Wheel Trims

[Wrinkles]

Hi
at the end of last year I had a recall, for my C5, from Citroen which involved the replacement of all 5 road wheels. Simple enough and carried out by my local ATS dealer.
When refitted, I noted the fitter added a cable tie to all the wheel trims. I drove home, some 7 miles, and on arrival found 1 trim had been lost and two more were hanging off secured only by the cable ties. I refitted them and a short drive and they were off again, and so it went on.
I rang the Citroen help line but they were singularly unhelpful. (No surprise there) I replaced the lost wheel trim at a cost of nearly £20 and secured them all with two cable ties on each. Even with two ties on each the trims were still coming loose, this caused vibration which chaffed the ties against the sharp edges of the wheel and cut them through. I was obliged to replace the ties at regular intervals but even so I lost another trim whilst on a trip to Ireland. It got to the stage where If a long journey was in the offing I would take off the trims before setting out. Anyway I recently lost yet another trim this despite them now being secured by no less than 3 ties each.
During this time I have had various communications with Citroen all to no avail until last week when finally they conceded there was a problem. I took the car in to Citroen today for inspection and the outcome was less than satisfactory in that I was offered two replacement trims and advised to go back to ATS and place the ball in their court.

What I am interested in finding out is, Has anyone else got this problem, Has it been resolved, if so how and by whom. I would also appreciate any advice on my next step.

The car by the way is a 51 reg 2 ltr HDI. Other than this it has been, so far, faultless.

[n_olympios]

Well, the obvious solution would be to replace your wheels with alloy ones. :)

But other than that, I've not heard of a similar case... Why don't you just put cable ties all over the damn thing?

[PaulCartwright]

hi

is there a metal ring in the hubcap? as that throws the legs out and makes it grip to the wheel

Paul

[Wrinkles]

Oh Thank's n_olympus Great idea I'll just nip out a buy a full set of alloys. shouldn't cost much more than £500. :)
If you read the post you would see that I now have 3 cable ties on each and they still come loose. :D
Even brand new ones won't stay on.

Any way I have been to ATS and as expected they state they were only fitting wheels as supplied by Citroen from Michelin.
However what I did find out is that the wheels were causing problems, with the wheel trims not fitting these wheels due to incorrect inner profile, and Citroen were aware of it but decided to keep quiet and see if anyone complained then if they did they claim it was an isolated case. ATS have logged a large number of complaints which have been passed to Citroen.
I have now been back to my dealer and the service manager came clean and has requested clearance from Citroen head office for a replacement set of wheels.

I'll keep you posted

[PaulCartwright]

i know what you mean but IF and its a big IF you were looking for alloy wheels the 2 best places to try are ebay.co.uk and bargain pages you'll pick a set up for about £150 i had a set for my 306 for £100 with decent tyres to proper peugeot ones not cheap ones that snap when you go above 30 MPH

citroen are ulsess at times they have got to reset the airbag ecu on my petrol C5 and they insist on replacing all the airbags i dont mind its under warrenty so ia int paying for it :)

oh well let us know what u thingk

Paul

[Wrinkles]

Thanks Paul
I'm not into alloys, all I want is a half decent car that gets me from a to b. I'm not liable to spend money on poncing it up. It costs enough as it is to run and maintain.
However I bought it with some very nice wheel trims on it and all I ask is that they stay on it. Citroen changed the wheels and now the trims keep falling off. So they have to fix it.

As for Ebay that is where I would go if I were in the market I already buy a lot of stuff from ebay, So far without being ripped off or disappointed.

[PaulCartwright]

i agree i am not into "tarting-up" cars but my C5 has alloys and they look nice but i did catch the gutter the other day nasty scrape on them :) im such a dozy sod! this morning i tried to pull off the drive with the car in neutral it was a close thing as i nearly backed into the garage :D

im sure you will get there in the end mate

good luck
Paul

[Wrinkles]

Ah! well we all have those moments particularly first thing in the morning. My particular problem is avoiding the hinges on my rather narrow gates. Not hit them yet but it's been close a few times
I agree alloys can look good and if fitted would be ok, but I wouldn't get them as an add on. Besides 'er indoors drives it too so I could be sure she would kerb it on a regular basis so I'll stick to steel with trims, as they are somewhat cheaper to replace.

[CE08LDB]

The Wheel trims are just as bad on my sisters 2002 Citroen Saxo 1.1i Desire

[Wrinkles]

Hi Saxoauto
If thats the case tell her to go back ti citroen, make a fuss and don't go away. I am slowly making progress in that they have admitted the problem and are trying to get head office to sanction another change of wheels. I phone the poor service manager regularly every 3 days and call to see him once a week (its on my way home) Bless him he is trying but is up against the Beaurocratic nightmare that is Citroen UK

[CE08LDB]

They are to big for the wheels but every Saxo Desire have them. The Saxo Desire are 14inch where the Saxo Forte and the Saxo First are 13 inch. Silly en't it.

[n_olympios]

[quote name='Wrinkles' date='Nov 16 2004, 09:50 PM'] Oh Thank's n_olympus Great idea I'll just nip out a buy a full set of alloys. shouldn't cost much more than £500. <_<
If you read the post you would see that I now have 3 cable ties on each and they still come loose. :angry:
Even brand new ones won't stay on. [/quote]
Eeer, ok. First of all, it'd be good if you spelt my name properly. Secondly, there's no need to be picky, we're here to help. Then again, I do sometimes make the mistake to forget that my sense of humour might be different to yours (in general). Last but most certainly not least, I did read your post, apparently you did not understand mine though. Thus I will spell it out for you:

Why don't you put cable ties ALL OVER THE DAMN THING????? :angry:


AKA not only 3 per trim. :)

Be cool. B)

[Wrinkles]

I really should apologise as it has taken me nearly 2 years to reply to the last post.

 

OK n_OlympIous hows that for spelling do I get an "A".

 

The saga of the wheel trims continued for some months after my last post. I had by then lost and replaced yet another trim but was getting nowhere with Citroen UK (now there is a surprise).

To cut a long story short I eventually threw down the gauntlet to my dealer. Ergo If he was so sure it was not the wheels that were at fault I would allow him to fit 4 brand new trims to my car and he could then accompany me on a 15 mile drive over various types of road, at the end of which if all 4 trims were in place then I would pay for them. If 1 or more were missing then he would replace all 4 wheels. Good plan, I was bound to win. However I was stitched up. On our return from the drive all 4 were still on the wheels although 1 was on the point of parting company. My dealer eventually came clean admitting that the trims were a modified version and although he was not about to stump up the 4 new wheels, in view of the fact that 1 had dislodged he would let me have the 4 new trims gratis. Provided I went away never to bother him again. Beaten but unbowed I agreed. I still secure the trims with a minimum of 2 cable ties and to date all have remained in situ so partial result could be claimed I suppose.