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Need advice. Hit pot hole bent FR wheel

krussel

krussel

Active Member
Oct 31, 2008
1,713
2
Hertforshire
Hi guys and girls i need some help.

Driving home from work on sat i hit a pot hole whilst pulling off the A414 to get fuel. It was a big hole which i struck at around 50 mph and i thought i had blown the tyre :censored:
I had a quick look on the garage forcourt but the tyre was ok. I checked the tyre pressure sunday morning and it had not lost air.

I did not use the car over the weekend and i had a day off on monday so just did a short local trip in town. Coming home from work today down the A414 i noticed a slight wobble on the steering at 60+ mph. :(

I drove straight to my local tyre shop (on the way home) and they placed the wheel on the balance machine and its got a real bad FLAT SPOT. It looked really bad you could see it wobble all over the place :cry: They have managed to get it to balance with loads of weights but recon the wheel is fooked :censored:

OK so anyone know how i go about making a claim from the highways and maintenace or council etc for a new wheel which must set me back £300 +. I assume the first thing i need to do is take photo's of the hole so they cant fill it in.

As you can imagine iam pretty pissed at this but thank god i was not on a bike because i recon i would be typing this in hospital.
 
You might be able to get it sorted at a wheel specialist. Ross (rf860) got his sorted for £30? after he hit a pothole... Worth a try!

Regarding the claim, I think you need to check if its reported first (Or get a mate to do it, then you call them the following day and file your complaint) Then they will send you out all the forms. You will need to get a dated picture, something showing how bad the hole is (depth etc) then pictures of the damaged wheel and send it all to them. I think you might need a quote on a repair - or new alloy if it's on them - too :)
 
mick-fr said:
You might be able to get it sorted at a wheel specialist. Ross (rf860) got his sorted for £30? after he hit a pothole... Worth a try!

Regarding the claim, I think you need to check if its reported first (Or get a mate to do it, then you call them the following day and file your complaint) Then they will send you out all the forms. You will need to get a dated picture, something showing how bad the hole is (depth etc) then pictures of the damaged wheel and send it all to them. I think you might need a quote on a repair - or new alloy if it's on them - too :)
Click to expand...

Yeah got it sorted for £30.

Here's what mine looked like

IMAG0085.jpg


As for phoning the day after you get somebody to report the pothole, i was told to wait a week by the lady at the council (yes she actually told me to get somebody to phone up ha ha).
 
rf860 said:
Yeah got it sorted for £30.

Here's what mine looked like

IMAG0085.jpg


As for phoning the day after you get somebody to report the pothole, i was told to wait a week by the lady at the council (yes she actually told me to get somebody to phone up ha ha).
Click to expand...

That would give them a chance to sort it though and your claim would be invalid :p
 
if you end up buying or selling alloys I would be interested in 1 standard FR colour :) lol

definitely make a claim from the council :)
 
Thanks for the replies.

Iam deffo going to try a claim for a new wheel and tyre, although i dont hold out much hope to be honest. My wheel is nothing as bad as the picture above as you cannot notice it untill you spin the wheel at speed then its easy to spot. The tyre shop said they would be willing to put down in writing that they have inspected the wheel and noticed the damage.

It s balanced now so iam assuming its ok to carry on :confused:

They did say that they can be heated and straightened out so i might have to go down that route if i get no joy.

My next job will be to really go early on sat morning to take the pictures as its a busy road and could be dangerous during the day. I will post the pics of the hole when ive taken them.
 
Last edited:
take a pic with date on it, also put a ruler or something else in the hole to show the depth aswell. Also pics of your wheel wouldnt hurt. Basically get as much info as possible then get on to your local council, not highways agency. Each council has funds for pot hole claims lol, that would be better spent on actually making better roads rather than tar and chippings !!! GGRRRRRRRRRR i hate that..
 
Stiglet said:
take a pic with date on it, also put a ruler or something else in the hole to show the depth aswell. Also pics of your wheel wouldnt hurt. Basically get as much info as possible then get on to your local council, not highways agency. Each council has funds for pot hole claims lol, that would be better spent on actually making better roads rather than tar and chippings !!! GGRRRRRRRRRR i hate that..
Click to expand...


