I got a flat last night and somehow appear to have damaged the back lip of the alloy wheel. The back lip, where the tyre wall fits appear to be bent outwards on a small area. My guess is in stopping it may have hit a bump in the road or something.

My question is what is my best course of action?
I've heard people straightening alloy rims themselves with a hammer and block of wood, I just wondered if anyone on here has any experience of straightening an alloy rim? As I said I think the distortion is minimal, but guess it needs to be straight for the new tyre to seal properly on the rim.
I've also heard of garages etc that offer alloy wheel refurbishment/repair, but don't know any locally.

I don't want to spend money as the new tyre will be £65 anyway! so am thinking of having a go at sorting it out myself, but dn't want to end up having to buy a new wheel as that'd be rather expensive!

Any helpful comments/suggetions appreciated..

Ned.

Hi Ned there are alloy wheel repairers in the yells.but they all need money
On a old set of alloys (reveloutions)on a mini years ago i just hammered it gentle like then used a tube inside
cheers Barrie

Thanks Barrie, at this stage I'd rather not put a tube in. it's a 15" rim that takes 195/55 tyres if that helps anyone..

Ned.

The fitter I use was knocking a ding out of one when I last went in. He used a nylon hammer and just belted it. Seemed to work o.k. for him.

Ive repaired a wheel with a block of wood and a hammer, works fine, just brace the wheel againsta a small ledge, and hit hard, be careful not to hit too hard though, not hard to bend the wrong way. Its a fairly easy task, just takes some time.

thanks,

I'll give it a go then, the alloy must be quite soft to have distorted in the first place, I'll be gentle with it

cheers,

Ned.

Ned,
If it's an edge then try the methods above. If it's a larger buckle then try using a large nylon hammer with a sandbag underneath to act as a deformable anvil. This helps to spread the loads a bit whilst still letting you re-form the wheel.

Final thing, give the wheel a light tap with a hammer or spanner (or whatever) while holding the wheel between finger and thumb and make sure it "rings" for a good few seconds. If it doesn't ring then it's probably cracked. You need the tyre off for this test by the way...

Cheers,
Craig.

Craig,

it's such a small distortion i'm sure it isn't cracked, i'll take a pic tonight to show the damage...

cheers again,

Ned.

Ned,
To be honest my comments were geared more towards someone else coming across this thread in future as it seemed clear that the damage you had was quite light.

I had a wheel buckled by 10mm on the tyre seat and 20mm on the edge of the wheel rim caused by a large pothole. I got it repaired purely for use as a spare as it was part of a set of 5. I think it cost about £20 to fix and I was quite surprised to see the guy beating the wheel over a sandbag... He did check alignment on a tyre balancer with a dial gauge and could also repair sideways buckling on a 100 Ton hydraulic press. I can't complain as I claimed off the local council and got over £200 off them. It took me about 6 months of letter writing but I got there in the end...

Cheers,
Craig.

Successfully managed to sort the wheel out last night. Also found the where the puncture is, right on the side wall of the tyre - new tyre it will be!

I started off with a rubber mallet which was useless, just bounced off with no weight behind it, then progressed to a normal household hammer which had a similar affect, but marked the rim a little. I then progressed to using the back face of a log splitter (similar to a sledge hammer) and with 3-4 very accurate and controlled knocks seems to have straightened it nicely. This was all done on the patio with the tyre still on the rim.

Pics below:

Before:

ecu pin outs
Image deleted by owner

After:
Image deleted by owner
Image deleted by owner

Can you see where it was:?
Image deleted by owner

Ned.

Not a bad job, but I found it...

[img][/img]

yes, but could you actually see that or did the markings on the tyres give it away!!!!

Ned.

I think you can see it better from this angle
Rescued attachment IMG_0925.jpg

lol

Markings on the tire gave it away, but I'm sure iy had you wondering for a while.