2008 Albi 197
Apologies now for the long post!
Have had a slight vibration through the steering wheel at speed so popped it into my local garage today to get the tracking and balancing looked at hoping that would solve it.
An hour later I get a phone call to tell me that my offside front wheel has a flat spot and I basically need a new wheel. I didn't really understand what that meant at this point and was at work so I told them not to do any work and I'd fetch my car after work and they could show me what was wrong.
I get to the garage and the chap on reception explains a bit more and says if I want a look for myself they'll get it up on the ramps for me to see.
First thing I thought was F*CK! The inner side of offside front wheel looked like it had been smacked with a sledgehammer, there was an obvious flat area which was causing the vibration (I wish I'd taken pics while it was up there but I never even thought about it).
Now this is where the plot thickens. The mechanic noticed that my car had 3 original Michelin tyres still on it which had about 1000 miles left on them, but my front nearside tyre was a Continental and had over twice the tread on it. He then had a look at the dates on the wheels and tyres and finds that its a year newer than the other 3 wheels - and its the only perfect wheel without a flat spot as we checked the back ones while I was there and they both have small areas of it
However, this has lead me to believe that this damage was there prior to me buying the car, and that they've repplaced the most seriously damaged wheel with a new one, because I've never done anything that would screw the wheels up like that, yet Renault have supposedly checked the car all over and sold it to me stating it was perfectly fine.
Can I challenge them on this now, and is 3 replacement alloys to much to ask for? Otherwise I'm going to have to eventually fork out for 3 new alloys!
Will try to get some photos tomorrow if i can.
Have had a slight vibration through the steering wheel at speed so popped it into my local garage today to get the tracking and balancing looked at hoping that would solve it.
An hour later I get a phone call to tell me that my offside front wheel has a flat spot and I basically need a new wheel. I didn't really understand what that meant at this point and was at work so I told them not to do any work and I'd fetch my car after work and they could show me what was wrong.
I get to the garage and the chap on reception explains a bit more and says if I want a look for myself they'll get it up on the ramps for me to see.
First thing I thought was F*CK! The inner side of offside front wheel looked like it had been smacked with a sledgehammer, there was an obvious flat area which was causing the vibration (I wish I'd taken pics while it was up there but I never even thought about it).
Now this is where the plot thickens. The mechanic noticed that my car had 3 original Michelin tyres still on it which had about 1000 miles left on them, but my front nearside tyre was a Continental and had over twice the tread on it. He then had a look at the dates on the wheels and tyres and finds that its a year newer than the other 3 wheels - and its the only perfect wheel without a flat spot as we checked the back ones while I was there and they both have small areas of it
However, this has lead me to believe that this damage was there prior to me buying the car, and that they've repplaced the most seriously damaged wheel with a new one, because I've never done anything that would screw the wheels up like that, yet Renault have supposedly checked the car all over and sold it to me stating it was perfectly fine.
Can I challenge them on this now, and is 3 replacement alloys to much to ask for? Otherwise I'm going to have to eventually fork out for 3 new alloys!
Will try to get some photos tomorrow if i can.
