powder coated steel wheel came off!

[italianjob]

morning all

I had my standard steel wheel rims blasted and powder coated (on both the front and rear faces), fitted with new tyres and went off to sunny cornwall. On the way home we had a scarry experience as the F/N/S just about decided to goes its own way home - and was hanging on with only one bolt. No warning or anything, after some seriuos downhill / hairpin roads we heard a rumbling sound which got louder and then the van started to shudder so we pulled over into a farmers access - all this happened within the space of 30 seconds. Low speed, but could have been a lot worse.

Bolts were checked a week before we set off after approx 100 miles of driving - all thight. Hindsight being a wonderfull thing, I should have checked them periodically on the trip. 100 miles to ware the powder coated rims in was clearly not enough

Question - has powder coating my steel wheels rendered them dangerous? Will the powder coating affect how the wheel sits on the hub and how the nuts fix the rim to the hub? 6 years of driving the van with non-powder coated steel rims and not a problem until now

On a positve notes, the round trip from home to cornwall and back again was great, my van was brilliant and never skipped a beat , should have checked my nuts!

advice from others with powder coated steel rimes mucho appreciated

ta for now

[The Reverend Pimp Daddy]

Did you ask yourself.....Why has only one wheel come loose.....

Edited.....To say, thank god your all ok.

[windysurfer]

Just read a similar thread on T4 forum, looks like it may be down to the powder coating behind the bolts.

http://www.vwt4forum.co.uk/showthread.p ... rd+warning

[italianjob]

Thanks for the link windysurfer - sounds identical to my problem. They seem to be saying it would be a good idea to remove the powder coated from the wheel nut areas.

[California Dreamin]

What You Said ^^^^^ once the powder coating is removed (wheels have been on/off a couple of times) all will be fine.
Just make sure you use a torque wrench and tighten to 180NM
Also T25's rely heavily on those radialized ball seats to centralize the wheel, so...it is important to tighten the wheel bolts in the correct sequence (diagnally) see pic:
T25's are fairly unique in that the hubs don't have a circular flange locator for the centre bore hole to mount over, thats why the threads often don't line up with the wheel bolt holes.



Martin

[faggie]

i have run powdercoated rims for years and i have never had a wheel nut come loose. are you shure the rim is not buckled., is it balanced correctly

[italianjob]

morning

the tyre guy who fitted the wheels used the sticky type (normally used for alloys) of weights that stick on to the inside of the wheel rather than the normal weights which are hammered onto the outside of the rim. As mentioned in my post, i got no real warning until the wheel made a break for freedom.

how are your powder coated wheels ballanced?

[California Dreamin]

Well if the tyre fitter is doing his job right then he should be using stick-on weights, usually in two positions inside and out depending on the rim design....but his wheel ballance machine should have several settings for weight location.
The idea is that the customers wheels are not marked and and weights used don't detract from the wheels looks.

The difficulty arises when the wheels are in a state and the sponge backing doesn't stick very well to the wheel surface.
Also...when using knock-on weights you need to be particulary careful that nothing sticks out from the inside of the rim as T25 front suspension uprights run very close to the wheel rims and have been know to catch.


Martin