It started with a squeak :shocked:

Yesterday when I took my Coop out for a run to the shops I noticed an annoying squeak that wasn`t going away when pressing my brakes so I put it down to being a heat shield rubbing .

Today I went a run to the Odeon in Kilmarnock and the noise was still there but it was slightly louder. By the time i`d got to the cinema it was a lot louder . I started thinking it was going to be a wheel bearing but it sounded more like rubber against rubber so I tried to get a look behind the wheel but everything seemed to be in order .

On the road back home I got through a couple of roundabouts and I started to feel a slight vibration through the wheel so I slowed down a took it easy,hoping to just nurse the car home thinking about when I could find the time to change the bearing. All the time the vibration was getting worse and so just as I had nearly resigned myself to calling my Dad out for a recovery it went with a thud,thud,thud.

I had stopped just after a lay-by and so managed to reverse back to it and got out to have a look. What greeted me was not what I expected though .

Wheel 01

Wheel 02

Wheel 03

I initially thought that the bearing had went and the wheel had slip with hitting the caliper but there was no damage to the brakes. After fitting the spare on (yes,the space saver does fit over the Brembos with no problems) I gave the wheel a spin and checked for play but everything was fine .

In ownership of the car i`ve never hit any severe pot-holes so I can only assume the it has been slightly damaged before I got my Coop (1 and a half years ago) or it`s been down to some flaw in the alloy thats just reached its breaking point now .

I`m just glad it didn`t decided to break on a corner at speed . Guess i`m looking for an alloy/s now,Carl? .

Baz

sheessh
as ya say lease it didn't go at speed

never seen that before

I bet if you shot blast all the crap off that wheel you will find a real old dirty repair. Some wheel repairers heat the wheels to get them straight again, im not so sure it does them any good.

Lucky you got it when you did.

And yes the space saver is perfect for the brembo's. If people say space saver doesn't fit its NOT a 20vt one! There's nothing more to it. A 20vt space saver is fine, if its off any other model it doesn't clear.

Fccuk me! What would have caused that, must be a flaw? Could have been catastrophic at speed, you were lucky in some ways.

Never seen anything like it!

wow that's shocking!!
never seen an alloy break like that, thank god you weren't going at speed and have it go completely!!

Scary!! I'm going to check mine tomorrow

Cor blimey, that could've been nasty

I am amazed that you didn't have a serious accident!!!

Wow...when i clicked those links I certainly wasn't expecting that! Thats crrrrazy.

I guess you should be thankful it didn't go on all 4 spokes That would have been nasty.

I was only going about 30/40mph just in-case the (what I assumed to be) bearing decided to collapse on me as it got noisy fairly rapid .

Baz

I have some pics of alloy motorbike wheels failing in a similar fashion (Italian made as well). Although, I think Carl is correct that there has been a poor repair on these in the past.

Glad you are okay though.

John

OMG!

Like everyone else has said, you've been bleedin' lucky that didn't let go at speed!

I've seen plenty of wheels like that after an accident but seldom seen one that bad before an accident!

That's going to give me nightmares now!


You should put a lottery ticket on now, escaping that without injury is nothing short of a miracle!

Fccuking hell

Never seen that before

Tried that yesterday,i`m just glad my luck decided to wait for today .

I can`t get over how it sounded just like rubber squeaking though,I was even gonna spray some silicone on the driveshaft gaitor to see if the noise went away too . TBH I never even looked at the wheel as I had no reason to think I had damaged it and concentrated on the hub/CV joint for possible causes and so never noticed if there were any hair line cracks on the spokes.

Baz

Bad luck mate


Do you want a loan of a standard wheel to get you about?

Very lucky escape!!! hope the other x3 don`t have the same problem(duff dodgy repair)??? get a new set of 17s??? peace of mind..that would be my excuse

In over six years on this forum, that's the first wheel failure I've heard about

I'd really like to know if there has been a repair on that wheel - I guess it would be traceable through previous owners

the consequences of it letting go at motorway speeds are unthinkable - remember what happened to Sammiboo when her rear wheel came off? (badly fitted hub IIRC) - having the front come off would surely spit you straight off the road.

