I had to replace a pair of tires on my CRX this past weekend (one had a slow leak that could never be figured out where it was leaking from and the other was due to a puncture that could not be safely repaired). The local tire shoppe (Evan's Tires ~ I think this is a local chain to San Diego County only) no longer carried the Kelly tires I had on there before but they had a set made by "Visa" which I then learned is made by Falkin.
Whatever. The Visa tires did have a very similar tire thread pattern like the Falkin. It also offered a very deep groove for wet conditions (much deeper than my Kelly's). The cost of the Visa tire was about $70 (US) each. After tax and all the other small fees that they tack on, it came out to around $80 a tire. Which is still not bad, IMHO. I have the Visa tires mounted up front and they moved the two remaining Kelly's to the rear. The car doesn't drive any different (which is good) but because we're in this perpetual drought in Southern Cali, I can't say how it does in the wet. Hopefully when we finally do get any sort of measurable rain out here, I'll still have sufficient threads. :^) Anyways ~ prior to having the tires replaced, I pulled the front wheels off. Mainly to check the brake pads up front since it has been nearly two years since I did the PowerStop rotors and pad upgrade. Plenty of pads left and the rotors had no deep grooves in them. I also took that time to do a quick check of the front suspension. Everything felt solid except for the right side drive axle. I felt a slight side-to-side play; if I grabbed on the axle and pulled it towards me (towards the brake rotor) it moved maybe a quarter of an inch. If I attempted to wiggle it, it felt solid. The left side (driver side) had a slight side-to-side play in it as well only it was very small. My Helm doesn't make any mention of "play" in the drive axles and I don't recall if it was ever there before. I do know that this axle was replaced back in 1999 when I had the tranny rebuilt. I had the shoppe install the axle (and it came with a limited lifetime warranty). I've never torn the CV boot on this axle either (only the driver side, once...) so I've never really had to do any sort of maintenance or checking before. There is no play in the steering wheel (i.e.: Shaking at any speed or any "slop"). Anyone have any comments on this? Thanks... Robert K. Kuhn CRX Owners Group President (http://www.crx.org/southcal) 1990 Honda CRXsi (http://drive.to/jiggy) ICQ # 3714283 (nickname: godzilla)
