Hello all,

Back with more problems with my 2005 Continental GT.

I took the car to a wheel refurbishment 'specialist' to get the wheels sorted. They have a few Bentley's on their social media pages and 2 people recommended them one of which had his gen 2 mulliner wheels done.

Went to pick the car up on Wednesday and they had done a pretty shoddy job including not painting the center caps at all so I gave these back to be done and drove off.

Next day had the window down and noticed a sort of rhythmic clicking ticking type noise and then what sounded like a flat tyre when coming to a stop.

I've read this can be caused by loose split rim bolts so I went to have a look and happened to put my finger on one of the bolts to find the head come off in my hand.

They had snapped the bolt and glued the head back in the hole!! So far on one wheel I've found 3 bolt heads that wobble around under finger pressure.

I haven't checked the other wheels yet but I assume I'll be finding more!

TLDR, refurbishment place have ruined my alloys and given me back a car I class as unsafe to drive.

Can anybody recommend somewhere that can put this mess right and make my wheels structurally sound again? I am based in Cheshire/Manchester but will travel.

many thanks,
Lewis

 

Lepsons are generally highly regarded. If you're prepared to travel that far, there's a place outside Harlow that did my last Jaaaaag wheels and seem pretty clued up

I think you probably need to take it up with the original company first though, at least if you want and legal avenue for recourse. Which you might want to keep in your back pocket as this might get spendy in a hurry. Just thinking drilling out the snapped bolts, possibly threading, or replacing the rims.....

C

 

Thanks Catman, I'll give Lepsons a call.

I'll be heading over to the original company tomorrow to retrieve my center caps and express my strong dissatisfaction with their work.

I will be requesting a refund for the work as well.

When you say take it up with them... I don't want these cowboys anywhere near my car now. Do I need to let them have a chance to rectify for the legal route?

I imagine I will need to log a small claims proceeding as the alloys may be scrap now if no one else is willing to touch them.

 

Fully appreciate your feelings! I am no lawyer but I think, under UK law, you will be pretty much obliged to allow them the chance to rectify the situation. After all you *might* go to the boss, and he immediately turns around and offers you new wheels. Agreed it's not *hugely* likely.

My (very personal opinion) would be to explain you're not at all happy, and to suggest what you think is a reasonable solution, see how they respond.

Obviously they may counter propose, but you may find it acceptable.

Some kind of negotiated settlement is always likely to make you happier, but the small claims court will also be an option.

Total nightmare, though. I feel for you!

C

 

Sadly this is likely to be a consequence of there having been no anti seize compound added to the bolts when they were fitted sixteen years ago.

The combination of damp and salt has exacerbated the dissimilar metal corrosion between the steel of the bolts and the alloy of the wheel to the point where the bolts will be impossible to extract.

This typifies the type of corner cutting which would once have been anathema to Bentley, but comes naturally to VW. I have suffered exactly the same problem on multiple fasteners that were fitted 'dry' when the car was built, most recently on the M8 bolt that secures the main earth cable to the front of the block. That bolt was not only fitted dry but the tapped boss which receives the bolt is downward facing, and is not blind, meaning that there is a nice hole into which moisture can penetrate to aid the corrosion process.

Not that any of this in any way excuses the poor workmanship and attempted cover up of the damage by your wheel 'refurb' company.

Good luck with seeking redress.

 

Have just notice in IETIS the following:



“Warning:

Under no circumstances should an optional two piece wheel assembly be separated, or the Allen setscrews disturbed around the outer profile of the wheel.”

 

Well that seems unusual. I believe under normal circumstances split rims are disassembled for refurbishment.

C

 

Agreed, hence my post earlier this week suggesting drilling out old bolts etc.

It was because of my surprise that I felt it worthy of posting verbatim from IETIS.

In the light of that information, if the OP were to have an accident then he might have some explaining to do...

 

That's an interesting find Dark Green and certainly understandable as I am sure Bentley wouldn't have wanted any repercussions following a technician disturbing the fasteners.

I am no longer driving the car as I do not believe it is safe with the noises coming from the wheels.

I have spoken with the refurbishers today and I didn't really get anywhere other than them wanting me to bring the car to them so that they could have a second attempt.

I asked the question: 'Do you have the correct equipment in your workshop to rectify these issues?' To which I was assured they did!

I then asked 'well if you have this equipment why did you not use it the first time and do the job correctly?' to which the 'technician' did not have an answer.

I stated that I wasnt going to drive the car to them due to not knowing the status of the wheels but I was happy for them to send someone out to assess what had been done.

I also told them that at this point I consider the wheels to be scrap and the only suitable recourse would be for them to either supply a new set of replacement alloys or I could obtain quotes for the cost of like for like replacements. I was told by the technician 'I am not able to authorise that'

I asked that he spoke to whoever did have authority and suggest they give me a call.

Since then I've been out and took photographs and video of all the issues and put in all in an email to them as well as printing everything off and sending to their premises by special delivery.

I just happened to check in the boot to make sure they have put my locking wheel nut key back and I found that my Bentley screwdriver and handle are no longer present within the tool kit. Both items were present before the car went to them as I had checked I had the locking wheel nut key before dropping the car off.

