In April after acquiring Elmo I bought a set of 5 boost alloy wheels and BFG/ATs from Paddocks. Not cheap, but I wanted the BFGs and the old wheels were 'orrid.
The wheels were fitted approx one month ago. I've covered about 1000 miles in that time.
All is well, ah yes but: The vehicle vibrates randomly, I have been stopped by a concerned fellow driver because of a "buckled" rear wheel, and I've found my nuts have a habit of coming loose (ooo-er missus!)
So today I went to my local tyre bloke and asked for a tracking and balance check. I thought it must be one of these as the whole suspension is new, all suspension bushes are new and there's no play in the hubs, half-shafts, diffs, or any other spinny-roundy thing underneath.
Sooo off we go unscrewing alloys and putting them on the big hamster wheel - not much wrong the the balance guv, one was 10g out.
Much scratching of heads and drawing on cigarettes and anecdotal stories of Isuzu alloy wheels and then..... bingo!
The driver's front wheel, lying as it was face-down next to me, had a series of deep scratches/scars on the shoulder round the centre hole, spookily where the small hub nuts are. This explained the problem - the wheels had insufficient clearance internally to sit on the flange correctly and were gradually grinding away clearance for themselves.
So back on with the wheels, drive home at a very sedate pace and ring Paddocks. Understandably, they were sceptical. They and their supplier sell loads of these wheels and this problem is unheard of.
Turns out, Discos prior to a JA chassis number had different axles/hubs than the later ones. And mine's a HA. So no, they don't fit.
Full marks to the guys at Paddocks, they diagnosed the problem over the 'phone, and are sending a new set of Firestyle alloys (which have a deeper "hole" inside) to a local tyre place where my existing BFGs will be swapped onto the new rims and the old rims collected by Paddocks. Cue first smile of the day from me :)
So, long ramble, not happy about my ill-fitting wheels, very happy with the response from Paddocks, and in a couple of days problem solved.
Think I may have a shandy or two tonight and raise a glass to the folks at Paddocks at the same time..... :D
