Beware of buying secondhand wheels/tyres eBay/Gumtree

Wheels, Suspension, Brakes & Tyres questions and answers

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charcoal
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Joined: Sat Apr 07, 2012 12:37 pm
Vehicle: NB8B
Location: Brisbane Northside

Beware of buying secondhand wheels/tyres eBay/Gumtree

Postby charcoal » Tue Jul 19, 2016 1:37 pm

This is just a word to the wise so others don't end up paying (a lot) more when buying wheels/tyres off eBay/Gumtree etc.

I thought that I had a bargain when I bought a set of four NB8A wheels/tyres which were in Victoria - so, sight unseen (silly me)
Picked them up at Christmas when visiting family in Melbourne - my in-laws had collected them from the seller earlier in the year.
I was really pleased with what I found when I first saw them - nice clean rims and two pairs of matching and quite respectable tyres.

In an earlier thread, I have explained the problem that I had with a couple of the rims being buckled - plus the help that I received
on here from "greeno" who got me out of this trouble by selling me a couple of "round" NB8A rims...shame that there aren't more
like him. By the way, he has replaced his white NB8A with an AWD boxer-engined wagon so someone else now owns this very tidy NB.

Of the four tyres which I had thought were fairly reasonable, one was discovered to have a cut in the tread area and consigned to the scrap tyre area.
A second tyre of the set was fitted to another rim and used on a Sunshine Coast Chapter run earlier this month - coming home to Brisbane another vibration :evil:
Found out last night that this tyre - a 2011 manufacture Kumho Ecsta SPT - has started to delaminate and this wasn't obvious to an untrained eye.
All that I knew was that it was slowly going flat and I thought that I was going to be up for a puncture repair...so another one goes to wherever
scrap tyres end up.
As I'm not confident that its "identical twin" may develop a similar issue, guess what will be happening to Kumho #2 :D

So, that leaves just one of the four - and it is unlikely to ever see the road again, as it will be my full size spare for longer trips...sigh!

The original "bargain" has cost nearly double the original outlay, although I have rationalised the situation to Mrs Charcoal by explaining that we now have nice wheels
plus a couple of brand new tyres. The other two were procured from another helpful cartalk contributor (and thankfully don't have any vibration or going flat issues)

project.r.racing
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Location: Glasshouse Mountains, QLD

Re: Beware of buying secondhand wheels/tyres eBay/Gumtree

Postby project.r.racing » Wed Jul 20, 2016 10:43 am

Pretty common story line. And it goes for all second hand auto parts. Unless you know the history of said item/s. Then assume they are scrap and pay little. Anything that doesn't turn out to be scrap is a bonus.


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