BA Fairmont wheel centres..do they fall out

[poppa smurf]

I have 16" standard fairmont MkII mag type wheels on my vehicle, I came out of a house I was visiting to find my rear wheel centre had gone

the centre has the Ford in a blue oval, I bought a new one from Ford at $22.00

after refitting the new one I took note of how hard it is to actually get it back i n there which poses the question

did it fall out or was it stolen?.......if it fell out how common is this?.......the things seem to sit pretty tight

thoughts?.....the offsider reckons someone flogged it, I'm not so sure

[b2428]

I would honestly say it has probably fallen out. I had one go missing between home and Sydney. If you have ever seen the way the tyre people wack them out and back in when doing balances its no wonder they become loose.

[XRGhia]

Originally Posted by b2428

I would honestly say it has probably fallen out. I had one go missing between home and Sydney. If you have ever seen the way the tyre people wack them out and back in when doing balances its no wonder they become loose.

......because most of the time they're stuck in quite well, so need a decent push to dislodge and fall out before we can balance a wheel.

[poppa smurf]

I'd agree with that, I couldn't find any scrape marks around the centre hole and without taking the wheel off I doubt anyone could get them out without scratching the surface

[b2428]

Mine could have been a direct result of the amount of times the monts rims spent getting balanced. Seemed every week or 2 I was getting them done trying to chase a vibration that I eventually gave up on and learnt to live with haha

[poppa smurf]

I had the car start pulling to the left recently, had a wheel alignment done and found the left front tyre simply would not go straight

something to do with the steel belts within the manufacturing process of the tyre misaligned.....new tyre fixed him plus an alignment just to be sure

all good now

[svo supporter]

Originally Posted by poppa smurf

I have 16" standard fairmont MkII mag type wheels on my vehicle, I came out of a house I was visiting to find my rear wheel centre had gone

the centre has the Ford in a blue oval, I bought a new one from Ford at $22.00

after refitting the new one I took note of how hard it is to actually get it back i n there which poses the question

did it fall out or was it stolen?.......if it fell out how common is this?.......the things seem to sit pretty tight

thoughts?.....the offsider reckons someone flogged it, I'm not so sure

The problem is, the plastic clips that hold this centre in place get brittle with age....and they're "wafer thin" and there are only 4 or 6 (can't remember the exact number)....So over time these clips break due to the brittleness of them and they end up falling out.

So common....As common as night turns to day...

[MattsDisturbed]

Mine fell out once while I had the stock Fairmont wheels on. They just get loose with age, I feel like that's the same across all mag wheels.

[Maka]

Happened with my au poppa, a little lick of silastic between the cap & mag wheel, wipe off excess completely & let the silastic cure for 20 min then you're good to go, a tyre fitter will have no problem removing the cap if the wheel needs a balance.

cheers, Maka

[poppa smurf]

Originally Posted by Maka

Happened with my au poppa, a little lick of silastic between the cap & mag wheel, wipe off excess completely & let the silastic cure for 20 min then you're good to go, a tyre fitter will have no problem removing the cap if the wheel needs a balance.

cheers, Maka

thanks for that.... sounds like the go.....I reckon I'll look for loose ones and put a squirt in there!

[Cobramad]

The centre caps on my Territory Turbo took it upon themselves to fall out, at various times, without ever being previously removed. Came upon one that had fallen out overnight and when I spoke to Fraud (vehicle was still under warranty) they insisted that I had removed the cap before, therefore damaging the plastic tags and causing them to fail. It was comical to hear their explaination so it was simply easier, as previously suggested, to use a dab of silicone on all the caps to prevent them disappearing
I actually managed to track down a set of AU Ghia centre caps and silicone them in, saving the standard Ford ones for our BF wagon, which has managed to lose a couple over the years.
So, in short, the little buggers just like falling off!

[poppa smurf]

yep! I found another one that is a little on the loose side, put some goodligump on him and his mates and hope that stops the fallout.......

I also told them all that their performance was not up to par and to lift their game.....hopefully that will be the end of it

funnily enough I asked the service manager here about the problem and of course got the standard answer which covers everything from rattly callipers to centre bush destruction!

"nah! mate, never heard of it before"......."never had to do 'em!"

[mik]

my au xr6 has a similar caps on the wheels to ba`s , i found if your careful tapping them out and don`t let the tyre guys do it they last a hell of a lot longer.