures at 30psi. Wasn't sure what to set them at but that seemed a fair starting place.

Craig.

[Soeley]

P.S. If anyone was wondering the front wheels of the car is sitting on blocks of wood in the photos. I found that once I fitted the Eibach lowering springs I could get my trolley jack under the front any more so a builder friend of mine cut some blocks of wood for me from a 2" thick plank and added a ramp to one end of them. Drive the car up them and then you can get the jack underneath. :)

Great minds Craig, I have some blocks for the very same reason :)

[Soeley]

You'll soon get used to the tram lining, I don't notice it now, but I did at first. When I got my 17s I asked on here about tyre pressures and the consensus seemed to be stick to STD pressures.

[vox]

I think it must be the diameter that causes the tramlining Craig. My old smart only had 135/50/15 on the front and 175/50/15 on the rear. It was a pig to keep in a straight line, the slightest thing and it would follow it. When I fitted new alloys with 195/45/15 on the front and 205/45/15 on the rear, it stopped tramlining and with the Toyo proxies ( a damn good choice) handled like a dream, even better when I fitted Brabus gas shocks and Eibach springs.

I now have a set of white Rota Grid racing wheels with 205/50/16 with some Falcon all weather tyres. The problem is I can't fit them yet as It's too dangerous to change wheels on my road and I'm not sure I can get all 4 in the IQ at once to get to a car park to swop them safely. I will have to wait for a mate with a big Audi A4 estate to gve me a hand when the evenings get a bit longer.

It's frustraiting having to wait! Oh and yes, use the standard pressures 32/33 (on my IQ3) PSI that may help.

[Soeley]

Vox, you should be able to get them in with both seats down. When I had my 17s fitted all four STD 16s with tyres on went in the back.

[vox]

Thanks Mark, Err, some of the problem is me, I'm not strong enough to lift them in and out over the hatch lip. They are rather chunky.

[Soeley]

Get a life size cut out of a leggy blonde, leave it next to your car with boot open, someone will stop to help pretty quickly :)

[vox]

What a good idea Mark,

the trouble is finding a cardboard cut out. Seriously, it's a problem for me leaning forward lifting heavy things, a very old severe injury to my upper back makes this impossible without doing myself a michief.

[tarquin]

I would just simply take a high res picture of my wife and blow it up. For times when she's not with me. Lol

David

[vox]

Cheers David, I will get help with this, I will just have to be patient. I don't think your wife would like me to take a high res picture of her anyway. ;)

[Soeley]

I would just simply take a high res picture of my wife and blow it up. For times when she's not with me. Lol

David

Is that with a stick of TNT or do you mean enlarge the picture?

[vox]

That crossed my mind as well Mark.

[tarquin]

HA HA No. Enlarge

David

[vox]

Hi Craig,

how are you getting on with those wheels and tyres?

[craggle]

Getting on really well with them.

They are very grippy, haven't wheelspun once and the handling has improved with the lower profile tyres. Seems more predictable in a way and a softer ride too.

Pretty sure fuel economy will reduce as you can feel a bit of extra drag from them. Checked the mpg reading and it's recently gone from 49mpg before changing tyres to 44mpg now. I have done a long motorway run though recently which I didn't do before changing the tyres so the results may be skewed. I'll keep an eye on that and report back if it gets better or drops more. The best mpg I've seen so far was last summer when she did 51mpg on the original Bridgestone B250 175/60 16 tyres.

All in all very happy with them and like the look of them on the car. :)

Craig.

[craggle]

Next job on the cards is new brake pads. Just ordered some EBC Ultimax pads. I was going to try EBC Greenstuff pads but it seems very difficult to find the front ones and the EBC site says they are out of stock and have been for some time.

I have greenstuff pads in my other car and I used them in my old Range Rover and I like them but they seem to need a bit of temperature in them before they come to life. The Ultimax claim to be OEM specification but with a bit more braking power as well. I'll see what I think when I fit them and let you all know how they feel.

Plan is to remove the discs too and give them a light skim in the lathe, clean them and paint before fitting again.

Craig.

[vox]

That's great Craig,

I would avoid Greenstuff, you are right, they need to heat up before they work. Greenstuff pads are made for the track and can be dangerous in the winter on the road if you haven't used your brakes for a while and when you set off first thing you may find you have very little braking power.

Ultimax pads are much better, I think you will like them, they have a fair amount of copper and aluminium in them and are a little rough on the discs.

Toyo Proxies are very good, but are greedy on fuel because of the extra grip, a softer compound that works very well, but wears a bit quicker as well, but a very good trade off. I now have the McGard locking wheel nuts, these are the ones you register with the manufacturers in Germany, because if you lose the adaptor you would probably destroy the wheels getting them off! Those ROTA GRIDS were expensive and I don't want some cretin nicking them. I will be nice to actually fit them. It's very frustrating

not being able to fit them on the road outside my house and I can't even lift them in to the boot to get them fitted elsewhere. I will have to work something out somehow.

The other thing I swear by is Ultraseal/Tyersafe, this stuff is a puncture preventer, you put it in like now at the beginning and it does loads of good things apart from sealing a nail hole or whatever. It's not an excuse for not checking your tyres though, the usual checks are still important. I've been using it for around 12 years in my and the wife's cars and we have never been caught out with a puncture.

http://www.ultraseal-swiftlysorted.co.uk//index.php

Great for bikes and cars, have a read and see what you think.

[craggle]

Well, Bit more work on my car yesterday.

I have bought the Toyota rubber floor mats which are simply perfect. They fit the car great and use the same floor clips as the carpet set does so they are a 5 minute job to fit. They cost me £56 in total which is a lot but then they are tailored to the car and fit more securely than universal ones would so I'm happy with that.

One interesting thing though is the rear mats are marked underneath with RH and LH side. I'm convinced they are wrong though as I couldn't get them to fit as marked so I tried reversing them and they fit much better. :)

Also did a service yesterday which involved changing the oil and filter and while I was there I changed the four spark plugs. Despite reading the Toyota manual with them saying you need to drain coolant, remove trim, remove the wiper motor etc. I found you need to do none of that and the job was really easy and took about an hour. Actually it happened so fast I forgot to take pictures! If anyone has an iQ3 and wants to do the spark plug change let me know and I'll do my best to detail the work involved.

Get some plasters first though as I sliced my hand up pretty good!

Craig.

[Soeley]

They look good, they look like they have a raised edge to keep water within the mat, is that correct?

Good new on the plug change

[craggle]

Yes, They do have a raised edge around the mat so a limited amount of water will remain within the mat and keep the carpet underneath dry. :)

I say limited as a large amount of water will probably slop side to side when driving but I think you're unlikely to bring that much water into the car on your shoes.

Been driving a couple of days with them now and they are great, non slip and they don't move about at all.

Craig.

[S2RYB]

Just read your whole thread, love the effort and the car, top job!