Puncture and fitting the spare.

[Method7]

I had a little adventure last night. 30 miles in to my exit from Cornwall at about midnight the dash popped up the tyre defect warning whilst cruising at 70mph. The OSR was showing low, I thought it might just be low so keep an eye on it and see. The pressure was dropping rapidly so I backed off and checked the map for the next services. Fortunately just round the corner...

So I pulled over on at the Esso on Bodmin moor, jumped out and it was hissing quite loudly.. so I found a nice well lit spot to park and set about changing the wheel. I’ve not had to do this much in the past, just once I think on a Metro. Anyway it’s not a job anyone would choose to do, counting my blessings, it’s a warm and dry evening, the light is ok and I’m on good ground with a slight slope facing down hill but it’s the best I could get.

We carry chocks so my first job was to chock the front wheels, I dug out the tools, and set to work having to re-adjust the jack after I was so careful to make sure it was level.. the tool kit is great, it all worked well, no scraped knuckles, had some fun finding the access point to winch down the spare, I never read the hand book . But done-and-dusted in ~30min, with the flat back under.

A few things to note and the point of this post really.

1. remove the key from the ignition or at least put the handbrake on - I completely overlooked this and assumed the free play in the rear wheel was just how it is, never even thought to check as far as I was concerned the handbrake was on.

2. Be very carefull when opening the rear sliding doors, no issues here for me but I keep the wheel locking nut under the bed so had to get in the side to find it, tools can stick out..

3. When fitting the spare don’t use the locking wheel nut, use one of the standard nuts. This makes re-tightening the nuts with the short brace much easier and safer because the actual interface between tooling and nut is far more reliable.. I actually stood on the wheel brace to undo and tighten, then checked with my hands for a final time, a satisfying crack.

All in all I actually enjoyed it and I am beginning to feel that we (the van and I) are finally bonding. I love these unexpected events that happen on journeys and to top it off a young chap pulled up beside me and asked if I was ok and did I need a hand.

 

[Steve B]

Well done with that, not something you want to do when you are clean and going somewhere. Did you try the roadside services (AA/RAC)?

 

[Method7]

No, the end of half term driving out of Cornwall.. I would have been there hours/days. LoL I considered hitting the SOS button very briefly and thought this is the ideal situation to rehearse this.. learn the ropes, like I said it was off the road, warm, dry and well lit.. with coffee and cakes. Be cool and enjoy it.

 

[Samebutdifferent]

It would be very boring if everything went without a hitch and we didn't gain from experiences like this.

Only ever had to change a wheel at the road side once I can remember but twice now. Was doing about 135kph on a Autobahn in my T5 when I heard and felt a strange vibration/buzzing sound, thought it was where the Autobahn had changed from tarmac to concrete but felt very uneasy so slowed and pulled over in the next rest area.

I found the problem but could I break the seal between hub and wheel, tried kicking it with my heel, got out the camping mallet and set to work with that, but in the end it took the help of a massive German guy who came to assist with his equally large wife. He didn't speak English and my wife and I only a little German but when we had eventually removed the wheel he pointed at the hub and said "clean"

We found a tyre place and luckily was ok to fix. This was the offender:

 

[Grand Tourismo]

Nice post Method, thank you...can you assist and just tell me where the spare lowering/lifting adjuster is?
Also I hope you asked the nice young man to crawl around under the van repositioning the flat in the spare holder at the end!!?!

 

[Method7]

Nice post Method, thank you...can you assist and just tell me where the spare lowering/lifting adjuster is?
Also I hope you asked the nice young man to crawl around under the van repositioning the flat in the spare holder at the end!!?!

there is a rubber grommet tucked in the gap between the boot seal and the bumper, just right of centre and a long tool about 9” Allen key I think, that slides in and you can use the jack or wheel brace to lower/raise it... mine needed a little persuasion, I guess dirt gets in there and fouls the faces. one thing to note is that you need to pay good attention when refitting the lift T bar, it is closely engineered and can easily misalign and look crooked. Also the tyre as you raise it up, I guess if the car isn’t perfectly level it can catch on any number of chassis members or even the exhaust. So you do need to get down under there and check those things before driving off.

 

[Method7]

Yes SBD I completely agree... and I think the MP is likely to suffer the same kind of corrosion, the locating flange is very closely engineered, add age, some salt and maybe some electrolytic corrosion and I would imaging a good struggle removing those wheels. Also with the spare fitted the axel wheel bearing lock nut is completely exposed. So you wouldn’t want to leave like that for long.

 

[Method7]

I must have hit a bottle bottom or some such thing because the 9000 mile tyre is shot. Fortunately just had the mot and moved the scuffed off fronts to the rear, having a new pair of Conti’s fitted tomorrow, I will keep the good one for next time... that’s 4 tyres in three years - I’m beginning to doubt these 19” rubber bands. They might look good but there seems to be a very real cost.

 

[Samebutdifferent]

Yes SBD I completely agree... and I think the MP is likely to suffer the same kind of corrosion, the locating flange is very closely engineered, add age, some salt and maybe some electrolytic corrosion and I would imaging a good struggle removing those wheels. Also with the spare fitted the axel wheel bearing lock nut is completely exposed. So you wouldn’t want to leave like that for long.

Two dissimilar metals corroding and ‘welding’ together. The T5 was only 5 yrs old. Btw I used my wife’s emery board to clean off the corrosion

 

[Grand Tourismo]

Oxalic acid and be sure to wash it off when done...handy for cleaning up oak and all other manner of other tasks.

 

[Method7]

Oxalic acid and be sure to wash it off when done...handy for cleaning up oak and all other manner of other tasks.

For me, a wire brush and very thin smear of copper slip for pretty much any exposed, mixed and single metal task like that.

I had a lecturer at collage who had this “magic cream” he was trying to flog on campus, his demo was to dip some tarnished copper or pretty much any tarnished metal, pull it out nice and shiny then dip a finger in and eat the product. He said it was made from vegetables. We never knew what it was but I later came to the conclusion it was some sort of Oxalic acid based product.

 

[Method7]

New boots on the back and a spare in the garage, looking at the tyre wear in general they all look to be wearing as if they were under inflated, the pressures have been fairly constant during the past three years at 270 kpa since we have a Horizon I thought this would be about right at the lower end of the load range stated. Decided to up them quite a lot, set them all to 45psi on my pressure gauge reading 300 kpa on the dash (give or take 5kpa). I’m going to see how they go from there and to be honest the tyres actually look better on the road, much less of a bulge.. at least she’ll roll better, maybe save on fuel too..