My MINI ('o6 S JCW) has developed a vibration that modulates in intensity and speed (think sine wave) according to wheel speed - over the past week the speed at which is begins has dropped from 55 to 40mph. It continues up until 80.

From the research I've done, its pointing to it being a wheel bearing...

My concern is this: I'm heading down to MINI tomorrow to have it checked out. I was in a few weeks ago & they drove it, telling me they can't do any more diagnosis because I didn't have stock wheels. Since then, this vibration has gotten worse. Will MINI deny warranty service because I have non-stock wheels? Blaming the aftermarket wheels on ruining the bearing?

opinions are appreciated.

thanks

 

Not to rain on your parade, but yes they certainly could. Especially if your wheels have a different offset that the stock ones. If you lived by me I'd lone you a set to use for your dealer trip.

 

Crap - I really appreciate the offer - I'll keep my fingers crossed on this one.

 

they can stick to their guns and make you pay.... But really, it shouldn't make any difference what wheels you run. This is a part that doesn't break often, despite the range of wheels run on the cars.

Matt

 

It seems to me that it is in large part, dealer discretion. I.E.- interperetation of whether warranty service reimbursal will be granted from MINIUSA.

Our local dealer is sometimes liberal in warrantly interperetation, and defaults to moss magnussen mindset, more than many dealers. It must work, as they have a thriving service department and have repaired things on my car under warranty that have OEM/ non-OEM part interfaces.

Example: I have Brembo rear brake rotors. A rear caliper siezed up. They couldve said "tough noogies, you've got modded brakes.". But they didn't. They asked if I would like to have the stock rotor put on with the stock calipers (free of charge/ warranty service) or I could buy the brembo rotors and they would do everything else, including labor under warranty.

This was all on a car that was not purchased at this dealer.

Not all dealer service depts are like that.


Your wheel hub shouldn't have failed. Unless you were running some ridiculous wheels, it should've held up fine.

 

Do yourself a favour and find out what the OE offset is and what offset you have on your AM wheels.
If they are the same you should be able to shoot down their objections before they get entrenched in their opinion.
Otherwise they could be right because a different offset will have a radical effect on steering geometry.

 

Do all of the OEM wheel/tire combos have the same offset/specs?

 

Nope.

 

The OE Offsets, according to the data supplied by tirerack, are 48/50 mm.
I noted one thread where somebody is running a 40 mm offset. This is too far away from spec. and will cause "crabbing".
The offset needs to maintained close to original within a couple of mm. (0.08 ins)

 

I have customers as far down as et 35 on 7inch width - as long as the wheels are 100% hubcentric you wont have a problem. I haven't.

TheBill - did you use any spacers? Did you wheels use centering rings?

Alex

 

The wheels, btw, are ASA EM9's (from tirerack). The rings that came with the wheels fit somewhat loosely in the wheel cavity, so I called TR & they Fedexed a replacement set of Gorrilla Rings. The second set fit well/better.

The vibration wound up being a bad hub, which after having runout/balance/alignment done on my own dime (and assuring MINI everything was cherry), they replaced under warranty. (Thanks Chad!)

I'll join the ever-growing list of more-than-happy TR customers.

BTW: Alex, would you ever be getting in 73/56 aluminum rings? If so, I'd like to order a set.

 

I will send a set if I see them, but the ASA products use a ring retention method that wont work with aluminum rings. If that changes, I'll send em @ no charge.

Alex