Eventful journey home... Opinions
Turbo Mini Forums

Driving home last night and went round a fairly sharp left hander, one big bang, lots of vibration, swerving across the road and getting it back on the right side to ovoid the on-coming cars, i come to a rest on the verge.

Hmm somethings not right there then.....

get out to find that the tyre has come off the rim!

Wheels are MB splits and tyres are 008's fitted on friday....

Anybody know where i stand to go claim a new tyre and wheel? Its bent the rim where it must of gone down. tyre stayed on so no other damage much plus i got away without writing the car off.

thing is i took the wheel off and a load of the bolts ( 5 out of 12) were freshly snapped. Now would these have snapped as a result of the tyre coming off then hit the deck, vibration etc (thats what im thinking) or would the bolts have snapped causing the tyre to come off the rim? the centre is still fast within the rim so no major movement could have taken place.

Also a bit strange considering they were only put on friday and there were no problems up to then. wheels about 8k miles old if that.

All in all a bit of a crap journey home!

pics to follow, cant get them to upload at the minute

get back there and tell them to replace both the wheel and the tyre!

iain, this is a common fault with MB's there is a new grade of bolt for them, a lot of miglia's had this happen to them, get on to MB!

Team Racing

yeah but shouldnt have caused the tyre to come off the rim should it? the centre wasnt loose at all, plus i wasnt going very quick round the bend anyway, or even pushing it at all.

well it would cause a very fast deflate, so it may cause the tyre to come off

Team Racing

so when you split the rin from the wheel they deflate? i didnt realise it was that sort of split rim mate, just thought the centre detached from a machined rim.

Hmm, not sure what to do first really! If thats the cas then the tyre place wasnt at fault.

the wheels are in 3 pieces, in you take the bolts out, the inside rim, and the outer rim come apart, so you will loose pressure. don't think the tyre place was at fault

Team Racing

damn! so that means MB were? just id had the new tyres fitted, coincidence?

Cant find a contact for MB though....

Also means that to repair the scuff marks on them i only need the outer rim!

sort of a bonus....

you should be able to see what I mean from this picture, these are my split rims, you can see that the inner and outer rim is seperate

Team Racing

What grade are the bolts fitted at the moment? I would have thought they want to be at least 10.9 if not higher tensile?

not sure but il be getting a full set of new ones from work asap!! best whip one out and see what it is first.

How have they failed? It it a brittle fracture or a ductile frature??

Brittle would indicate impact, ductile just that the bolts not up to the job.....

looks brittle to me, might pop a bolt of two up to the lab or bring them in here for an expert eye.
Ive not really got any experience in that sort of thing. good job i work in a place that has!

A real "brown trouser" moment!!!

Never trusted those things!!

I'm with you jon, like my wheels to be all one piece!!!

The rim can easily be repaired by yourself, take a big hammer and hit it carefully but firm. you cant use it now anyway, I have recently repaired my AMG rim this way. It doesn't even vibrate.

Who built up the rims ? where the rims sealed with some form of sealant ?? They need to be else they will tend to deflate.

As for the bolts you want to be using a good quality 12.9 spec bolt. I'd go for a good branded bolt like Unbrako or similar. I'd get rid of the nylocs and use some good nuts on there as well.

If you cant find him i can get you contact details for mike for i can get the spinning you need from him.

Also it's worth getting the outside edge of the bead lightly bead blasted to give it a little surface texture. This helps the tyre stay put on the rim. I've had them rotate on the rim under heavy braking which if nothing else throws out the balance.

I had six bolts go at one time on my old one as well.



I was driving straight a head, so I only punctured.
There are two problems with MB wheels:
1. Only twelve bolts ( sixteen on Force and Spectrums)
2.Mike Barnby is a twat when it comes to customer care.

I've sold my wheels, and the new owner had all four rims bolt's breaking after a short while. He has now installed new bolts, and never had a problem.

What size bolts are they ????

mbs like all splits need to be checked on a regular basis,you cant just fit em and forget em.
i have never had any probs with mine but i check the bolts regular and torque them up,it could have been a lot worse iain.

could of been a lot worse

Im going to get some bolts from work, just need to sort the size when i get chance. Ill make sure i get the best grade we have, should have decent ones, if they're good enough for gas turbines they'll be ok for my wheels! Going for stainless as well with proper anti-sieze too. Should be better.
Not sure on what nuts to go for, we use all sorts.

I agree about checking them but the wheels arent very old really plus ive only had the car a month so havent had time to go over with a toothcomb just yet

Anyone know the torque setting?

Mirage, thanks for the offer, ive got the number for him from ML. Ill give him a ring to try get a new inner rim.
Also going to tidy up the edges of the rest as they are all marked.

It went with a bang and deflated all in one go, not over time. just weird with only having changed the tyre a few days before. Guess it must have been the extra grip of the new tyres finally finished off the bolts.

Sorry to go off topic lads!! Vegard, are they sportpack arches on that dark blue mini you had??

Matt

I was in the workshop last night, there is an MB wheel there which looked exatcly like yours (ie with 4 bolts snapped) I asked Endaf what happened, it was while racing at Spa, nearly killed him, he doesn't use MB's anymore because of this.

Team Racing

Iain I am sure you will be careful but make sure these bolts you get from work are up to the job.

Steels used in gas turbine applications are going to have properties more suited to resisting creep failure rather than fatigue or impact, as the high temperatures involved lead to creep failure. Also stainless due to composition is inherently more brittle than alloy steel.

Just make sure they are up to it buddy.........personally I would go and buy some from a bolt shop and get the best they have.

Also like I think someone else said, I would junk nylocs and go for all metal type locking nuts, they are called different things but I know them as Binx nuts or Aerotight nuts.