“Road wheel slightly distorted” MOT advisory

[MGSheff]

I've never had a wheel distortion advisory and I've never had any of my friends mention it on their cars.
You have no reason to suspect the tester is incorrect.

I would definitely be concerned.
Your next step will be to gauge whether it is a slight distortion or something more serious.
Is it a front wheel or a rear wheel? Is the wheel in danger of disintegrating or deflating while driving at speed?
That will inform your next course of action.
Take care and stay safe.

[Kev0607]

Originally Posted by Volbo

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...?

Its simply to cover the testers back. If he/she states that something is obscuring other parts (like a cover), then he/she is effectively saying that the parts under that cover haven't been checked because the parts were blocked from view.

If a part under that tray fails in due course or just after the MOT, he/she can't be blamed because the parts weren't inspected in the first place.

Trays/covers aren't allowed to be removed by the tester during an MOT either.

Some garages will give an advisory for undertrays/covers, some don't.

[XC90Mk1]

The wheel is not badly out of true, if it were you would have no chance of balancing it and would be getting vibration in the car. Especially if you had it on the front.

I would find a replacement from a reputable supplier and fit it when you next have tyres.

[360beast]

If the wheel is distorted and not balanced properly it will put extra strain on the wheel bearing and wear it out prematurely. So it all depends on how bad the wheel actually is, if it is just a few scrapes on an edge then I would just get it balanced again or if they are quite bad then refurbished.

Advisories for trays as previously mentioned are to cover the testers back, if the car is in an accident and it is found to be due to a faulty component that should have been picked up on then the tester is liable.

[Volbo]

Originally Posted by MGSheff

I've never had a wheel distortion advisory and I've never had any of my friends mention it on their cars.
You have no reason to suspect the tester is incorrect.

I would definitely be concerned.
Your next step will be to gauge whether it is a slight distortion or something more serious.
Is it a front wheel or a rear wheel? Is the wheel in danger of disintegrating or deflating while driving at speed?
That will inform your next course of action.
Take care and stay safe.

Thanks. I wasn’t suggesting it was incorrect, just that the advisory could cover a variety of issues from very minor to something more serious, depending on the MOT tester, so it’s definitely worth investigating. It’s the nearside rear.

[Volbo]

Originally Posted by Kev0607

Its simply to cover the testers back. If he/she states that something is obscuring other parts (like a cover), then he/she is effectively saying that the parts under that cover haven't been checked because the parts were blocked from view.

If a part under that tray fails in due course or just after the MOT, he/she can't be blamed because the parts weren't inspected in the first place.

Trays/covers aren't allowed to be removed by the tester during an MOT either.

Some garages will give an advisory for undertrays/covers, some don't.

Ah, that makes sense. It’s a bit of a concern if MOT testers effectively say ‘Don’t know, guv’ so often. I thought the purpose of the MOT was to confirm the roadworthiness of the car, not just have a vague stab at it!

Still, I suppose they also flag if child seats were fitted, implying they couldn’t check other things around them - seatbelts, presumably - which no doubt is down to the risk of a child seat being incorrectly refitted, a child subsequently being injured and a big lawsuit ensuing...

[Volbo]

Originally Posted by XC90Mk1

The wheel is not badly out of true, if it were you would have no chance of balancing it and would be getting vibration in the car. Especially if you had it on the front.

I would find a replacement from a reputable supplier and fit it when you next have tyres.

Yes, that’s the plan. Need to change all four tyres, so have to get on top of this.

Are there any particularly good places to look for a single wheel? I’ve been keeping an eye on eBay and Gumtree, but I suppose Facebook is another option. You can never be sure that a used wheel is completely straight and true, though.

Anywhere reasonably priced for a new/refurbed Volvo wheel that anyone here has used, to avoid the ‘new’ used one being distorted, too? I’ve only found one refurbished individual wheel, and that’s £140, which seems a bit pricey to me. Thanks.

