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MG MGF Technical - Buckled Alloy

Was a little enthusiastic with the go peddle this morning.

First rain in a few weeks last night, so slippery road this morning + a bit too much welly coming off a roundabout = lost back end and red face. Stuck the clutch in and managed to keep the nose pointing forward, but managed to spank one of my rear wheels against a kerb :o(

Popped out for a quick drive this lunchtime and it feels like I've buckled the alloy. Can this happen?

If so I should be able to get a cheap second hand one from Midland MGF, but just wanted to check and see if there was any other likely damage.

Any useful advice chaps?

Jim
Jim

>feels like I've buckled the alloy. Can this happen?
I know people who have had it happen, in fact I have a friend at work who drives an RS4 (audi) and their tyres are ment to buckle if you hit a pothole (at least thats what they told him, I think 5 or 6 free replacement alloys so far)

>Any useful advice chaps?
Try not to do it again ;-)
Glad you managed to get it under control, don't drive with the buckled alloy. did you damage the tyre?.
You could have caused all sorts of damage, it depends on how hard you hit and how much energy was lost in the impact (which depends on wether the tyre rode up onto the curb or stopped dead.). UNfortunatly apart from being the angel of doom, I can't tell you exactly what to look for.

If you still get the buckled feeling with the spare then you have damaged more, but I would take it to a good MGR dealer (slowly) to find out for sure.

Will
Will Munns

From past experiance ive found that it is alot easier than i thought to buckle an alloy.They are very strong, but if the whole weight of the car is behind it and its hit at an angle it will buckle. Even a very slight buckle will be very noticable when driving, it will feel as though your wheels need balancing. As will says, it all depends how fasy you hit the kerb??? Stick the spare on and go for a run, if all appears normal than get a new wheel, if it still feels the same its obviously more so time to get some one to look it over. Gary.
GC

Hi Will,

Thanks for the quick reply. The impact wasn't really hard at all, and there hasn't been any damage to the tyre, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I've just buckled the alloy (In which case £60 for a second hand one + a excuse to buy 2 Goodyear shoes!). I'll swap over to the spare before driving home tonight and see how she fares on the journey home.

Techspeed are only 10 mins away so I'll be paying them a visit if the situation requires.

Ta,
Jim
Jim

Thanks for your reply as well GC - I hadn't heard of buckled alloys before but guess from the replies of Will and yourself that it can happen. Happened at quite a low speed, so hopefully I haven't damaged anything else apart from the alloy and my pride!

I'll let you know the outcome!

Jim

P.S. Been a while since I last posted. Mainly because my F's been running like a dream :o) I've had many happy top down runs over the winter (who says rag tops are for summer fun only!).

Jim

How does the car feel Jim? If vibrations are felt, then it could easily be a buckled alloy - but equally disturbed tracking or even a lost balance weight could do the same.

Will probably be worth your while going to a tyre specialist (ie NOT Qwick Fit et al - you want someone who knows what they're talking about) to check the wheel balance (this will also tell you whether the wheel is warped) and then if all checks out okay, get the tracking set (not possible to set tracking with a buckled wheel: the laser reference points clamp to the wheel rim).
Rob Bell

Thanks Rob.

Think I'll be paying Techspeed a visit this week with a suspected HGF (see thread titled 'Mayonnaise'). I guess checking the wheel balance is something they could do?

Jim
Jim

I don't think they have the balance machine, but their getting the wheel balanced and checking to see whether the wheel is true or buckled is not likely to pose them a significant problem!

Just going now to read the mayo posting Jim...
Rob Bell

This thread was discussed between 28/02/2003 and 03/03/2003

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