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MG MGF Technical - Heavy Braking

Dieter,

On the way home from work today i was travelling at about 35mph along a busy 'A' road. A dog ran out from behind some bushes on a direct intercept course with the car. I brought the car to rest very quickly in a cloud of blue smoke. At this time i could only imagine that the poor thing was mangled under the wheels, however, i looked in the mirror and the damned dog was now running down the road (OK it seemed!) An onlooker gave me a dirty look as if i had done something wrong.
Got home, only to find that it had in fact bashed the sill under the nearside door!.
My question is this, under such violent braking and running on 16" wheels with F1 tyres, and that i've never had punish the tyres, brakes, suspension etc., like this before. Is it worth getting the geometry checked for any misalignment, or should everything be in order?

Cheers
Nick
Nick

Nick,
IMO no problem for the suspension parts.
But the tyres. ?
Do you own an MGF with ABS ?
In ABS case the punctual tyre wear at hard braking is IMO very low. Without ABS the tyres totally block and this can wear the ryres at a single point.

Anyway, IMO if you don't realise any shaking of the steering wheel... go on and have fun.
In the case that 'anything' shakes I woulld suggest to look yourself at first for any flat area at the tyre.
Then I would join a tyre shop and let the wheels try to balance.

Hope this helps. All only IMO :)
dk
Dieter

Nick,

Only when the cars suspension has been subject to a sudden and quite severe shock should there be any worry about altering the suspension geometry settings. Hittin a smallish animal that is relatively soft should present no problem. However to put things into perspective hitting a large pot hole or bouncing down kerbs even at low speeds may knock things out of true.

Rog
Roger Parker

Thanks guys,

No ABS i'm afraid. I did check the tyres, they seem OK but i'll feel for a bumpy ride today. Luckily the road was fairly smooth tarmac and not that sandpaper effect that we get near junctions!! I always dread having to pull up hard on that type of surface.

Nick
Nick

I would just add to my last that tyres usually suffer some damage first, often in the form of small bulges appearing in the sidewalls where the inner structure has been damaged. You usually feel this in the form of a wheel balance type of vibration.

Rog
Roger Parker

Nick

Glad to here the dog was ok, lucky escape and who said that a cat has nine lives. Goes for dogs too. I hope your car did not suffer much damage.
Steve

This thread was discussed between 12/02/2000 and 13/02/2000

MG MGF Technical index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG MGF Technical BBS is active now.