Warning about Z-Magnette wheels
Checking over my ZA Magnette for the upcoming MOT test, I took
the wheels off the car to attend the brakes. before putting them back on I gave
them a good clean, but found that some lines in the vicinity of the boltholes
were impossible to remove by cleaning. At closer inspection, I found that the
lines were actually fatigue cracks originating at the boltholes and running away
from it diagonally in two directions. three of the four boltholes showed these
cracks and they had grown to the extent that a catastrophic failure in the form
of the centre of the wheel remaining on the car and the rest of the wheel
breaking away, was imminent. Below pictures show the wheel with the three
cracked holes and a close-up of the worst hole. This picture shows, that by just
taking the hubcaps off you should be able to do an initial check on the
condition of YOUR wheels.
Ton Matthuis, Luxembourg
Another very bad example found by Warren Marsh:
