Going To Ford Today To Be Shocked Because Of Alloy Wheel Buckles

[james_60]

Hi folks.

Iam back from the western coast of france (port bourgenay)

I have travelled approx 1500 miles in total with driving there and driving to different places.

Iam taking my car to the dealer today to get it checked out.

When driving at anything about 60 the steering wheel starts to shake and as i approached to magic 130km/h (80 mph) the car began to shake.

You can feel it through the dashboard and through the seats.

All four of my alloys are buckled me thinks.

I dont know what to do really when they tell me this at ford.

Jamie

[itsrelfy]

Hi mate,

All I can say is don't let them fob you off like they tried with me. Fight your corner and don't give in until they help you in some way. Mine were all buckled and I got them to agree to pay for 2. Its absolutly shocking that they think this is a normal thing, it can't be there are tons of cars of al makes, shape and sizes driving around and you don't hear any problems. Ford I think have designed a poor wheel, and compounded the problem by making them poorly as well. At least that's what I think.

Good luck with it and let us know what happens.

Adrian

[james_60]

Hi

It Turns out that I only need two new wheels as the front two have multiple buckles.

I had the alloys balanced by a mobile tyre fitter before i went to france.

Since having them re balanced by my local dealer the car is so different its much better.

I still need to buy two wheels though which is much better than 4 that i originally thought i needed.

So to sum this up.

Vibration and wobbling can sometimes be caused by inbalanced or improperly balanced.

Jamie

[itsrelfy]

Thats good news, least it aint as bad as you feared. Mine are now all changed had the back two done today and had the tracking done to and now all is well. Thank god

[sparticus5]

Slightly confused here. Does your car have the 17" or 16" wheels? (Other threads pointing to potential probs with the 17")

You say you had the wheels balanced before going to France. If they were balanced then presumably the wheels were perfect. You go on holiday, find there's a problem, you return to your Ford dealer and he tells you two wheels are buckled - is that right?

If so then something major must have happened on holiday? It's something for one wheel to hit a large pothole or whatever and fail, but two!!!

If you can't remember some major incident whilst driving your car since the wheels were first balanced I think I'd be pressing for a manufacturing defect in those alloys.

[james_60]

Sorry to confuse everyone here.

Basicly :-

I knew that the passenger side alloy had one buckle. It has been like this for a month or two.

I decided to get all four alloys balanced by a mobile tyre fitter just prior to going away.

While driving to france and in france the steering wheel was very wobbly and we could feel it through the front seats and dashboard.

It was that bad that i managed to find a ford dealer near where we were staying.

He said that if it was that bad then they must be buckled and he advised it was not worth getting them re balanced as it wont help with vertical buckles.

So when i got home on wednesday i made an appointment for the car to go to our local dealer (Cutts Of Campden) (In Gloucestershire)

He rebalanced all four alloys. Confirmed that the rear two are ok but said that the front passenger side had multiple buckles and the drivers side had a buckle also.

He also confirmed that they were infact not balanced correctly by the mobile person.

The alloys fitted to my car are the 16" multispoke variety.

My service manager who i get on with quite well said that he has had an influx of people with the same problem because of the poor road conditions.

I hope i have clarified this issue.

Jamie