Fun with alloy wheels

In April after acquiring Elmo I bought a set of 5 boost alloy wheels and BFG/ATs from Paddocks. Not cheap, but I wanted the BFGs and the old wheels were 'orrid.

The wheels were fitted approx one month ago. I’ve covered about 1000 miles in that time.

All is well, ah yes but: The vehicle vibrates randomly, I have been stopped by a concerned fellow driver because of a “buckled” rear wheel, and I’ve found my nuts have a habit of coming loose (ooo-er missus!)

So today I went to my local tyre bloke and asked for a tracking and balance check. I thought it must be one of these as the whole suspension is new, all suspension bushes are new and there’s no play in the hubs, half-shafts, diffs, or any other spinny-roundy thing underneath.

Sooo off we go unscrewing alloys and putting them on the big hamster wheel - not much wrong the the balance guv, one was 10g out.

Much scratching of heads and drawing on cigarettes and anecdotal stories of Isuzu alloy wheels and then… bingo!

The driver’s front wheel, lying as it was face-down next to me, had a series of deep scratches/scars on the shoulder round the centre hole, spookily where the small hub nuts are. This explained the problem - the wheels had insufficient clearance internally to sit on the flange correctly and were gradually grinding away clearance for themselves.

So back on with the wheels, drive home at a very sedate pace and ring Paddocks. Understandably, they were sceptical. They and their supplier sell loads of these wheels and this problem is unheard of.

Turns out, Discos prior to a JA chassis number had different axles/hubs than the later ones. And mine’s a HA. So no, they don’t fit.

Full marks to the guys at Paddocks, they diagnosed the problem over the 'phone, and are sending a new set of Firestyle alloys (which have a deeper “hole” inside) to a local tyre place where my existing BFGs will be swapped onto the new rims and the old rims collected by Paddocks. Cue first smile of the day from me :slight_smile:

So, long ramble, not happy about my ill-fitting wheels, very happy with the response from Paddocks, and in a couple of days problem solved.

Think I may have a shandy or two tonight and raise a glass to the folks at Paddocks at the same time :nod:

Good result Mojo :thumbsup:

Good news that the problem was diagnosed before anything serious occured :nod:

… and top notch quality service from Paddocks, 10/10 for a company that cares about it’s customers (and reputation) :smiley:

Good result that… scary the think that youv’e driven it like that though :eek:

Just got back from having new wheels fitted, driving the vehicle is now easy, handling is transformed :slight_smile: I think the old ones looked better on but I can live with these and from a driver’s and safety point of view it’s a no-brainer :nod:

Nice result… you said that many of these have been sold… so does that mean many people have been doing the same thing??.
maybe that should be addressed to all owners of these wheels?
a tad scary that but good to hear its all sorted in such a quick time too.

No m8 mine is a very early model and 2-3 months after mine was made the axles changed and the problem disappeared. So not many folk have had this issue thankfully as I’m sure accidents and casualties in some cases would have been the result.

ahh ok fair enough… i just thought it may be a cuase for concern over somthing liek that… but never mind…
the motor is lookin good by the way :wink:

/edit… may i suggest some blue neons? an exhaust the size of a wheelie bin?
or perhapse a spoiler? or maybe some tinted windows and some flames up the side :stuck_out_tongue:

and have it resprayed in burberry? :wink:

you could allways cover it in bright pink fake fur, iv seen a mini done in it and it looked mad!

Notice how after the last few suggestions Mojo hasn’t posted in this thread:chuckle: