Calling motor mechanics (or anyone with an opinion!)

[Whatleymeister]

How do.

I have a buckled allow wheel on my car which I see can be repaired. I am looking at replacements on ebay which are less than the cost of the repair, but you simply cannot garuantee that they too wont be buckled. So, my question is this:

Would you trust an alloy that has been professionally straightened?

The buckle is very minor so shouldnt involve huge amounts of pressure/work to sort, but there is always that underlying doubt that niggles in the back of my mind. Add this to the fact that, though the buckle is minor, it is making short work of the wheel bearings at £140 a pop so I could do with sorting this out sooner rather than later.

Does anyone have any experience of this and, if so, how did it pan out?

Cheers, sorry if this seems like a simple 'it will be fine' response type question, I just dont know whether to shell out £75 when it might be best to simply replace, but at a higher cost.

 

[1210tech]

I would look at replacing rather than repairing, out of experience repaired alloys don't tend to last. Why don't you look at after market alloy & tyre packages, you can get 4 new alloys and tyres for £400 depending on size and brand

 

[Whatleymeister]

The trouble is I dont have £400 burning a hole in my pocket at the moment. If I did, I would almost certainly just buy a replacement from Renault. I am not too worried about having fancy wheels really, the factory ones are fine for me.

I know that Renault charge about £160 for a replacement wheel, but I am looking for the most cost effective way to remedy the issue. That said, if the wheel loses shape quickly from straightening, might be better to just stump up the £160... :?

 

[legrandefromage]

go to a scrappy or breakers

you may be able to still spin the wheel on the car, or at least fit to you own car and spin it.

 

[1210tech]

The trouble is I dont have £400 burning a hole in my pocket at the moment. If I did, I would almost certainly just buy a replacement from Renault. I am not too worried about having fancy wheels really, the factory ones are fine for me.

I know that Renault charge about £160 for a replacement wheel, but I am looking for the most cost effective way to remedy the issue. That said, if the wheel loses shape quickly from straightening, might be better to just stump up the £160... :?

That's the problem though, £160 for one alloy without tyre just because it's OEM from the dealer, I think that's more of a waste of money than buying a new after market set and after all, you could get a new alloy from dealer, hit a pot hole and you're back to square one, no pun intended

You don't have to go 'fancy' either, there are replica alloys on the market that are a fraction of the cost of stealership prices and the same design as the OEM alloys and even in some cases are made by the same supplier that the car manufacturer uses.

 

[Whatleymeister]

True. However, the same can also be said for buying 4 new rims at £400 and then hitting pot hole and also back to square one! As much as, quite frankly, I would probably rather have some all new ones that aren't too 'in yer face', £160 is far more managable for me than £400 :cry:

Hence wanting to hear from people who may have perhaps had wheels trued and wanting to hear how they found it.

LGF - my wheel is straight to the naked eye, but there is a definite buckle in it which is eating up the bearings. At the moment, all I can hear is that old whirring sound of a dead bearing that is only 6 months old! However, it also means that, like buying a second hand one on ebay, I cant truly say for sure that it isnt ever so slightly buckled.

It seems like the only options for me (at the moment) are either (a) fix it or (b) a sinlge replacement, which means OEM to match the others.

What a shi77er!!

 

[1210tech]

Yeah I hear what you are saying but I would still advise against buying new from dealer. What about searching around alloy wheel sellers to see if they have any wheels that have been traded in that they then sell on, failing that eBay is your friend. I have had alloys 'repaired' in the past and after the repair the one cracked so I had it welded to stop air leaking out but it just kept cracking so ended up replacing anyway.

Which Renault is it and what size are the alloys?

Out of interest I just had a quick look on wheelbasealloys.com and they have sets of alloys without tyres starting at £250, just a case of fitting your current tyres to new alloys

 

[silverclaws]

Beware the term; professional, as that can mean absolutely anything, but a straightened wheel, I would not trust, how did you bend it ?

The thing is now to look out on ebay, or fit a cheaper set of s/h alloys until a replacement turns up.

I have never had alloys, always pressed steel because they are cheap to replace and I have only ever once had to replace a steel wheel, after I slipped on ice and kerbed the wheel buggering up the rim, but steel wheels cost minor amounts second hand. But the kerbed wheel was the least of the problems, the suspension got bent with it and that cost loads to fix as it was Vauxhall parts.

 

[Magsy]

Just buy one on eBay, if yours is taking out wheel bearings it must be majorly majorly bent and your chances of getting another like that are surely slim?
Are you sure whoever is fitting the bearings knows what they are doing? Not applying too much/little preload?
What happens when the wheel gets balanced? Do you see it jump and are they able to get it to '0'?

Every car I've had plus the partners has had alloys and I've never buckled one. I really don't think buckling one is as easy as all that so would not worry.

 

[Magsy]

PS. £400 alloys packages are quite likely to be un-round from the factory, I'm not even sure you can trust some of those fresh from the box. Plus people never give enough consideration to the offsets, you have to worry about more than 4 or 5 bolt fitting :?