Resurrection of my CQ20V

[Bowie69]

Yeah, so that is an improvement too, was just over 13 before, but now definitely 13.5V at idle, which is great.

Measured at the battery I used to always get 13.8V, and have done ever since I bought it 20 years ago, now with new reg I am at a nice steady 14V, which can only help a lot of stuff on the car, including a few more lumens from the headlamps.

[Bowie69]

....and so in some other not so good news, was on my way to my parents this afternoon, taking a very normal route at a very steady pace, to suddenly get the whole car thrown into the air, I come crashing down and coast to a stop wondering what on earth had happened.


Turns out this had happened:

20210623_152218.jpg 20210623_152212.jpg


Yes, those are my virtually brand new Goodyears, on my mint factory fresh Speedlines. I was a bit baffled, and a bit upset, but mostly stunned.


It happened on this innocuous little lane near me, that I have travelled probably a thousand times without issue. See if you can spot the offender:


20210623_152405.jpg

For those not blessed with x-ray vision this is what was hiding in the undergrowth, completely hidden from my view when in the car:


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That's a 3ft long sharp edged piece of Draycott stone, jutting out into the road

Owner of the house came out and explained it was the councils property, and has been trying to stop the verge from being driven on by trucks and the like -well thank you very much(!)

As it is council land, and he had notified them of the issues, they may well be liable, but won't sort out two damaged wheels and two tyres, and who know what has moved under the car -I have yet to have a chance to look.

So.... I am back in the Morris for the moment, I managed to limp the audi back to my parents a mile away on the spare, and another 10-spoke Speedlines spare which I had kicking about, with about 15 psi in it, which was about 4 by the time I got back (20 year old bald tyre!)

On the wheel front, any recommendations on getting these rims fixed to OE spec? i.e. lacquered polished aluminium rim.

Will keep you updated, apparently the council take 7 days to acknowledge a claim, and 40 to get back to you, so will see what can be done faster. Big sigh...

[John.]

Feeling your pain. Speedlines

[Bowie69]

Yeah, not happy, insurance claim submitted, hazard reported, now we wait. I'm hopeful the rims can be saved, they don't appear bent as such (to the naked eye), so maybe...

[steve briance]

What a wheel and tyre night mare.

My friendly tyre place did me a favour once and span up a set of wheels on their balancer with no tyre on. It was clear to see they ran straight, your tyres need to come off anyway so worth an ask. Once spinning It would be clear to the eye if its bent.

[Bowie69]

Yeah that's a good plan, have a friendly tyre place

[Bowie69]

I felt I had to return and apologise for the dirt on my wheels.

[John.]

I felt I had to return and apologise for the dirt on my wheels.

More dirt would hide the damage ?!

Assuming they're still straight, the rim damage would clean up I'm sure ....... they don't look too bad in the pictures? (I'd be F***ING gutted)

[newsh]

What a shame! Thats a nasty bit of rock
Your main problem with a claim is that the stone isn’t actually sticking out past the kerb line, the road is narrow there though with the undergrowth on the opposite side, were you forced over onto the verge by oncoming traffic?

[Bowie69]

Yes, very nasty.

It may not look it, but it is further out than the dropped kerb beyond, plus, the owner of the adjacent property said it was council, and that when they built the property 3.5 years ago he was due a visit to sort out the verge, the guy went on holiday, and then he never heard from them again(!) So... negligence? Probably, hopefully. No forcing me to go that close, was just being courteous to vehicles that were coming, but a good distance off, if you know what I mean? Definitely no panicked manoeuvre.

The verge looked quite different before the house was (re)built -was one of those bungalow gobbling exercises:

Screenshot 2021-06-26 at 21.54.07.jpg

[Bowie69]

So..... first consult on the wheels, news is not good

One is bent, not sure they can repair.

Both would need the fake bolts removing to cut them, and to refinish. They are not available, so would need to do the same to the other wheels, so that 4 or 5 wheels needing repair, at around £140 per wheel Inc vat, plus new fake bolts.

So around £700 all in for 5, plus probably £50 for bolts.

Added to that the deep valley between the outer lip and the fake bolts is too deep and narrow for the tool to get right to the bottom of it.

So essentially it would be a lot of money, but they can't do it anyway.

Will try another supplier and see what they say.

[John.]

Remind us again, you bought 5 new Speedlines() and these are what's on the car yes? What about trying to find another new one and just use a repaired one for spare?

.....and the council !? Is it likely they'll cough up?

[Bowie69]

Yep, 5 new speedlines from various German's garages, averaging ~£80 each which was a steal in my book.

Yes, good thoughts, thanks -I could use the repaired one as a spare, but the spare is the least good one with quite crazed lacquer, so would need some work as well.....

I would love to just buy two new ones and repair the less bent one so I have six wheels at hand, and I can pick whichever one I want However, it seems just about every numpty in Germany that is selling the wheels are refusing to ship to UK, even when offered an incentive over and above the shipping and cost of the wheel.

Some examples on ebay.de:

Rough: https://www.ebay.de/itm/184796111733...oAAOSwh-ZgiBNq

Minty (with the factory fit tyres, like my current spare): https://www.ebay.de/itm/255029258724...0AAOSwZ0VguK3g

Quite good, but some rim corrosion: https://www.ebay.de/itm/273858251526...QAAOSwJPZc5kPb

Reasonable set of 4: https://www.ebay.de/itm/402853817696...EAAOSwvCZgo8Nf

Corroded but resurectable: https://www.ebay.de/itm/273858252907...kAAOSwFtlc5kNY

Then a dream refurbished set(but missing the speedline bolts, as you would imagine): https://www.ebay.de/itm/114779183967...kAAOSwo6FggtWm

I used to be able to log in to ebay.de, but for some reason not any more.... so I can't even request a shipping quote on that last one, which looks like it could be as cost effective as refurbing the other 5.

None listed on ebay.co.uk at the moment, not even rough previously refurbed ones

[Bowie69]

Oh, and as for the council, they have at least responded, they have 40 days to give their verdict, we shall see..... Not sure what they can offer when the wheels are NLA. They have a right to go after the guy who put the rocks there under law, so may be that is an avenue they will pursue.

Oh, and in what I think is good news, there doesn't appear anything bent on the suspension, so looks like I got away with that at least

[John.]

Are you thinking buy another set and just get them redone so they're all the same?

Good to hear they're still out there and for sale, shame they won't ship them.