Alloy Wheel Advice.

[Alan16ac]

Not been on for a while, the 'perb just munches away faultlessly at miles, so no need!

 

However, my front wheels have been deflating constantly, the near side, more so. I'm pumping them up every week. But the alloys has been damaged due to occasionaly driving with the tyre flat, only a few hundred yards, but I've been doing this for about a year now. The air is not being lost through the tyres though, they've been checked AND replaced. One alloy is buckled. And they generally look pretty battered. I can only assume they're not sealing properly due to age and being abused.

 

Am I best sourcing some from a breaker, or shall I just replace the whole lot with some new alloys? Not fussed too much on looks, but don't want it to look tacky. And obviously I don't want to spend a fortune, but A or B rated in the wet is a must for the tyres!

[oh_superb]

I had a persistent leaker on my 17" Elegance alloys, turned out excessive build up of sealing sh** caused it to leak as every time the tyre was changed the tyre fitters could not be asked to clean the rim of the excess old sealant.

So took it to this bloke, he pulled the tyre off, scrubbed the old sealant off, applied some chemical to it to take it all off, then applied fresh sealant re-fitted the tyre, and never leaked since.

 

A lot of these and related problems are due to the lack of diligence of the tyre fitting "specialists".

The other problem I had was that the fitters could not give a damn for doing a decent balancing job, and when I took it back they offered to rebalance the fronts only and if the vibrations continued to come back and rebalance the rears too!  At that point I had to have a rant and he rebalanced all 4 and been all right since.

 

I always dread the moment I need some new rubber as in my experience 8 times out of 10 there will be some sort of a problem which will require a return visit.

 

Just saying this - perhaps it's worth removing the tyre and cleaning the alloys.  With regard to the buckle this can be fixed at the same time, and may work out a lot cheaper than buying new whees.

[Gaz]

Why not just have them refurbed?

 

There was a full set on ebay the other day, but they started at £325, which I thought was a bit rich.

 

Gaz

[Alan16ac]

My tyre place have always been great. I always use them.... Having said that, these are the first tyres I didn't get fitted there, as I was away from home.

I thought a refurb was just cosmetic, would they deal with any sealing issues too? Might give that a try. I've looked on eBay amd I can't believe used OEM alloys are going for hundreds. I'm not paying £3-500 for standard alloys, and then I'd have to wrap them in somemdecent rubber, as they all some to have miss matched tyres, or utter crap. Does nobody else care about their tyres?!

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[jimbof]

It is one of my pet hates and a sure sign of a penny pinching owner when you see a car with a different (usually rubbish) tyre on each corner...

 

My 17" wheels all leak a little - the fronts are particularly bad.  The car used to live is Scotland and I can see a lot of salt damage around the rim (the paint on the inside of the wheels comes off in huge chunks).  Both tyre places I've used said they really need refurbing to be able to get a good seal onto them.  I think that is a job for this week before I swap off the winter wheels and tyres.

[Gaz]

Refurb can be just cosmetic, or can be repair etc.  The Wheel Specialist do the extra tyre-off stuff:

 

http://www.thewheelspecialist.co.uk

 

Haven't used them yet, but my wheels are coming up for a refurb.  I'm just dithering about changing the colour.

 

Chris used them on his Neptunes:

 

http://www.briskoda.net/forums/topic/302575-the-best-neptune-alloys-now-fitted/

 

And I figured if they're good enough for Chris.....

 

Gaz

[The Good Shag]

Had this on mine.  Local garage took all four tyres off, cleaned the corrosion on the rims back to the metal and no problems since.  He says its quite common on all alloys.  He only took £40 for the lot.  If yours are generally a bit scabby then sandblasting and powder coating would do the trick.  More expensive but they will look like new.

[Alan16ac]

Well, got out of work early enough to make it to my local tyre place today.

He said it's my alloys, showed me the corrosion on the inside, and said its common. My front tyres are fooooked too, as they been used flat too many times. Good riddance to them, Avon ZV5. Don't buy them, they're useless in the wet! Thought they'd be okay, but they weren't.

Anyway he ground all 4 alloys, to rid of as much corrosion as possible, then used some grease stuff round the rim, before fitting my two old rear tyres back on, which are Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2s. They still have 7mm of tread! And he said they're fine.

For the front I bought Michelin Pilot Sport 3s. Hope they're as good as the reviews would suggest.

To be honest the car already feels sharper, well as sharp as these barges can! Maybe that's because I'm not driving on flat deformed tyres now though.

Anyway we'll see how it goes. If they start to lose pressure, I'll get them refurbed.

Thanks for the help and advice all.

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[philbes]

Why did you not fit Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2s on the front so all tyres the same?  I won't buy a car with mis-matched tyres.

[Alan16ac]

Why did you not fit Goodyear Eagle F1 Asymmetric 2s on the front so all tyres the same? I won't buy a car with mis-matched tyres.

I already had the Goodyears on the rear. I will replace with Michelins when they're worn. But they're not mismatched. Each axle has matching GOOD tyres. So there is no unpredictability with handling. There is only really an issue when tyres are mis-matched across the same axel. And I don't plan on selling my car to you anyway :p I'll almost certainly run it until it dies then scrap/break it.

All these things cost money too. I've just bought 4 Uniroyal Rainsport 3s for my MX5, and 2 Uniroyal Rainsport 3s for my other halves Fabia VRS.

On top of that, my tax is due on my MX5 and my Superb. It all adds up.

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Edited 24 March, 2014 by Alan16ac

[jimbof]

I had Michelin Pilot Sport 3 set before last.  They were nice and grippy but seemed to wear much quicker than the Michelin Primacy HP's I fitted next time round.  Anyhow, hope they serve you well

 

In all my time of buying quality tires - about 500,000 miles - I've never had a flat or burst a tire.  No substitute for good rubber, keeps you safe!

[Alan16ac]

I had Michelin Pilot Sport 3 set before last.  They were nice and grippy but seemed to wear much quicker than the Michelin Primacy HP's I fitted next time round.  Anyhow, hope they serve you well

 

In all my time of buying quality tires - about 500,000 miles - I've never had a flat or burst a tire.  No substitute for good rubber, keeps you safe!

 

Thanks, I've only ever really bought good rubber. My flats this time, are down to corrosion and lacquer peel in the wheel. 

I was hoping the Sports might be a little less soft than the Primacys, as the Superb has enough wallow and roll as it is :p

[Gaz]

I've got Pilot Sport 3's all round (and one in each corner!).  Good tyres.

 

Gaz

[devilman9050]

Why not just have them refurbed?

 

There was a full set on ebay the other day, but they started at £325, which I thought was a bit rich.

 

Gaz

 

I had the same problem as Alan and have been pumping my front passenger side tyre up every 5 days or so, so I actually bought the set off ebay, we did a deal outside of ebay though so i didn't pay anywhere near £325

 

I needed some new fronts anyway, and they had 4 tyres on, 2 pretty much brand new, and a decent amount left on the other 2 and I haven't had to pump my front tyres up since

 

On another note, the guy I got them from had 19inch wheels on his superb, his tyres were super-low profile though, i didn't ask him what that made the ride like!