A Class spare wheel warning

[alexliam]

A bit of a warning and a bit of question here.

If you ever have to fit your spare (steel) wheel on your A class make sure that you do not use the wheel bolts that secured the alloy wheel in place.

Why?

You will cause over £500 worth of damage to the vehicle.

There are different (shorter) bolts that need to be used to secure the steel wheel. So don't just use the longer ones that you remove to take the alloy wheel off.

I know this because that's exactly what I did and I am now facing a £550 repair bill. I would like to add that there is supposed to be a warning in the spare wheel compartment alerting you to this procedure but in my case no such warning was displayed.

Now the question(s)

How many of you are aware of this?
When you picked up your new A class did the dealer point this out?

 

[andy_k]

I bet it gets a mention in the owners handbook as well....you know the one that says "please do not put this manual aside without reading it"

something along the lines of

"Use only the appropriate wheel bolts with the wheels"

alongside a picture of the wheel bolts used.

Sadly and expensively you found out the hard way that a few minutes spent reading an owners handbook that costs less than a fiver can save a lot of money in the long run.

Andy K

 

[northwest-tech]

sounds daft but.....................


did u not think when u had to start forcing the bolts in something is wrong?

 

[GrahamC230K]

I knew this, because the same goes for most cars when swapping between alloy and steel wheels.

I have known others that have made same mistake though, so live and learn.