“Road wheel slightly distorted” MOT advisory
 

How concerned would you be about having this flagged on a MOT? I’m trying to gauge whether this is a minute amount of distortion that’s not going to noticeable in any practical way, or a seriously weakened wheel that’s going to detrimentally affect how the car drives.

Has anyone had this advisory and had to replace a wheel/ignored it for years without any issues?

Thanks.

I would be concerned. Surely it must be quite bad to get noticed? Have you not suffered vibration issues? But on the other hand it only got an advisory mention so the tester can't think that it's about to fail catastrophically!

What is stopping You taking the wheel off and having a Look for yourself?
asking on a forum ,, without Any pictures of said wheel and "slight distortion" ,, similar to asking us if we know what colour your socks were last tuesday,,,
if you want help your going to have to put Some effort in,,

Why not take it to your trusted tyre fitting establishment and ask them to check it.
Many years ago when I was still very inexperienced at this car maintenance stuff I had a vibration issue. A tyre fitter eventually traced the sojrce of the vibration. One of the road wheels was very slightly out of true. Not obvious when being spun whilst on the car but could be seen when spun on the wheel balance rig. The structure of the wheel was found to be sound but it was definitely not true.
On the other hand, last year I left two of my 940’s original steel road wheels to be blasted clean and powder coated prior to having new tyres fitted. Once blasted it was obvious that one of them was so badly corroded around the rim that it was scrap. The other was quite acceptable and re-useable.

Harsh but fair!

Depends how they test them. If it’s by a machine with tiny tolerances that’s one thing, if it’s by eye that’s quite different. I’m not sure how MOT testers assess this...

The car isn’t vibration-free, but not sure how much of that is down to having ancient tyres - included mismatched rears - on it that I can’t wait to get rid of.

Have just bought the car, so just prioritising what to do first.

Had this advised by one of our guys when my S60 was running on its original Tethys alloys. The distortion was only noticeable on the inside of the wheels when you span them. The inner rim gets slight flat spots on them from going over speed bumps / hitting potholes.

On mine it was difficult to see, and I had no idea that were like it, it didn't affect the driving of the car.

Apparently if the tester happens to spot it, they have to advise on it.

I’m not asking for a diagnosis, I’m simply asking for thoughts from people who might have experienced something similar with a similar car. For all I know certain Volvos may have a reputation for buckling certain wheels and it’d be useful to know that.

If you don’t want to spend your time writing something in response to me that’s not a problem, but there’s no need to write something antagonistic for the sake of it. It doesn’t help you or me.

I didn’t post any pictures as I’m not expecting anyone to diagnose whether there’s an issue with my car. I’m asking whether many people have had this advisory on an MOT, as I’ve never seen this on a MOT for any of my previous cars. Hence why I’m starting to look into it.

I've never comes across an advisory like that before on any car I've owned. A quick search through Google seems to suggest that this is mentioned when the alloy is cracked, buckled/has flat spots.

Is there any chance you could take the car back to the place that MOT'd it, assuming its been done recently & maybe the tester could explain it in more detail?

I wouldn't ignore it. Its something that needs to be looked at... you probably need a new alloy, or buy a second hand one as a replacement (in good condition).

I suspect the alloy is causing a lot of the vibration, but mismatched/ancient tyres won't help that either. Make sure you get the tyres balanced too.

Thanks. That makes sense. It sounds like one of those things that could be pretty minor and flagged by an overzealous tester, or potentially a bigger issue.

I’m always perplexed by the ‘Engine covers and undertrays fitted’ advisory. Pretty much all modern cars have engine covers and undertrays from the factory, and I imagine no one is adding on aftermarket ones, so why would it be an advisory...?