Metric wheels and vulcan blood

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Baldbazza
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Metric wheels and vulcan blood

Post by Baldbazza »

My GT is now the proud owner of a metric alloys :D :D :D (but read on...). Many thanks to Adam (what a lovely guy!) who swapped my wheels for the ones on the TZD(?) he's just bought. Both sets of wheels look much better on their new cars than original.

Here's the first picture of the GT with its new alloys:

Image

Bugger. :evil:

You might possibly notice a slight variance here with the general testing procedure for new wheels. Here's a little clue as to what happened.

Image

Yes, a good old LHM leak. And there was a lot more where that came from, most of it falling in a hastily improvised tray. Not sure which pipe actually split but it was rubber/plastic and had split just where it pushed on to a metal pipe; located just above the front offside subframe at the back of the engine bay just behind the front wheel. I guess it's a low-pressure return pipe of some sort; I'll have a closer look later. There wasn't enough slack to cut the end off and re-use.

It might just have come out in sympathy with the aforementioned new TZD as Adam was fixing a rather large LHM leak as I arrived, coming from a spookily similar location.

And I'd just changed my rear spheres in the morning, giving 120 miles of silky-smooth ride, the best I've ever had in a BX. Could changing the spheres (all 5 of them in the last month) have had an effect or is it just co-incidence?

Now, the question of 'metric' alloys. This is one of my new ones (from 1991 car, I assume original wheels):

Image

and this is one from a Mk1 BX seen at the CCC national meet last month:

Image

As far as I can tell, the only difference between the two is the colour of the plastic centre disc.

BUT - according to the Citroenz test of the BX 16 TRS (at the bottom) the alloy wheels take Michelin TRX 170/65R-365 tyres. Longstone tyres state that the TRX rim and tyre was designed to work together. The implication here is that you should always use correct tyre size, presumably Michelin TRX all round as I can't find any potential alternatives on the net.

HOWEVER - the tyres on my new alloys are 165/70R-14, which begs the question, has someone fitted the wrong tyres in the past (they're all non-Michelin, including the spare), or did the wheel size change to 14" for mk 2s from 365 (whatever that is), or have I got totally the wrong end of the stick?

There is a code on the alloys but I've only just remembered about it and as it's gone midnight I really don't want to go and ferret around for that now! But I will post it later.

I do recall someone on the forum mentioning that the version of the alloys for mark 2s had the black centre disc (which these have) and that they took 14" tyres. Can anyone clarify this? For safety's sake I would like to make sure I'm driving around on the correct tyres.... although I'm not too keen on paying the best part of £600 to replace all five :shock:

If they should really take 14" then I might just treat the car to a new set of Firestones at £35 each from Blackcircles. Provided it promises not to p*ss LHM all over them :twisted:

Lastly many thanks to Adam and his mate (forgotten his name but he likes Alfas so is obviously a top bloke!) for all the help, tea and Boddingtons, and for the nice man from the RAC who brought me all the way home.

Oh and apologies to Adam's mum for the unwelcome present on her driveway :oops:. Sorry!
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Post by docchevron »

I'm sure I've seen these wheels with 14" rubber on 'em before but not sure whether it's correct or not. Nice wheels though!
Almost wish I had a set now.....
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Post by jeremy »

The metric conversion of 14 inches is 355.6 mm NOT 365 - so I doubt if 14 inch tyres would go on true metric 365 rims - which is no doubt what the manufacturers intended.

My guess is that the pattern of the wheel is the same - the difference may even be in the machining rather than the castings.
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Post by DavidRutherford »

I hate to say this, but if the alloys you have are wearing 14" tyres, then I think they are imperial alloys, and NOT metric ones.

There have been numerous situations with various car makes when metric wheels failed to become popular, and so the same design of wheel was changed slightly to take imperial tyres. So, you end up with wheels that look almost identical, but one is metric and the other imperial. Almost invariably the metric wheel is the early one, and the imperial one is the later one.

And I don't think it's a case of the wrong tyres having been fitted to metric wheels... imperial tyres simply will not fit onto metric rims.
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Post by cavmad »

I`m definately with Jeremy on this one. There`s no way 14" tyres will fit Metric wheels I`m afraid. However as they look like Metric wheels I think you have the best of both worlds: original looking and a huge selection of tyre makes and sizes are now at your disposal, plus (should it come to it) you can put tubes in 14" tyres but not in Metric ones.
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Baldbazza
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Imperial alloys!!!!!

Post by Baldbazza »

Looks like my luck's in here :D - thanks guys! Whilst I want to keep the car as original as realistically possible, I'm not going to get anal about it. So if these alloys look more-or-less the same but let me buy cheaper tyres then I'm quite happy to have imperial rather than metric!