WOW, My mate had an alloy wheel go on one of his cars, he had smaked it hard a few days before, ever since he has always put steel wheels on a car, thought he was being paranoid but after seeing that......

I`m gonna find out from the previous owner if there has been any repairs done to the wheel,plus i`ll have a good look round all the wheels in the daylight tomorrow.

Baz

wow ive never seen that before
think i might just check mine at work tomorrow just to be on the safe side
and if my wheels go missing tonight baz i know where you live

that is savage! if you ring steve at AA he has a brand new le wheel left for sale as i bought the other one, around £80 i think.

Quick question Baz, the spoke that didn't break, was that where the locking wheel bolt was by any chance?

I don't think it was on that side,i'm pretty sure it was to the left(clockwise) of the unbroken spoke when I stopped. Do you have another theory concerning locking wheel bolts (mine are just the standard FIAT ones)?

Baz

Nah, not so much the locking wheel bolts but I do remember seeing something similar where the only bolt that was secure was the locking bolt and the others had worked loose causing the wheel to vibrate itself to destruction.

Well all the wheelbolts felt fine,not too slack/tight when I was swapping the spare on. Hopefully i'll be able to spot something today.

Baz

Hmm, wonder how many Coupe owners will be closely inspecting their wheels today! Had a persistent vibration between 65-75mph from the front of mine ever since I've had it (despite getting the wheels balanced twice) which has now made me a little concerned.

That's shocking, I'm amazed that the remaining spoke was able to withstand the extra stress after the other 3 had broke

Just noticed this!!

I was reading through that expecting that the wheel was gonna come off. I would be replacing the hub and bearing aswell barry, because you dont know what kinda stresses that put on the hub/bearing.

Ross

Baz,what an escape!If your interested,my claws are off the car for sale,Im only up the road in Prestwick!cheers Paul.

Wheel bearing feels ok and I hadn`t drove that far with the vibration so I reckon it`ll be fine,I`ll be MOT`ing my next month anyway so i`ll give it a good going over .

Thanks for the offer of the wheels Mr.S but I`d prefer to have a set of original(Plus,LE or standard) Coop wheels ,I`m waiting on Carlt getting back to me for them though.

Baz


I`ve got some photos of the back of the wheel,it looks like they`ve been cracked for a wee while as there is trails of alloy deposits coming from the cracks where the water must have got in at. I`ll post the pics up when I get home.

fu*k - really glad you're OK.

Nay worries mate! Hope you keep some Andrex in the car now!

Depending on the alloy grade and the heat treatment, heating up to as little as 180°C for a reasonible length of time can result in a 60% loss of strength

very very odd :o, my metallurgist at work would love a challenge like this, but would probably teel you that this is down to a previous defect ( as mentioned before this looks like either the centre has been heated / had its material properties changed ), or that a stress fracture has been created a while back, which has just grown into a full crack.

Either way, I'm glad to see you walked away, this could have been a fatal incident.

You REALLY need to find out who did this & put an end, as if someone thinks they can repair wheels ( if indeed it was a repair, which I reckon it is ), they need to be stopped, as this WILL kill someone else

Agreed with hard alloys, they don't like being heated in a zone, the only way is to stress releive the whole lot, costs a lot, as you need to know the material, times etc to heat, then controlled cooling etc...

I would strongly advise you to check all the other wheels ( especially the rear faces, as these will show up cracks, as they are rougher, which is where a crack may initiate ( rough surfaces )

Blinking El
I am thinking of getting a whole new set of refurbed alloys from Solo Italia, is it safe to get these?

yes sure, ask them if they have an independant radiograph film of each wheel on all spokes & a dye pen report

only way to be sure

but I doubt any wheel place would ever do this

Well the lad who I bought the car from stays up in Stirling so I imagine it would be somewhere in that area (though more probably Glasgow/Edinburgh) that did the powder coating. I don`t see any receipts for the job in all the paperwork i`ve got with the car and i`m waiting on him getting back to the message I sent him.

Baz