[trepnician]

car is looking good!

[gardidien]

Sweet, thanks. There's a porter cable polisher i've been looking at for about $100. I wasn't sure what kit / pads to get for it though. Looks like that kit might work out perfectly.

[Kimura]

Thanks!

I think new tires are in the forecast for the near future. I was planning to wait until Spring but we might want to take it on a trip in November, so I'm going to want to replace the ones that are on it.

Thinking about either Sumitomo HTR A/S P01s or Riken Raptors (apparently Michelin makes them).

[Kimura]

I've found a couple other possibilities.

On the slightly higher end are Falken Azenis PT722 A/S tires which seems to also have pretty good reviews.

http://simpletire.com/falken-p245-45r18-28222865-tires

These are a new tire by Falken, apparently their first Ultra High Performance All-Season tires and seems to have good ratings for grip in wet and dry, and the noise levels seem to be good as well.

On the lower end I found these Nankang Ultra Sport NS-II tires which seems to have pretty good reviews despite the low price.

http://www.discounttiredirect.com/di...w=false&cs=245

At $104 97 each (with free shipping) they're a fair bit cheaper than anything else (which all have shipping charges from the vendors that sell them for the best price). I'm leaning towards the Falkens or Sumitomos, but I guess these can be a fallback if need be.

[mnitetrain]

Andrew have you check Town Fair Tire in Leominister?? They even do price match for internet deals.

Free mounting, balancing, alignment.

Wonder if Advance might gain any discounts??

Check out Milemaster 932 at Town Fair.

Might also have them check closeouts/discontinued for goodbuys also.

[Kimura]

Town Fair Tire, eh? I'll have to check them out, thanks!

[Kimura]

[cdmccul]

Whoops!

[Kimura]

For anyone who wonder the difference between economy brand parts and Moog parts, here's a case study.

On the right is the cheapy part, on the left is the Moog part.



Notice how much larger the diameter is of the bar on the link. It uses thermoplastic bushings rather than plain rubber for where the link connects to the sway bar. The bolt that connects the link to the bar has a hex head so you can hold it in place while tightening the nut (neither the cheap one nor the OEM part has this). It's also forged as opposed to cast.

Compared to the OEM part, the cheapy actually looks pretty close, but the Moog part has design improvements (forged, thicker metal) to prevent failure like that again.



Since the bugger was snapped in two I used a jack stand to support the sway bar and vise grips to hold the other side of the bolt in place, since it has no hex head.



And the the vise grips to hold the rest of the link in place to remove the top nut.



Much better.



Might as well do the other side soon. Just look at those rusty (original) struts, those are being replaced come spring. Interesting that the sway bar bushing, on that side at least, look fine.

[mnitetrain]

Good catch!

[cdmccul]

That link looks like a great upgrade. Very surprised in the differences, thanks for taking the comparison shot...

[98IntrepidTan]

What is the brand of the link on the right?

[Kimura]

It's Driveworks, AAP's house brand, comparable with Duralast, etc.

[Intrep_ED]

Well done fix Andrew!

Looks like barnacles growing on that strut lol

Oh and Moog FTW!!

[EagleESI]

Yeah, I heart Moog for alot of things. There was talk at some point of Autozone carrying it. I hope it comes true. I have front Moog sway bar links, the cheapy advance ones I originally bought never lasted, these moogs are several years running now.

Of course, don't think even moog has much on my sway bar links for the rear.......(also andrew, take note of how my bushing is. As I had mentioned earlier being squished like that will shorten their lifespan way way way much more.)