I've tried to get the part number from the (non-metric :wink: ) wheels for a final check. Seems to be 5.00 B14 CH4.25 followed by what looks like SMR or SHR. Any chance of someone checking this out on pr.net? :P I think I particularly like the "14" in the code.....

Best photo I could get:

Image

And just to show the effect on the car

Image
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Post by AndersDK »

http://www.citroen-pr.net/catalogues/il ... 163200.gif

"SUDRAD" 1ST CHOICE "LEMMERZ" 2ND CHOICE "CROMMODORA" 3RD CHOICE

01 - 95 495 483 NFP - 04 - ALLOY WHEEL
-1 CHOICE
01- 95 496 647 - LE-0210 - 04 - ALLOY WHEEL
- UNTIL RPO No. 04740
01 - 96 047 158 NFP - 04 - ALLOY WHEEL
- SINCE RPO No. 04741
02 - 95 634 174 - 04 - ALLOY WHEEL
- INJECTION AND 1,905L
- OURANE
02 - 96 085 499 - 04 - ALLOY WHEEL
- GTI 16S
03 - (95 591 953)
- 96 070 416 - 16 - MONTING SCREW
04 - 95 576 513 NFP - 04 - PLUG TOWBALL
- UNTIL RPO No. 04617
04 - 95 602 717 XY NFP - 04 - WHEEL CAP
ONYX BLACK XY
- SINCE RPO No. 04618
04 - 95 602 717 VE - 04 - WHEEL CAP
- GTI 16S UNTIL RPO No. 04495
- INJECTION AND 1,905L UNTIL RPO No. 04495
MEDIUM GREY FVE
- INJECTION AND 1,905L SINCE RPO No. 04618
04 - 95 602 717 ZN NFP - 04 - WHEEL CAP
- GTI 16S SINCE RPO No. 04496
GREY ZN
- INJECTION AND 1,905L SINCE RPO No. 04496 UNTIL RPO No. 04617
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Post by cavmad »

I`d hazard a guess that `5.00` means 5J (the width of the wheel) and the `B14` probably refers to 14" wheels, apologies if you had already thought that yourself.
Is that your recovery truck in the picture by the way?
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Baldbazza
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Post by Baldbazza »

cavmad wrote:I`d hazard a guess that `5.00` means 5J (the width of the wheel) and the `B14` probably refers to 14" wheels, apologies if you had already thought that yourself.
Is that your recovery truck in the picture by the way?
Certainly seems to be the case. No, the recovery truck belonged to an RAC contractor. Couldn't tell you anything about it I'm afraid ..... except that it had the mystical ability to draw all the neighbours, dog walkers, etc. out of their houses when we arrived home :oops:
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Post by Adam »

Hi Barry and all!!!
Glad you're happy with the wheels, they do look great and glad you're one step closer to getting the car perfect. I cleaned the drive and spoke to mum and she was cool about it and will be in the BX owners club soon with my TGD!!!!!!!!!
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Baldbazza
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Post by Baldbazza »

Adam wrote:I cleaned the drive and spoke to mum and she was cool about it and will be in the BX owners club soon with my TGD!!!!!!!!!
Excellent result! Many thanks again.
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Post by Vanny »

cavmad wrote:I`d hazard a guess that `5.00` means 5J

Width of the wheel is 5", the J is the shape of the bead on the tyre/rim. Going by that code i wonder if it was a 'B' tyre bead shape? Have no idea what a 'B' type would look like though!


Do a search for the 'Tyre Bible' on google and it explains all about the strange bits (including what the 365 means!).
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Post by cavmad »

`J` is the width Vanny, 5J being (obviously!) 5 inch wide wheels, never heard it was the shape of the bead on the tyre/rim as I`m convinced they`re all the same with the possible exception of stuff like D20 wagon tyres.
I`m going to do the search you mentioned though as I`m intrigued to know why they`d say that.
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Post by Stinkwheel »

I know nothing of BX alloys Metric or otherwise (other than all my 16V's had alloys)

Anyway..........

ON CX's citroen produced 14" and 390mm metric rims in the same style.

And i also know that when i bought new Michelin metric tyres for my CX Gti Turbo 1 back in about 2000 they cost me 150 quid each trade then <gulp>

When i owned a visa 2 Super X (rare as F**k) they also had factory 3 stud metric alloys. By some fluke i went to my local second hand tyre dealer he had 4 of the correct michelin virtually brand new and unmarked on his shelf. He also didnt know the true value of them as he did all 4 for 65 quid.
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