[Volbo]

Originally Posted by 360beast

If the wheel is distorted and not balanced properly it will put extra strain on the wheel bearing and wear it out prematurely. So it all depends on how bad the wheel actually is, if it is just a few scrapes on an edge then I would just get it balanced again or if they are quite bad then refurbished.

Advisories for trays as previously mentioned are to cover the testers back, if the car is in an accident and it is found to be due to a faulty component that should have been picked up on then the tester is liable.

Yes. Will find somewhere to give it a proper check to establish what needs to be done. In theory any MOT tester should be able to gauge how bad it is, but maybe a wheel/tyre place is more equipped to check it thoroughly.

Would a refurb address wheel distortion? I would have thought distortion is either minor enough not to cause issues or serious enough that the wheel needs to be binned...

[pinballdave]

Originally Posted by Volbo

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.

There are a lot of different Volvos, many of them are not at all similar. Without telling us which one you have, we are going to have difficulty knowing if our Volvo is similar to yours. Or whether you have an issue with a steel wheel or an alloy wheel.

While most of us are quite happy to offer advice, but if we think there's a good chance that might be wasting our time, then you're not going to get as many replies (including from people who may have the same model as you). If we've got to search your previous posts to find out what model you have, and whether our reply would be relevant, then some of us are simply not going to bother.

Having said that I own a P1 C70, and the alloy wheels on these and the similar C30,S40,V50 models do appear to suffer from buckling and distortion issues. The previous owner had both nearside alloys 'refurbished' due to kerbing distortion. The front one was OK, the rear still needed a huge amount of stick on weights to balance it up.

At it's first MOT, I'd already purchased a replacement wheel and asked the MOT garage to fit it along with a new tyre. They ran the car through the test with the old wheel on it and sure enough I got a 'Nearside Rear Road wheel slightly distorted', It also caused an issue with the brake test and got a 'Nearside Rear Service brake fluctuating, but not excessively' to go along with it. Both issues went away when the wheel was replaced.

Originally Posted by 360beast

If the wheel is distorted and not balanced properly it will put extra strain on the wheel bearing and wear it out prematurely.

This is a good point. This years MOT has an advisory for the 'Nearside Rear Wheel bearing slightly noisy', and I suspect it may be due to the distorted wheel.

[Volbo]

Originally Posted by pinballdave

There are a lot of different Volvos, many of them are not at all similar. Without telling us which one you have, we are going to have difficulty knowing if our Volvo is similar to yours. Or whether you have an issue with a steel wheel or an alloy wheel.

While most of us are quite happy to offer advice, but if we think there's a good chance that might be wasting our time, then you're not going to get as many replies (including from people who may have the same model as you). If we've got to search your previous posts to find out what model you have, and whether our reply would be relevant, then some of us are simply not going to bother.

Having said that I own a P1 C70, and the alloy wheels on these and the similar C30,S40,V50 models do appear to suffer from buckling and distortion issues. The previous owner had both nearside alloys 'refurbished' due to kerbing distortion. The front one was OK, the rear still needed a huge amount of stick on weights to balance it up.

At it's first MOT, I'd already purchased a replacement wheel and asked the MOT garage to fit it along with a new tyre. They ran the car through the test with the old wheel on it and sure enough I got a 'Nearside Rear Road wheel slightly distorted', It also caused an issue with the brake test and got a 'Nearside Rear Service brake fluctuating, but not excessively' to go along with it. Both issues went away when the wheel was replaced.

Thanks for your response. I completely understand what you’re saying. I was wary of providing all the information and appearing to be asking for a mechanical diagnosis, which no one can do from a couple of pics. However, I could have given more info at the start.

The car is a 2006 V70 2.5T SE with 17-inch Orpheus alloys. It has 118k on it and has had slight distortion flagged on the nearside rear in January 21 and July 20 MOTs. The nearside front was flagged in July 19 and nearside rear in July 18.

It sounds like it’s just one distorted wheel that has been swapped between axles - presumably to eke out the most life from the tyres.

My gut feeling is that it’s worth getting another wheel. I just have to make sure that whatever I get has no distortion issues of its own.