Yeah i will get the pics of the hole. I need to go back and look at it but ive a bad feeling its near the entrance to a farm or something. It was very busy on sat and i was doing about 65mph so pulled over well early to reduce speed for the garage. Made a hell of a bang. Next its going to be the steering rack :cry:

Guess the council is the place to start. :confused:
 
krussel said:
Thanks for the replies.

Iam deffo going to try a claim for a new wheel and tyre, although i dont hold out much hope to be honest. My wheel is nothing as bad as the picture above as you cannot notice it untill you spin the wheel at speed then its easy to spot. The tyre shop said they would be willing to put down in writing that they have inspected the wheel and noticed the damage.

It s balanced now so iam assuming its ok to carry on :confused:

They did say that they can be heated and straightened out so i might have to go down that route if i get no joy.

My next job will be to really go early on sat morning to take the pictures as its a busy road and could be dangerous during the day. I will post the pics of the hole when ive taken them.
Click to expand...

i would just get it heated and straightened out, the place that done mine specialise in metals/alloy wheels and said that the part they heated would actually be stronger than the rest of the alloy due to the way it was heated and cooled down (this is true, i learned it in product design classes ha ha). I got mine for £30, can't grumble about that tbh.
 
I would gladly pay £30 to have a straight wheel again :)

Trouble is ive kind of found that in the past when ive got real prices for things like this it always costs shed loads, dunno why, but bodywork repairs the same as i got a dent in my Polo door and everyone said it should cost about £100 but it came out at £625 :think:

I think i may phone the tyre shop and ask if they have a number for the place they spoke about. Think they said it was Brooks or something ?
 
make the calim from the council but what you'll need is evidence.

go back to the pothole try and get some kind of photo to show the size because if its not over a certain depth and width you wont be able to make a claim, i fell victim of this myself with Bedford council, even tho they had over 15 people claim they didnt pay out as i had no proof
 
very similar situation to me...except I cracked and buckled two of mine...the cracked one is totally F'ed but the buckled one is salvageable...havnet got round to fixing it though...
 
Good luck with the claim - I did the same in a pothole while driving into a layby, but the council denied responsibility, saying the layby was not 'official', and must have been formed by vehicles pulling off the road, perhaps helped by the nearby farmer to ease his access. It was a load of rubbish (the excuse that is) there was several inches of hardcore with a topping of hoggin. I tried to insist, but they wouldn't budge, and meantime, the hole was miraculously filled! Thanks, Dorset County Council!!!
Ross, rf860, your job was a real bargain - hope I can find somewhere similar if there is a next time!
 
Yeah told a few people at work today and they all recon ive got very little chance of getting the cost of a new wheel. Esp as its balanced and drivable. :(

I am going to look on line to see if i can get an idea of the cost to take the flat spot out.
 
Ok just to conclude this :D

I went to my local tyre shop and they told me to bring the wheel in and a mobile would come to them to have a look and give a price.

I took off the wheel and cleaned it up so i could have a good look myself and to be honest i could not see any rim damage. (see pic )

frwheel.jpg
[/URL][/IMG]

So i went back to the tyre shop and waited for the mobile. He cant have much work on as he was there in 10 mins. He took the wheel and placed it on the balance machine where you could see the distortion as it revolved but it was still in perfect balance.

He was very honest and said that he could only return a wheel to the point where it could be balanced out and as mine was balanced ok there was prob not a lot he could do. He cont to say that he would need to heat the wheel and prob only give it one tap but he doubted that it would come out much better than it was. He said that the only way to get a totally 100% straight wheel was to buy a new one.

He asked if i had any wheel wobble but i had not driven the car at any speed since it was balanced and even before that it was only very slight at 60 mph. He advised to drive the car at various speeds to check and if it wobbbled he could attempt a repair which would cost £60. Other than that he said it would be fine but perhaps i should put it on the back if it bothered me.

So i drove up and down a section of a local bypass at 50,60,70,80 mph and then a fair bit more and the steering wheel was steady as a rock. Wish i could say the same about the wind noise at the highest speed.

So thats about it really. I know that the wheel is not perfectly true but it seems ok so i will just live with it and move on. As my partner said you will prob hit another hole in the winter if we get snow, nice :blink:
 
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