Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Morgan Plus Four, Supersport & Plus Six (CX & CXV Generation Vehicles) Buckled wheels on CX Plus six

I have owned a new CX Plus six since Dec. 21. Yes it was off the road most of last summer! It has very nice black alloy wheels with ultra-low profile tyres.
Before the recall, I hit a deep pothole at about 45 mph and whilst I didn’t notice anything untoward at the time, I had in fact buckled the front nearside wheel. It was duly replaced.
At the beginning of May, we set off on a 2,500 mile trip around Europe. We drove down the M20 to catch the Shuttle from Folkestone to Calais (highly recommended 👍). The M20 is in appalling condition, it is littered with potholes and long sections have a very rough surface. I don’t recall hitting one particularly large pothole but by the time I reached Folkestone, I was experiencing some vibration through the car when gently braking at about 50 to 60 mph. Throughout the trip the problem persisted.
On return I decided to have the brakes checked (I’m still a little concerned about brakes following the recall last year!). Initially I was told that the cause was due to buckled brake discs (which are going to be replaced under warranty). However, the following day, I was told the main cause of the vibration is due to 2 more buckled nearside wheels despite the fact that the tyres don’t seem to have any damage at all and there are no dents or paint damage on the rims (costing £1,000 per wheel, plus tyres plus suspension geometry check 😬). Clearly the ultra-low profile tyres aren’t helping but surely the wheels shouldn’t buckle without obviously hitting a pothole? I wondered if the suspension is too hard and CX chassis too rigid, so the wheels take all the strain of the appalling British roads.
I would be interested to know whether anyone else has experienced this problem.
Pete

Unfortunately it is a well reported problem on many makes of car fitted with large wheels and ultra low profile tyres, there is just not enough give in the tyre wall to absorb the shock and the shock wave must go somewhere and it seems to be the wheels that take it, I too have the 19" wheels and very aware of the potential issues that you have, my old Porsche 718S had 20" wheels which looked fantastic but again no give in the tyre wall and the ride was so bad over poor surfaces, I purchased a set of 18" wheels and they transformed the ride without effecting performance .

Just a quick sanity check. Could the wheels have been damaged in the previous event but not spotted?

I've owned countless cars with such a wheel set up and aside from one VERY hard hit where I ran over a piece of timber, I never experienced such things. I was also part of a certain Porsche forum where most cars have 20in wheels with a lick of rubber and you would be hard pressed to find posts talking about buckled wheels.

Do you know who makes these wheels? If so, perhaps do a few google searches to see if this a common thing for this particular manufacture of wheels.

Bar that, perhaps the chassis is doing it's job of isolating you from fully feeling what could have been a harder hit than you realised.

Good luck...

Thanks for your reply. I have considered retro-fitting 18” wheels and discussed it with my dealer, but have been told it’s not possible on the CX Plus sixes because of the wheel arch clearance and the difference in width (have to say I don’t much like the look of the Morgan 18” wheels but that’s another issue!)

Good morning DrPete, We have a 2020 Plus Six which runs the 18" speedster "pepperpot" wheels. Interestingly, I prefer the design of the speedster 18" wheel to the multi spoked 19" variant. We did not like the 19" wheel as we wanted the larger sidewall tyre you get with the smaller 18" wheel, this helps with poor road surfaces. The roads in our area are just plain terrible and as we also run a Volvo XC90 with 22" alloy rims/ low profile tyres I did not want a repeat of the hassle to constantly consider pothole damage.

I am surprised your dealer said the 18" wheel will not fit?, this used to be standard fitment on the Plus Six and I was not aware of changes to the Plus Six wings since it launched? The Morgan configurator still shows them as available for new builds?.

DOES ALLOY WHEEL STRAIGHTENING WORK?
Alloy wheel straightening works by heating the wheel to extremely high temperatures to soften the metal.

The tyre is removed to check for cracks and buckles, as well as being measured to mark any uneven areas.

The wheel is then heated to a high temperature.

Once the metal is malleable, the hydraulic press is used to fix uneven points and straighten the alloy.

The tyre will then be fitted back on and balanced.

If any significant cracks or scratches are found upon initial inspection, we may have to repair those before we can straighten your alloy to avoid compromising on strength and integr

Could be a lower cost option.

Somewhere on here Sifab describes the process he used from a hands on professional standpoint as it was a service he offered prior to his firm running into difficulties earlier this year.

Good luck, that is crazy money per wheel.