137 WHEELIE SAYING SOMETHING…

People who have followed this little blog for a while will know that Lisa got me a set of upgraded alloy wheels for Christmas this year (she knows what I wanted - I was chuffed).  I've been itching to get them on, but the weather has been terrible.  Spring sprung this week, so I decided to bite the bullet.

The Abarth doesn't come with a spare wheel, just a can of foam to help the car limp to a garage.  This created a few problems when I wanted to swap the alloys, mainly due to a lack of tools.

I knew I would need a jack, so one was ordered - this was easy.  Then I realised I needed an adapter so that I could use my impact driver to remove the wheel nuts, so that was ordered, too, which was a bit more convoluted.  Finally, I required a calibrated torque wrench to tighten the bolts to the manufacturer's specification so they don't shear off.  This was difficult; it took two goes to get the appropriate kit, but I eventually ordered it.

Finally, I had all the gear…or so I thought.  I couldn't get the nuts off with the impact driver.  It turns out I need a break bar with the correct-sized socket.  Sigh.  After four days of ordering the kit, I was ready.  Then the heavens opened - one for the weekend.

Eventually, I got around to attempting to change the wheels.  I can tell you now that getting that first bolt off by heaving on a 2-foot bar, thinking that I was going to snap/shear the bolt, is one of the scariest things I've done.  But I did it!

Once the bolts were loosened, I jacked the back of the car, slowly undid all the bolts, removed the old wheel, and fitted the new one. 

I then torqued the bolts to 75 ft lbs, lowered the car, and then stood back admiring my work, which took the thick end of 40 minutes to complete!

The second wheel was swapped in about 15 minutes; I was on a roll.  As I patted myself on the back, I hit a snag.  My 2-tonne jack was too tall to squeeze under the car because of the side skirts.  Grrr….  Thankfully, Lisa's Fiat 500 had a scissor jack that fit perfectly and did the job (albeit with much more arm power required).

Finally, after about 90 minutes, all four wheels were changed.  I took the car out for a quick blast (and to get its first wash since I bought it) and noticed a knocking coming from the passenger side front wheel once I got up to about 60 mph.  I pulled over and checked that the bolts were tightened, and they were.  Worrying.

After speaking to my technical advisor (Lisa's dad), he suggested that the tyres must be balanced and aligned.  I was going to get this done anyway, but I need to do it sooner rather than later.