Wheel I never
 

Just minutes from Jules home on my way to have a couple of jobs sorted and literally having just left the motorway, I heard a God awful noise coming from the rear of my 75.

I stopped and had a look hoping it were some plastic rubbish being dragged underneath the car, but it wasnt! The rear wheel was at an odd angle, the top end leaning inward!

Now I've read about this happening and even posted about one I saw a few years back:

https://the75andztclub.co.uk/forum/s...d.php?t=207875

Jules house was but a minute away so I gingerly proceeded to drive hoping she would get there. Now I know the wheel is unlikely to fall off, but it was scary driving i can tell you!

On inspection the arm had rotted through! :eek: it also took out my spring.

When this happened the inside tyre wall came into unwanted contact with a bolt and soon made a groove more impressive than the music I was listening to - so 4 month old tyre knackered too :mad:

Jules had hell of a job getting it all apart such was the extent of the tin worm - how it got through the MOT with the previous owner Lord knows :shrug:

More terrifyingly had this happened on the motorway doing 70 mph - it doesnt bare thinking about!

Jules has said a light tap with a toffee hammer will reveal rotten arms so let me pass this advice along....

Thanks to Jules again for all your hard work, see you in April/May to get the other side replaced ( it has a year or two left in it)

Take care folks :}

A good "tap" with a screwdriver (like they used to do on MOT's) will reveal all:-
https://i.imgur.com/9x3pLEe.jpg?1


The underside and edges can appear sound but as you can see.......
:shrug:

I wonder if Jules sees this he could post a pic of how bad mine was.

That arm looks as though its had the dreaded cover-up gunk slapped on it, some people will say its protection, but who is it protecting? :shrug:

This is why I'm not keen on covering up such areas with the black stuff, I understand its good to treat surface rust, but it has to be done properly when the car is still a few years old.

There comes a point when surface rust has gone too far, so all the owners end up doing is hiding these potential dangers from being picked up. :shrug:

These arms really are becoming a reason lots of our cars are being scrapped - why oh why aren't they alloy like the BMW E46 :(

I'm guessing penny pinching. Steel is cheaper than alloy.

That’s exactly why!

In all fairness, the arms aren’t lasting too bad, a lot of folk seem to forget some of these cars have had 20 winters of salty roads to endure.

Very true, it's just annoying when the alloy arms on my E46 are absolutely perfect at 300,000 miles.

It's a similar problem to that which is being found to afflict the P6. The De-dion tube elbows rotting from the inside out.