A BAD EXPERIENCE WITH ALLOYS

[BABELAAS]

Hi All, thought I should share this with you, my 4.8 Gl had steel wheels , so i went out and bough some A Line alloys, then the fun started, I had the tyres fitted and half a KM from the tyre fittment place, the 1 front wheel came loose, took it back and supervised the wheels being torqued, 2 km's later same thing. took it back, got them to wash off all the copper grease and re torque. Next day about 10km's later happenned again. This time I took off 1 x front and 1 x rear wheel and noticed the wheel was a very tight fit over the hub, so, I took the wheels to a wheel repair place and had the spigot machined out by a mm, now there was clearance, but a fairly bad wheel vibration, so, found a tyre place where they balance on the wheel stud holes ( not on the spigot) this gave a 90% improvement. Anyway, i lost the confidence in the wheels, so,I have had my steel wheels re pained and have fitted the alloys to my Off road trailer,these are probably the most expensive trailer wheels after all the machining and balancing costs. This brings me to the point, if the cost of original wheels from NISSAN had not been R2800 each ( yes R2800 each,) I would not have had the most expensive trailer wheels.

[AndriesS]

I know the Patrol hubs are bigger, was the 1mm machining enough?

Did they use the right nuts for the wheels?

[David]

... the 1 front wheel came loose..

I see they have a recall in Aus for wheels coming off. Hasn't happened to me yet but then I use a torque wrench.....

Agree with JohnDough - different nuts for steel and alloy rims - did the change the nuts?

[BABELAAS]

After the 1mm was taken off, even after proper balancing there was still a dull vibration , the rims were just touching the hubs, so probably not enough clearance to allow the nuts to centralise the wheels ( yes new nuts supplied with mags with correct bevel). the problem is there is not a lot of alloy left, all in all better to stick with the original wheels unless I can find a set of original mags ( but prices will be crazy). The whole episode started when I had the idea to fit the old wheels with the half worn Bridgestones on the trailer and fit new BFG's with alloys on my Trolle. It would have been a much better option to buy 16" smiths for the trailer, ja ja ,an expensive lesson.

[AndriesS]

Thanks for sharing, I had a "juk" to fit mags as well and AQuip in Alberton had a special on some of their A-line mags so at least the forum knows to be on the watch out. I have a suspicion the mags might still not seat properly but if there is not enough meat to cut it then so be it.

[johanp]

You have to use copper grease. 2 years ago I wanted to replace the front brake pads on my Patrol. 2 of the wheelnuts turned a few times and then got stuck.
I turned it back in and out a few times and sprayed it with Q20 but eventually I broke off both studs to get the wheel off. None of the studs had copper grease on.Studs with the same thread are only available at Nissan and they had to order from the factory. To replace the studs you have to take off the wheel hub and the brake disc. A job that should have taken less than an hour turned into a 3 day experience.

[ChristoSlang]

That's really bad luck - I can only guess that the fitment place messed up big time!

My Patrol's A Line alloys fit perfectly and have not given me a day's hassles...

[BABELAAS]

I thought that they had put too much grease on and that was why the wheels were coming loose, when I re fitted the steel rims, I did put a bit of copper grease on, but only on the stud threads, Maybe I was unlucky and just had a bad experience!!!

[Mrowka]

This weekend I had two (!) bad experiences with steel wheels. Specifically, the problem was rust in the beads causing the tire to suddenly go.

[corno]

I have the same problem with my alloy rims. I lost a rear tire. at 100km/h on my way to Pongola. (I had to buy it back from the local in which yard it ended up). The rims were then machined out. There is still however a vibration at 93km/h. Except for weakening the rims is there any other risk involve in machining the rims more?