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Carwash eating viggen wheels for lunch
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Posted by Dan Mowczan [Email] (more from Dan Mowczan) on Mon, 18 Jun 2001 15:05:18 Share Post by Email
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Hello,

I ran into a problem a few months ago where after a car wash that was 'attendant' handled and included an automatic wash system, my left front wheel had heavy rim damage (four gouges, two sets spaced about 1 inch apart). At 10k service, that tire was rotated to the rear, and last saturday, a suspicious pair of gouges (again 1 inch apart) appeared after a carwash at the same vendor. Except, this time I know it happened there -- I looked before it went in and from the observer booth I could see the damage inside of 10 yards inside the rails.

The attendant absolutely hammered the car into the correlator -- it jumped about three inches in the air. This is normal practice for them while in a hurry, and isn't damaging most tire and wheel combinations, but the fact of the matter is, its damaging mine.

(Yes, i used to handwash only, it's not a lazy thing, its a time thing, please, don't hassle me on this one, its a legitimate need =)

After inspection, I noticed that the 215/45 tire is extremely narrow for a 17x7.5" rim, and that's Saab's stock configuration. In fact, the sidewall has no bulge like any other tire. I took some time to inspect several other cars (most with a low profile tire) and noted that all have a distingushable bulge -- bowing out between the bead and the tread. But the viggen has no such thing. So, laying a broomstick across any other tire visible sidewall, bouncing the stick against the rubber takes a great deal of effort to put it in contact with the rim, but on the Viggen, it's easy.

Is the tire narrower than expected for this type of rim? I haven't seen another car on the road that has the tire without some perceptable shape in the sidewall that I believe would protect the actual wheel when entering a correlator.

I may take whatever I can get from the local carwash and put the funding towards an aftermarket wheel, so I called Ronal USA and had a chat with them about the LZ, which is strictly a 17x8 wheel. Funny thing is, they indicated SAAB dealers put 215/45R17 on these 17x8 wheels too! Dunlop SP8k/9k and Pirelli (somethings) are their recommendations. But Pirelli's website, on their PZero directional (directionale?) tire at 215/45ZR17, lists that it only fits on 6.0-7.5 rims! These seems like it would leave the rims extremely unprotected if the car was to brush against anything, including carwash rails.

It seems to me that a slightly wider tire could work much better.

Is anyone using a 225/45 or 235/40 on a 17x8 on a Viggen or other 9-3? Do they rub with a 35-40mm offset? Has anyone else experienced rim damage to the outside edge on their viggen? Anyone have any advice on how to deal with the car wash to maximize my potential of getting them to participate in the wheel replacement? Anyone think this 215/45 is awful narrow on a 7.5" rim and that the rim is suspiciously close to the surface of the outside sidewall? Anyone know anyone at Saab USA who could give me some ammunition to use in my discussion with the car wash owner regarding the sensitivity of this type of wheel/tire configuration to autowashes?

Any comments would be appreciated.

-Dan
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