MB complaint on Terry Wogan

[Matt45]

Did anyone else hear the story of the driver who had a puncture and it took MB 6.5 hours to fix the problem. Related on Terry this morning. He actually made MB recovery out to be worse than useless.

Took 4 mobo-life service vehicles to eventually tow him to a garage.

 

[esox]

Yep,i heard it,too.
Was it Slogan himself,or someone else?

All over the wrong size wheel bolts...
Car had a puncture,maybe the bolts were specific to the spare?

 

[Matt45]

It was one of his readers I think. Can't understand the wheel bolt issue though as the spare should accept the same bolts as the mains. Unless he had a wrong spare. Still, MB should have pitched up sooner than they did - I thought the first driver who couldn't locate him just gave in and went for lunch was just crazy.

 

[stevesey]

Wasn't there a thread here or on the other forum about a steel spare having a set of shorter bolts with it on certain models (taped to the underside of the wheel, so they only become obvious after removing the spare from the boot).

And if the spare's been used before can you be sure they've been put back in the car, and if they have where? Possibly a very "safe place" that the driver was not aware of.

 

[Matt45]

Good point.

On a similar topic, I dread the day I have a full boot and a puncture and after fitting the inflatable spare wheel I can't get the original back into the hole where the spare came out from. - Nightmare.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

Bolts for the spare are indeed different on my AMG - due to be a space saver.

 

[stevesey]

On a similar topic, I dread the day I have a full boot and a puncture and after fitting the inflatable spare wheel I can't get the original back into the hole where the spare came out from. - Nightmare.

It's at that point you realise the space-saver spare is just a cost saving exercise (and perhaps a way of geting the boot capacity figures up). At the point you are using the extra boot space what do you do if you get a puncture. The expenive alloy can't make it's own way home, but a passenger can - so which are you going to leave at the side of the road.

 

[Bobby Dazzler]

It's at that point you realise the space-saver spare is just a cost saving exercise (and perhaps a way of geting the boot capacity figures up). At the point you are using the extra boot space what do you do if you get a puncture. The expenive alloy can't make it's own way home, but a passenger can - so which are you going to leave at the side of the road.

I can't speak for all models, but I can't imagine the space saver would add to the boot volume. The spare is stored under a suspended floor which could hold a full size wheel if required - might be a bit tight with a 245 in there though!!

Space saver saves weight too remember - not just cost at time of production.

 

[fabes]

The bolts are indeed different - I can pay testimony to that after routing around in the boot of a friends merc until we found them - luckily on the drive, not on the side of the road

Fabes

 

[crockers]

Lets face it - bolts are a cost saving thing anyway -- I yearn for old fashioned studs.....with nuts....but by moving to bolts the manufacturer saves 10-20p a bolt...say 50p a wheel = £2 a car multilplied the the 100,000s of cars produced.....


as they say - look after the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves...


Or is this just an urban myth...

 

[jaymanek]

Any merc that has a steel as a spare should be supplied with 5 small bolts that come in a little plastic bag... if you dont use these, you cannot use the steel wheel..

 

[stevesey]

I can't speak for all models, but I can't imagine the space saver would add to the boot volume. The spare is stored under a suspended floor which could hold a full size wheel if required - might be a bit tight with a 245 in there though!!

I wasn't just thinking about Mercs though.

 

[mr. shr]

So what does he drive/get driven in?

Maybach??

 

[grober]

Any merc that has a steel as a spare should be supplied with 5 small bolts that come in a little plastic bag... if you dont use these, you cannot use the steel wheel..

Back in the days when Mercedes were part of the big happy Daimler Chrysler family I came across a a JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE being unloaded from a recovery trailer. The owner had a flat rear tyre and had put on the steel spare with the long alloy wheel bolts. On attempting to drive off he proceeded to trash the transmission since the wheel had locked solid. Expensive!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

 

[HughJarse]

I think a lot of modern cars that have a steel wheel as a spare have different bolts as they would normally shear off when tightened on a alloy wheel...and vice versa

 

[television]

Just for the record if anyone is in doubt, there should be 15-18mm max sticking out of the rear of the wheel when the bolt is pushed through the hole.


Any more than 18mm and on the rear of the car, the ends of the bolts will get caught up in the parking brake shoes etc

 

[geoffd]

The reason for the bolt length difference is because the alloy wheel is wider and the centre is thicker than the non-alloy spare.
And, no you can't put a full size alloy into the space left by removing the spare if it's a space saver whether it's under a cover or not. The spare is much narrower and often a smaller diameter. That's why these things have a lowish speed limit attached to them.

 

[raymont]

Slightly off topic but my GL has space / cost saver tyre with ,apparently, no option of a full size spare. Would much prefer full size, the GL isn't exactly cramped. What do you do when you have a puncture on a Sunday with several hundred mile still to go? The space saver is only good to get you to a tyre delaer.

 

[joembuck]

The whole space saver thing is very dodgy anyway, a few weeks ago I had to drive back all the way from Loughborough to Milton Keynes , just after Midnight, at 50mph maximum (Mobilife said you can drive the car all the way back to Stuttgart if you like, just don't go over 80 kph...)

Best bit was when the escorted extra extra wide load on the motorway had to pull out to pass me. Slightly embarrassing...

Mind you mine has different front and rear tyres anyway, so nothing would work much better.

 

[grober]

Slightly off topic but my GL has space / cost saver tyre with ,apparently, no option of a full size spare. Would much prefer full size, the GL isn't exactly cramped. What do you do when you have a puncture on a Sunday with several hundred mile still to go? The space saver is only good to get you to a tyre delaer.

I have a feeling that the "mickey mouse" space saver wheels are illegal in some countries-wonder why? hence the spare wheel well will take a full size steel wheel if not some of the very wide alloys of some models