Broken Wheel GTD

[Dave the Cat]

I was driving South bound on the M1 today in glorious sunshine at about 16:30 just before Newport Pagnall when i heard a wallop, looking in my rear view mirror there was a lump of something in the road about the size of a packet of 20 fags, i can only assume it was a chunk of metal?

Under breaking the car felt momentarily unstable and the traction light briefly came on followed by the tyre warning, fortunately the entry slip to the services was about 200 yards in front of me. I pulled in expecting a front puncture but it was the back drivers side. I consoled myself that i was not on the hard shoulder, it was not dark or raining, rolled my sleeves up and proceeded to put the donut on. On removing the wheel, lets just say i was slightly shocked to see the extent of damage to the inner rim!

I rang my local VW dealer in Little Chalfont and spoke to Drew, who very understandingly took my details and he hopes to have to a new wheel and tyre ready for Thursday 

Trying to take the positives; at least VW did not fit run flats as i would have been completely buggered, and by the time i had limped home at 50mph (speed limiter set) i had achieved a new personal record breaking 67mpg!

[Ginge 35Edition]

Wow, it beggers belief that this can happen nowadays. So that's you and the R driver in Oz, hope VW are taking notice?

[wardtowers]

Unlucky mate, not many things are going to survive hitting blocks of metal at 70 (odd  ) miles an hour..

[GTD184]

Wow, it beggers belief that this can happen nowadays. So that's you and the R driver in Oz, hope VW are taking notice?

Surprisingly on both incidents it is the 18" wheel. There was a post on the Golf 7 forum recently where a 19" Santiago was buckled, although that appears to have been the result of the owner hitting a speed bump too fast.

Most stories doing the rounds on the internet about faulty wheels relate to 19" wheels in particular BMW! So to hear about 2 VW 18" wheels is quite worrying!

[Talk-torque]

Let's be clear here, VW cannot be blamed for this damage. As above, hit something solid at high speed and there will be significant results. What happened to the OP's car after the event probably owes a lot to the fact that the wheel largely held together, as well as the inherent stability of the car. This could have been a lot worse!

[Skinnee D]

Wow, it beggers belief that this can happen nowadays. So that's you and the R driver in Oz, hope VW are taking notice?

Surprisingly on both incidents it is the 18" wheel. There was a post on the Golf 7 forum recently where a 19" Santiago was buckled, although that appears to have been the result of the owner hitting a speed bump too fast.

Most stories doing the rounds on the internet about faulty wheels relate to 19" wheels in particular BMW! So to hear about 2 VW 18" wheels is quite worrying!

I thought that the shattered Oz wheel was a 19" version that's not available in the UK, but whatever - makes me even less enthusiastic for my elastic bands for tyres that offer jack sh1t wheel protection.  Bad luck Dave - hope VW come up with goods quickly for you.  My dealer got a replacement GTD wheel in next day for a warranty job so it should be a standard stock item.

[mcmaddy]

Standard stock item  Everything is ordered overnight or two days lead time now. They order on demand and keep very little in stock.

[mike.]

It's amazing your front rim is not damaged as it probably hit the object first 

[corgi]

Surprisingly on both incidents it is the 18" wheel. There was a post on the Golf 7 forum recently where a 19" Santiago was buckled, although that appears to have been the result of the owner hitting a speed bump too fast.

Most stories doing the rounds on the internet about faulty wheels relate to 19" wheels in particular BMW! So to hear about 2 VW 18" wheels is quite worrying!

I don't think it is worrying at all, it is obvious from the pictures that the wheel has been subject to significant external force.

For the failures mentioned on this page (the Golf R/the Santiago etc.) there is no proof at all that the failure was down to a manufacturing or design fault. It is far more likely that all of them were as the result of some sort of external damage.

It may be fair to say that larger rim sizes and lower profile tyres make this sort of damage more likely than in the past but the market has demanded these changes...

Jumping to conclusions and scaremongering don't help here... but it is worth checking for unseen damage if you hit something or fall into a pot hole with a wheel...

[davyk31]

Why does the OP say he would have been buggered had the car been on runflats? Surely they would actually have improved the situation as he could have driven on then made repair at a safe and convenient location.