Be Careful Where You Shop

[robert ives]

six months ago I purchased a set of alloy wheels and tyres from wheelbase.com of manchester. The wheels were MSW by Oz racing and I think they look great. 3 weeks ago I had amechanic doing some work on the front of the car. when the front wheels were removed we discovered that the wheel bolts that had been supplied were way too short, they had only gone into the hub by 3 threads. I contacted wheelbase and spoke to A Mr Cox about it, he immediately tried to say that it was my fault!!!!!!!! With that sort of attitude I would certainly never use them again, or recommend tham to anyone else. So be warned.

 

[peterws1957]

Surely it would have been obvious to whoever put the wheels on, that the bolts were too short.

 

[bertb1]

I was looking at their website at the weekend
I only live a couple of miles away from them
Won’t be going there

 

[robert ives]

Surely it would have been obvious to whoever put the wheels on, that the bolts were too short.

how would you know. if i turn up at the local tyre shop to have the wheels changed over. you take on trust that the wheel bolts in the box are correct for the vehicle they were supplied for. when you offwe a bolt up you cannot see that it is too short, and it is going into a deep hole ith thread at the end. cannot blame the local tyre shop. but you should be able to rely on a so called professional dealer to provide you with the correct fittings for your car, especially when you are spending £800 plus with them.

 

[Conor]

how would you know. if i turn up at the local tyre shop to have the wheels changed over. you take on trust that the wheel bolts in the box are correct for the vehicle they were supplied for. when you offwe a bolt up you cannot see that it is too short, and it is going into a deep hole ith thread at the end. cannot blame the local tyre shop. but you should be able to rely on a so called professional dealer to provide you with the correct fittings for your car, especially when you are spending £800 plus with them.

In my opinion this is a tough one.. things get mis-packed all the time. It's part of life.

I feel like the person fitting the tyres might have copped this, but I wouldn't fault them for not.

Would be an interesting one in court if there were an accident off the back of the error. Thankfully this didn't happen though and nobody got hurt.

Reminds me of the time, my mate was studying automotive engineering in uni. One day, one of the lads in class brought in his car to do something on it and as he was driving home that day one of the wheels fell off. That certainly would have tested the uni's liability insurance. Again, thankfully nobody was hurt.

 

[peterws1957]

how would you know. if i turn up at the local tyre shop to have the wheels changed over. you take on trust that the wheel bolts in the box are correct for the vehicle they were supplied for. when you offwe a bolt up you cannot see that it is too short, and it is going into a deep hole ith thread at the end. cannot blame the local tyre shop. but you should be able to rely on a so called professional dealer to provide you with the correct fittings for your car, especially when you are spending £800 plus with them.

How would I know? I would know because the bolts were tightening far too quickly, and even a local tyre shop should have known this (your garage did!). Wheelbase have a very good reputation, and as Conor pointed out mis packing occurs all the time. May have been mispacked at the manufacturers as well, so possibly not even the suppliers fault. Nothing happened in any event.

 

[Mark A]

Sorry to ask a dumb question - but how many threads do you need to engage with the hub as the hub is only a few threads thick anyway(or is on my W164)?

 

[EmilysDad]

Sorry to ask a dumb question - but how many threads do you need to engage with the hub as the hub is only a few threads thick anyway(or is on my W164)?

I'd expect to see a thread protrude through the other side of the hub

 

[EmilysDad]

A lad at work had exactly the same problem with bolts on aftermarket Merc alloys .... I don't think his screwed in as far as 3 threads and he'd been using the car some time like that. The wheels were on the car when he bought it.

 

[cbxpete]

Sorry to ask a dumb question - but how many threads do you need to engage with the hub as the hub is only a few threads thick anyway(or is on my W164)?

I think they recommend 7 to 8 turns, I was about to fit my summer wheels and noticed the current bolts only turn five times.
New bolts to order.

Pete.

 

[mioba]

I think its pretty crap that the business owner tried to blame you.
They should atleast know the wheels are right for the car and then the ensuing bolts.
He should have apologised and posted you the corerct bolts.

Crappy customer service.

Glad you have spotted it and rectified the issue.

 

[robert ives]

Sorry to ask a dumb question - but how many threads do you need to engage with the hub as the hub is only a few threads thick anyway(or is on my W164)?

I think they recommend 7 to 8 turns, I was about to fit my summer wheels and noticed the current bolts only turn five times.
New bolts to order.

Pete.

i asked a couple of dealers and they all said that the bolt length for my vehicle is 28mm thread the bolts supplied by wheelbase are 20mm.

 

[Blobcat]

i asked a couple of dealers and they all said that the bolt length for my vehicle is 28mm thread the bolts supplied by wheelbase are 20mm.

Bolt length can vary dependent upon wheels. My winter wheels have much shorter bolts than the summer ones because the holes are recessed more. Still the same amount of protrusion though. If I was to use my summer bolts they'd go straight through the hubs and knacker the parking brake.

 

[davemercedes]

Years ago I had my car, a Cortina Estate serviced before we went on holiday. Driving down through France I kept hearing a squeaking noise and initially put it down to “chirping insects” which is quite common over there in summertime.

But when crawling in traffic I noticed the speed of the noise changed with my speed. Taking a look, I was utterly shocked to find all the wheel nuts on one side were only finger tight! Problem solved in five minutes but followed by an interesting conversation on my return! We had travelled easily 400 miles - somebody up there was taking care of us!

 

[ajlsl600]

how would you know. if i turn up at the local tyre shop to have the wheels changed over. you take on trust that the wheel bolts in the box are correct for the vehicle they were supplied for. when you offwe a bolt up you cannot see that it is too short, and it is going into a deep hole ith thread at the end. cannot blame the local tyre shop. but you should be able to rely on a so called professional dealer to provide you with the correct fittings for your car, especially when you are spending £800 plus with them.

Understand you. However if twas me, and not big on trust. I would have looked at bolt protrusion from the rim Before fitting them. It's me in hospital if it goes badly wrong! I think yr Tyre fitter had some duty of care as well. I also think, if you supplied correct info at time of order then yr supplier should supply the correct pts foc.

 

[ajlsl600]

Sorry to ask a dumb question - but how many threads do you need to engage with the hub as the hub is only a few threads thick anyway(or is on my W164)?

Rule of thumb, at least as many as width of bolt should be in the hub