I have a feeling this will have to go to small claims court to be sorted out so any advice to that effect would be appreciated as I have never had to use this service before.

Many thanks,
Lewis

 

Before you can issue a claim using Money Claim On Line (i.e. the electronic portal where small claims are lodged) you must send what is known as a Letter Before Action to the Company stating what you think that they have done wrong, and what you expect them to do about it, and by when. In this case replace the wheels which they have irreparably damaged by ignoring Bentley's guidelines. (I will try to PM you a copy of the Bentley instruction straight from the manual)

Personally I would send this letter to the Company's Registered Office, with a copy to their local branch, by Recorded Delivery.

You should also, whilst it is fresh in your mind, write down everything that has been discussed by whom and when.

If it comes to court the fact that you can reel off the precise details will/should act to your advantage - and it is highly unlikely the technician will have done the same.

There's lots of good advice about the Small Claims process, and the Citizens Advice Bureau will also help, I'm sure.

 

This is excellent and clear advice.

C

 

Thanks for your excellent advice Dark Green 👍

I will await a reponse to my complaint email / letter next week and should this be unsatisfactory should I then send the aforementioned letter before action?

I have contacted an independent assessor today whom I intend to have inspect the work and provide a written report which I assume should be forwarded to the company in question as well as being used to support claim that may arise?

I have made detailed notes of dates and people I have spoken with so far as well as taking plenty of pictures and video so I will keep this all together in a file.

I will also contact the CAB on Monday for advise as you suggest.

Many thanks,
Lewis

 

The bolts are single use as well .
A reputable refurber if they went down the disassembly route should replace them with new and use a suitable thread lock .

There are many split rims about totally successfully disassembled, re painted and successfully correctly reassembled.
Inc Lepsons one ( but not exclusively) of the U.K. s leading wheel refurbishment set ups .

It does sound , sorry for being critical that you went to a place looking for them to be done on the cheap .

Alarm bells would have rung in my head if there was no discussion on the bolt replacement side .From memory they vary from £10 to £30 each for titanium.

As far as censure and head snapping off yes that’s a real risk and once again there should have been a discussion in terms of extra time to drill out the old , re tap etc etc .Same with “ out of round “ of the rims .
The very process of removing and refitting a normal tyre say a 10 y old car that’s had 3/4 sets will have slightly out of round rims .
There is a current thread on here about a B dealer picking up on “ bent “ - in the U.K. we say “ buckled “ wheels .
My U.K. B dealer says 90 % of the B trade ins have at least 1 buckled wheel .
Whilst the rims are split they can be re rounded for again additional time circa £30 ......all of the above assuming the technicians have the kit and knowledge and time to phaff on , or you are prepared to fund that time ?

I change winter tyres/ summer so my wheels get a hammering at the tyre fitters 2 x year as the swops are done .
Once I heard ( about a week before a swop ) a ticking noise .At the tyre shop with split rims once the tyre is off they drop the whole wheel from about a foot hight on a sand bag, turning it a few times so all of it gets a hit .
Sure enough they detected a slight rattle in one position.
A loose bolt ! This one loose bolt was enough to cause the ticking noise .

But and it’s a big but after identifying the said bolt they would not touch it .
High line = new wheel
Second option = they give me the tool + thread lock and ask me to remove it and reset it .= reason they do not want responsibility for knackering anything.Clever chaps no ?

So I did it removed 1 re fitted and tightened up the adjacent .A couple of adjacent s were stiff to fully extract and with the tech watching “ careful it might snap “:I just re tightened .

That was a one off three bolts on one wheel and it’s been fine + the tick dissapeared.

Remember they get the sand bag test 2x year as the tyres are swapped over .

Basically split rim maintenance and longevity is a nightmare.

Sounds here with the op as if some bozos that do not know what are doing have molested his wheels .

 

Did you miss the quote from Bentley's statement in IETIS "Warning: Under no circumstances should an optional two piece wheel assembly be separated, or the Allen setscrews disturbed around the outer profile of the wheel.” ?

It seems unequivocal, does it not?

Perhaps you are able to provide a statement from the DA that updates their original advice?

I wonder whether Lepsons would be keen to undertake work that is forbidden by the car's DA, and whether their insurers would be keen for them to do so?

 

Nope .
The plaintive will wheel out an expert in the field stating something along the lines of if done correctly with new bolts and trained techs etc etc it’s perfectly within the bounds of safety to dismantle and re assemble split rims .Indeed that’s the whole raison d etre of the “ split “ to enable different size rims on the same hubs , with appropriate different tyre sizes .A hark back to sports car track racing days .

Another one the rear brake light .....do you really have to remove ( trashing ) the rear screen ? Are insurers bothered it was fixed in a none IETIS way .
In court it will boil down to acceptable practice .

A cracked bumper .repair with filler or replace .
The op will have to prove the general practice of disassembly / re build is bad .
It is not if done correctly, which it appears to be the case .
There will no one who advocates re using once only bolts nether mind epoxied heads back on .So the plaintiffs team will look for an out of court settlement as inevitably they will loose .All assuming they did indeed offer new bolts and the op refused .We don’t know .