The surprising perils of wheel refurbishment.

[Panamax]

I've had one scuffed wheel rim on the car for some years so bought a fully refurbished OEM wheel a while ago and kept it in the garage ready for fitting.

I've just needed 4 new tyres so had the fitter swap in the refurbished wheel as part of that process.

Driving away, the car developed a shocking amount of vibration/noise but I did manage to limp home at low speed (in the heavy thunderstorm).

Investigation this morning revealed the wheel bolts of one wheel, the refurbished one, were all loose. The tyre fitter came out to investigate in person and felt certain the wheel bolts had been correctly torqued when fitted. We took off the wheel to investigate further.

Turns out the refurbisher had painted the mating face on the back of the wheel and also the inside of the wheel bolt holes. The fitter had torqued the bolts correctly but the paint had failed as soon as the system was put under load. Movement of the wheel on the hub had ground away more and more of the paint leaving the wheel looser and looser.

Remaining paint was removed with wire wool, everything carefully cleaned up and the wheel re-fitted. Perfect.

And the lesson is: Check mating surfaces haven't been painted!

[Ninja59]

I did wonder if this would lead to the mating face issue.

Bmw's also suffer with heat soak issues causing brake vibrations as the wheel acts like a heat soak...a number of owners caught out again by the mating face.

[Carlososos]

That’s shoddy workmanship for sure but I would of thought the fitter would notice especially as he would be being careful fitting the tyres on newly refurbed wheels. Alls well that’s ends well.

[Panamax]

Carlososos said:

That’s shoddy workmanship for sure but I would of thought the fitter would notice especially as he would be being careful fitting the tyres on newly refurbed wheels. All's well that ends well.

Yup, six of one and half a dozen of the other. As you say, all's well that ends well.

[bobski1]

how did you remove the paint from the mating surface, got a similar issue I have to deal with

[sixor8]

I've had wheels refurbished in the past and I was informed to recheck wheel nut torques after 100 miles. New tyre fitters often have similar advice on their receipts, this will be why!