Rusty wheel hubs and bolts

[Fozzzer]

Peeps my 200T is coming up to 8 months old now and covered a whopping 4000 miles but I've started to notice excessive rust on the wheel hubs and wheel bolt heads, anyone else noticed this, if wheel cleaner had been used its always the non acid type ..





Bet it's not covered under the warranty [emoji15]

 

[sevenfourate]

If Renault dont play ball: Hammerite (Smoothrite) on the hubs and plastic bolt covers will have that looking factory fresh for pennies......

 

[Chris]

There is a thread about rusty bolts on the 200t kicking about somewhere...

 

[Gilmos1]

Renault Customer Services have replaced bolts under warranty. Mind weren't bad but I just bought TPI black bolts on eBay for £45 including a security bolt and they are great, very good quality.


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[Yimkin]

Nothing wrong with the rusty hubs, any car will suffer from that. Just use a couple of coats of black smoothrite, only takes 10 mins start to finish. The wheel nuts, on the other hand... I'd say you've got a fair claim there.

 

[MikeO]

There is a thread about rusty bolts on the 200t kicking about somewhere...

Think that might have been me.

My wheel bolts rusted like yours after only a few months. Complained to the garage and they blamed me (IE. must have used something like an acid based wheel cleaner ... which I had not). Contacted Renault Customer Support and in the end got a voucher for £100 that I could use against a service etc. as compensation. In the end I bought some TPI polarized bolts for the car (about £50 I seem to remember).

Basically... the bolts are very poor quality (just cheap Zinc plating by the look of it!). Even the four that had been removed when the locking wheel nuts had been added and hence never really used (just in a bag in the glove box) had slight rusting on them. Just a bit of cheap penny pinching by Renault.

Not got the car any longer and the wheel bolts on my new Focus ST3 are really nice (decent chrome on them) and hard as nails.

PS. Here you go:
http://www.clio197.net/forum/showthread.php?46751-Rusty-nuts!-200t&highlight=rusty

 

[Fozzzer]

Visited the stealership today, where I finally spoke to a manger, he hymed and har'd for a while until, I said "look would you be happy if that was your new car with less than 4000 miles on the clock"
Anyway pictures taken and forwarded to both Renault and Renault Sport UK let's see what the answer is (I already know)

sent from the international space station

 

[turkie172]

I bought Hammerite rust remover put it in a large plastic cup without diluting it and deep enough to submerge the nuts then took a wheel nut from each wheel and dropped them in you should also have 4 good wheel nuts in the locking nut box after an hour take the dipped nuts out wash them off and if you need to a rub with scotchbrite to finish them off. Take a bit off cardboard cut a narrow slot in it from the edge inwards so you slide each bolt in between the tapered collar and the hex head so you don't get paint on the threads spray them with hammerite satin black with the 4 + the extra 4 nuts keep going a day at a time until you get them all done and as long as you don't use impact guns on them that should be that also take the wheel locking nuts off and put standard bolts back in because some tube will use an impact gun on them in a service or tyre change and you will wind up having to cut them off most likely when you have a flat wheel or inconvenient time. Use the spray paint on the brake disc hubs but only on the visible surfaces the genuine 197 disks are already coated black in that area to stop them from rusting. The plastic covers are OK but if you lose one it looks worse and then you have to buy another set and why buy another set of wheel nuts when you have a perfectly good set already and they aren't cheap I think Renault charge £5 a nut although Febi do similar to the genuine ones for about £2.50 with the collar on them febi bilstein 27793Wheel Bolt M14 x 1,5 19mm that's for a 197 £2.25 each amazon.

 

[Chris]

Think that might have been me.

My wheel bolts rusted like yours after only a few months. Complained to the garage and they blamed me (IE. must have used something like an acid based wheel cleaner ... which I had not). Contacted Renault Customer Support and in the end got a voucher for £100 that I could use against a service etc. as compensation. In the end I bought some TPI polarized bolts for the car (about £50 I seem to remember).

Basically... the bolts are very poor quality (just cheap Zinc plating by the look of it!). Even the four that had been removed when the locking wheel nuts had been added and hence never really used (just in a bag in the glove box) had slight rusting on them. Just a bit of cheap penny pinching by Renault.

Not got the car any longer and the wheel bolts on my new Focus ST3 are really nice (decent chrome on them) and hard as nails.

PS. Here you go:
http://www.clio197.net/forum/showthread.php?46751-Rusty-nuts!-200t&highlight=rusty

thats the one

 

[Jimmy]

deep enough to submerge the nuts

....But back OT, that's a good little guide with regards getting the nuts back to a decent state. I chose to use the plastic covers in the end on mine (197) because with the wheels being anthracite, it was hard to get a colour of bolt that would look good. The covers are an improvement, although as you say, I hope I don't lose one....

 

[Chris]

Lmao Jimmy!!!

 

[Fozzzer]

I bought Hammerite rust remover put it in a large plastic cup without diluting it and deep enough to submerge the nuts then took a wheel nut from each wheel and dropped them in you should also have 4 good wheel nuts in the locking nut box after an hour take the dipped nuts out wash them off and if you need to a rub with scotchbrite to finish them off. Take a bit off cardboard cut a narrow slot in it from the edge inwards so you slide each bolt in between the tapered collar and the hex head so you don't get paint on the threads spray them with hammerite satin black with the 4 + the extra 4 nuts keep going a day at a time until you get them all done and as long as you don't use impact guns on them that should be that also take the wheel locking nuts off and put standard bolts back in because some tube will use an impact gun on them in a service or tyre change and you will wind up having to cut them off most likely when you have a flat wheel or inconvenient time. Use the spray paint on the brake disc hubs but only on the visible surfaces the genuine 197 disks are already coated black in that area to stop them from rusting. The plastic covers are OK but if you lose one it looks worse and then you have to buy another set and why buy another set of wheel nuts when you have a perfectly good set already and they aren't cheap I think Renault charge £5 a nut although Febi do similar to the genuine ones for about £2.50 with the collar on them febi bilstein 27793Wheel Bolt M14 x 1,5 19mm that's for a 197 £2.25 each amazon.

Cheers mate, I'll see what the dealer's offer, then no doubt i'll be following this guide