need advice on tires/shocks, please help

[valenki]

Hello to all the happy Vxers!

I noticed that my VX had become a lot worse on braking. Sometimes i step on the brakes and my VX just keeps rolling. I thought that the brakes went bad and took it to my mechanic. He took off the wheels and turned out the brakes were only 1/2 worn.

He says that it's a problem with tires. I have the original tires on and they are pretty worn at 20k miles. His hypotesis is that abs engages because tires have bad grip of the surface. Do you guys think this is possible?

If so, I need tire replacement. I was thinking about getting Pirelli Scorpions. I found a good deal, but I can not decide wether I should get the original 245/70/16 or go for the 255/70/16. I hope you guys can help me choose. I'd like to get the wider 255's but I am worried that it will kill my gas mileage. Any thoughts?

here is a link to a good deal on scorpions: http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/findTireDetail.do?ar=70&rd=16&vid=005318&cs=255&sw=false&yr=1999&pc=41221


I also need two front shocks. I am not really excited about paying $495 for the originals, so my choice is between the KYB Gas-A-Just and the Rancho RS 9000. What do you guys think. I appreciate any input.

[WyrreJ]

If the ABS was engaging, you would know it. The brake peddle pulses and it probably makes a sound to go along with the pulses (can't quite remember about the sound since I usually have the stereo blasting).

Who is your mechanic?

[SlowPro48]

Are you serious? You step on the brakes and the VX keeps rolling? If it's happening on dry pavement it's not a tire problem man - that's a brake problem!

Even if the tires are worn down past the wear bars it should stop just fine on clean, dry pavement. Kind of like having race slicks - without the sticky compound, of course.

I'm sure if it were something blatant like the brake pedal going all the way to the floor you would have figured it out and would have a new master cylinder by now. Must be something more subtle....

Does the brake pedal feel spongy? Maybe you've got some air in the system somehow. No that can't be it because you say it only happens sometimes. Do you live in an area where there's a lot of sand? Maybe it IS the ABS kicking in when you're braking on a sandy patch in the road. You can usually tell when the ABS is activated though...

OR - how about this - does it occur just after you've put Armor-All or something like that on the tires or cleaned the wheels? I'm thinking overspray on the disks here. Would cause bad braking until it burned off...

I don't know - but it sounds dangerous. I'm pretty sure it's not a tire problem though. You can have steel showing at the tire edges and that VX would still stop just fine! But not for long...

[valenki]

They also said it could be because of "glazing" on the break pads. And, dont get me wrong, my baby still brakes pretty good, just not the same as it used to be, I can tell the difference in behavior.